Karen980

Karen I. Hirsch is an American commercial, editorial and fine art photographer based in Chicago. (website: www.karenihirsch.com) Her photojournalistic images often illustrate "the decisive moment" and are characterized by their use of color, and design. Her photo interpretations which are created "after capture," show a variety of styles from impressionistic to surreal.

Hirsch's photos have been published in Communication Arts, Graphis, Architectural Digest, Forbes and many other magazines, newspapers, books and calendars. She has studied with some of photography's greats - Ernst Haas, Arnold Newman and Jay Maisel. She also studied digital painting with fine artist Jeremy Sutton. She attributes her natural ability to her mother, who is an artist.

Hirsch learned how to use a 35mm camera and how to print black and white photographs in Rouen, France where she lived during her junior year of studies at the University of Illinois. Upon her return to classes in Champaign/Urbana, she became a photojournalist for the Daily Illini student newspaper as an extracurricular activity. As a Fulbright Travel Award recipient in graduate school, she taught English at the University of Barcelona in Spain. She remained in Barcelona after the end of the school year in order to take classes at an international photo atelier at Spectrum Gallery.

Hirsch spent the beginning of her career at various advertising agencies in Chicago. At the same time, she freelanced as a travel writer for the Chicago Sun-Times. She began to cover sailboat racing as a sideline. Her photos appeared in various sailing magazines with articles that she wrote about the sport. The Chicago Tribune Magazine featured her sailing shots on four of its covers. Hirsch honed her photo skills while she was the in-house photographer and editor of internal publications for Foote, Cone & Belding Advertising.

At the turn of the millennium, Hirsch participated in the Millennium Project, an international photo competition conducted on the internet in which more than 5000 photographers from 117 countries participated. Hirsch's photo of Chicago's International dinner, in which two people from every country in the world was invited, was selected for inclusion in the project's book "Dawn of the 21st Century." Hirsch approached the Chicago Department of Aviation and arranged for a year-long exhibit at O'Hare International Airport of the top photos from the project.

Hirsch has given much support to Fort Dearborn-Chicago Photo Forum, an organization, founded in 1895. which promotes creativity and community among photographers of all levels. In 1987, she helped organize the photo project, "24 Hours in Chicago." Funds raised from the project's, 52-week calendar helped sustain the organization for more than a decade. She began a speakers program with distinguished presenters from the photographic field including Victor Skrebneski, Marc Hauser, Bob Black, Art Shay and Michael Zajakowski, director of photography of the Chicago Tribune Magazine. As president of the organization, she initiated an international photography competition in 2010 which generated interest from photographers from more than 62 countries from around the world.

Awards received include grants from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council. Her work won the Grand Prize in the ASMP/Fuji competition and the Grand Prize in the Chicago Daily News/ Kodak competition. Her photographs earned international honors from the PX3 (Prix de la Photographie Paris,) Black & White Spider Awards, Color Masters Cup, the Lucie International Photography Awards, and the Adobe Digital Imaging International Awards. In 2003, Hirsch produced a one woman 25-year retrospective exhibit, "My Chicago," installed at the Chicago Richard J. Daley Civic Center. It included more than 200 images of the City's people places and events. In 2007, Hirsch was one of ten American photographers invited by the Chinese government to photograph the city of Rizhao to promote tourism and attract businesses to the region. In 2010, Raymond James and Associates selected Hirsch's photography for inclusion in a six artist (including Pablo Picasso) exhibit at their Chicago office.

External Links: American Society of Media Photographers -ASMP: http://www.asmp.org Chicago/Midwest ASMP: http://www.chimwasmp.org Communication Arts Creative Hotlist: http://www.creativehotlist.org Fort Dearborn Chicago Photo Forum: http://chicagophotoforum.org Karen I. Hirsch official site: http://www.karenihirsch.com Karen I. Hirsch sailing site: http://www.kihphoto.com Photolinks - Commercial Photographers: http://www.photolinks.com/Commercial_Photographers The Millennium Project http://www.millenniumphoto.com/english/exhibit_is_born.html