The first industrial work I did was in steel mills. That was 1986, and what struck me wasn't the scale — it was how much was happening that the people inside had completely stopped seeing. The process, the light, the physical relationships between workers and machinery — all of it invisible to anyone who encountered it daily, fully legible to someone arriving for the first time with a camera and genuine curiosity about what was actually there.
That outside perspective has been the consistent thread through forty years of commercial photography. Not the equipment, not the technical approach, not the client list — the way of arriving somewhere new and finding what's worth seeing before the brief has a chance to narrow the frame.
I trained at Valparaiso University, where a graphic design education built on the Institute of Design tradition gave me a framework for thinking about visual problems that has served the commercial work better than any purely photographic training could have. The ID approach treats design as investigation rather than decoration. That maps directly onto how I work in an industrial facility, a healthcare practice, or any complex environment: before a brief is executed, it needs to be understood. Before an image is made, the question is what it's actually supposed to say.
Self-portrait made using a Deardorff 8x10 camera to create a paper negative
The Work
Wehmeier Photography, Ltd. serves industrial and manufacturing companies, healthcare organizations, and the marketing agencies and creative directors who work with them.
Assignment photography produces finished images for a defined placement — a campaign, a publication, a specific communications need. The pre-production work is about understanding what the images are supposed to do before the first frame is made, which sometimes means redirecting a brief that was built for the wrong audience.
Organizational content library work replaces a shot list with a territory. Rather than specifying images in advance, we establish coverage priorities for an organization's ongoing content operation and then build the conditions for discovery. The resulting library contains images the client couldn't have written a brief for — and those tend to be the ones that carry the most weight when they're actually used.
Working Together.
For complex assignments — multi-location productions, shoots requiring coordination with facility managers, or healthcare engagements involving multiple physicians and locations — my business partner, Elise Wehmeier, manages production and logistics. Her involvement means projects with moving parts run without the friction that would otherwise fall to the client.
The practice is based in the Chicago southwest suburbs. I work throughout the Midwest region and travel for the right engagement.
Personal Work
Alongside the client work, I maintain ongoing personal projects: large-format paper negative portraiture made with an 8x10 view camera, and a long-running series of graphic compositions made on a phone. These aren't separate from the commercial practice — they're part of what keeps the eye active and the curiosity genuine. More than one client has said these projects help explain why the commercial work looks the way it does. I think that's right.
You can view examples of large-format paper negative portraits and phone-based graphic compositions.
Professional Involvement
I've served the professional photography community through leadership roles with ASMP Chicago/Midwest and the Associated Professional Photographers of Illinois, and through the Orland Park Area Chamber of Commerce. Current memberships: PPA, PPANI, APA.
“Wehmeier Photography is our “go to” partner when we’re in need of excellent corporate photography. Not only are they vastly experienced in their craft, but just as important, they are very considerate in their interactions with our clients.”
Glen Borkowski – Dream Makers Bath and Kitchen of Orland Park
Since 1986, Wehmeier Photography has served clients across industrial, manufacturing, healthcare, and institutional sectors throughout Chicago and the Midwest region.
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