Meet Samer Almadani of Samer Almadani Photography in Logan Square

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samer Almadani.

Samer, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As a child with sleep apnea, I had the unusual experience of often dreaming in still imagery. My adventure into photography began as a means to recreate the imagery that was so vividly embedded in my mind.

When I was in college at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio as a pre-medical student, I needed to fulfill a few credits. I decided to try photography and absolutely fell in love. However, it wasn’t until I discovered Luerzers Archive (a bi-monthly compilation of the best advertising photography) that I really found exactly how I would express myself. The imagery that I saw in Luerzers Archive was not bound by what was physically possible, but rather extended beyond the means of gravity, physics and scope of what we know is possible. The lighting was stunning, the expressions of the models striking and the environments breathtaking. What I then realized is that I wanted to be a commercial photographer with an emphasis on conceptual narrative work. Also, as a musician myself, I had a strong appreciation for other musicians and decided to combine the two by photographing other musicians in these conceptual scenarios I had dreamt about.

After graduating the School of Visual Communications at Ohio University, I moved to Chicago to learn from photographers I admired. I had the absolute pleasure of working with some of the most extraordinary photographers from all over the world, photographing a wide range of subjects from farmers in Colorado to the President of the United States in locations as varied as our back yard to a temple in Malaysia. I feel so incredibly blessed and forever grateful for every opportunity I have had along the way. Every single experience I had led to me living out my dream every day.

Has it been a smooth road?
I can’t imagine anyone’s life path is ever completely smooth, but that is the beauty in the learning process. I have always been a strong believer that some of the best learning lessons are what NOT to do. Often times, the quickest way to learn that is to go through the hardships of conflict, error and failures.

Abruptly leaving my life that I had established in Ohio to pursue my dream of photography in Chicago, within the span of a single weekend, was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. My gut just saw the bigger picture and I knew I had to dive in head-first. I was beyond blessed to have been offered the opportunity to learn from a photographer I admired and just had to go for it.

Going freelance and starting my business from scratch was definitely a huge undertaking. The time it took to develop a look that was cohesive and representative of my vision, navigating business conflicts and the sheer logistics of huge daily projects always comes with its struggles.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Samer Almadani Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
There are three segments to my company, SAMER INC, including Samer Almadani Photography (still Imagery and motion), Samer Almadani Digital Tech & DIT (photography and motion asset management) and Aleo Retouching (post-production house for still imagery and video editing).

While I specialize in conceptual narrative imagery, I also do quite a bit of portraiture, lifestyle and advertising work.

A very important element of my personal body of work is an effort to use my skill set to improve the world where possible. While I may not be equipped to cure disease or influence political reform, I try to use imagery to bring awareness to social issues, humanitarian crisis, etc. I often have special projects; one of which is an ongoing project about “perspective”, referring to people’s perspective on life. A potentially familiar image from the series may be “The Choice to Defect”, which is a commentary on the awful humanitarian crisis in Syria and addresses an ongoing theme in the series: conflict between logic and emotion.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
There is no doubt there will be significant change over 10 years, but hard to tell where things will end up. I can only assume there will be more integration between stills and motion over time. I am hopeful that the community will continue to push the envelope, grow together and hopefully use imagery to make a positive impact on our world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sameralmadani.com
• Phone: 312.725.8211
• Email: samer@sameralmadani.com
• Instagram: samerphotog

Image Credit:
© Samer Almadani Photography