Stephanie Battista

Garry Guillaume is an Arlington Heights resident who utilizes The Studio in Arlington Heights Memorial Library to make his own music. He recorded his first album in this studio.

This was shot for the Creator Spotlight series in library’s newsletter and was also shared on social.

Think the library is boring and outdated? Think again. Libraries have so many cool things to explore and most people don’t even know! That’s why I photographed a series of items in the Arlington Heights Memorial Library’s Library of Things.

The items were shot for the newsletter, and ended up on a 24 × 36 poster to promote the collection at community pop ups and social as well. I wanted the photos to feel dramatic, exciting and modern in order to get people excited about checking out new items, whether they be musical instruments, art and craft tools, video and photo equipment, household items, or even accessibility tools.

Since 2008, Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire and film historian and author Raymond Benson have hosted a monthly program called Dann and Raymond’s Movie Club. In 2023, they were retiring their program and the library featured them in the September newsletter to promote their last few programs and celebrate their legacy at the library. I photographed and directed the two in a photoshoot as well as coordinated with them to bring movie props that they had. I wanted to capture a celebratory and silly feeling to tell their story as friends and colleagues.

Customers of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library are eagerly awaiting the opening of the new makerspace in the Summer of 2021. In order to promote the Makerspace and give customers a few examples of the possibilities that open up with it, staff members agreed to pose with an example of work they have created with tools/machines that will be available at the Makerspace.

In order:

1. Baking // Stand Mixer

2. Stickers // Vinyl Cutter

3. Quilting // Accu Quilt Go-Big die cutting machine

4. Sunglasses Display // Laser Cutter

Another Dear Reader article from AHML Newsletter features a man who found his late foster mother’s works of poetry and tells of his journey into not only transcribing them into a digital format using the library’s computers, but getting the works published.

The photos were taken in one of the library’s studio rooms using a single studio light modified by an Octobox diffuser. I wanted to capture just how much work he accomplished using the library’s resources and the emotion behind it, which is why I featured his mother’s works in each photo. The look in his eyes in these photos really speaks volumes to the love that went into this project.

The last photo on the page is the official layout from the newsletter.

Bella+Sophia Clothing is a modern line of children swear based out of Chicago. Owner & Designer Jennifer Veguilla reached out to me to photograph their launch line, which she wanted to come across as mystical and wondrous. You can shop Bella+Sophia here.

While working at Half Stack Magazine as the lead photographer, we did a combined editorial shoot, showcasing a local gym in Elburn, IL as well as clothing from sportswear brand One P Apparel. check out the gym here and the clothing here

Drawing inspiration from Dean Bradshaw, I wanted to try my hand at photographing derby dames, but from a promotional standpoint. Here, I created a portrait to be used for a trading card, as well as a portrait to be used for a player poster. This concept could be utilized team-wide to sell at their games and raise money for the team. Annevel Knievel is a pivot & blocker for The Dupage Derby Dames

An editorial I shot for Half Stack Magazine featuring Chicago fashion designer Anna Hovet. 

This Clue series is another product of my Senior Project Ad Concepts. Clue was one of my favorite movies when I was younger. With its vibrant characters, 40's setting, and all of the prop possibilities, I knew it would produce great visuals for re-creating movie posters for a modern-day re-make.

Cubicle Ninjas is a design firm in Glen Ellyn that hired me as a freelance photographer to take portraits of their staff for their website

As a part of my senior project, in which I created mock advertisements, I photographed ads for the video game Bioshock. Throughout the game, you will see posters and mini commercials advertising products within the Bioshock world. I thought it would be a fun concept to create advertisements for the actual game by mimicking the ads seen in the game. It's Ad-Ception.

A Davy Crockett inspired portrait

I was hired by Ahava Organic SPAlon, located in Barrington, IL, to take pictures of one of their hair models for a competition they entered into, as well as for their website. 

Steve Kaiser is a classical and jazz guitarist based out of Palatine, IL. Steve hired me to take portraits of him for various promotional uses. 

Adam Zwig is a  singer-songwriter that Half Stack Magazine did a feature article on. I photographed his show at Schuba's in Chicago, IL.