large scale photography for Movement rock Climbing gyms in Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville

Chicago, IL 2021

In 2021, I had the honor of photographing landscape and lifestyle photography for large-scale display in the climbing gyms, Movement Lincoln Park and Movement Wrigleyville in Chicago. It was an exciting challenge to put together a camera and lens kit to accommodate for the huge display requirement. The largest image would span an entire wall at 23 ft x 10 ft. Adding to the task, the placement of the photos required the details to be tack sharp when viewed as close as 1 in from the image. In case you’re curious, I landed on the mirrorless Sony a7R IV that boasts a 61 MP sensor and was still light enough to use while camping, hiking, and rock climbing with it strapped to me. The lenses (Sony FE 16-35mm 2.8 and Sony FE 12-24mm 2.8) added some weight, but was so worth it for the cramped spaces they allowed me to wedge into and still get the shot.

It was also important to make sure I could safely anchor myself above the climbers who were top roping up the face of the rock. My goal was to have my camera level with their faces without being in their way. It sounded easy enough. Although, I already rock climb, I didn’t anticipate that scaling a cliff with thousands of dollars of gear draped around my neck and photographing from a squatted position roughly 60 ft above the ground would push my mental and physical abilities like it did. If you can’t quite picture the position I was in, imagine doing a wall sit for 20 minutes and holding a camera up to your eye. Now remove the wall from the equation and instead put your feet against a cliff at a 45 degree angle and add a metal loop holding you to the rock from a harness around your waist. Looking back, the real MVPs of that day (besides my quads) were Won & Mike, the climbers who educated me on the techniques and climbing gear to accomplish those top rope photos.

Overall, it took two jam packed weekends at Devil’s Lake State Park and Governor’s Dodge State Park to accomplish the landscape photos and climbing action shots that I needed. From there, it took many weeks of editing, a few rounds of reviews with the Movement team, and two cycles of color tests to get the prints JUST right. Finally, it’s all done and on display in the Movement gyms!

While I was nervous to begin this process when I was initially pitching myself for the job, I’m now filled with a huge sense of accomplishment for all I learned and created during this project. Even more, I am deeply appreciative for my husband’s support during the camping, hiking, and climbing that we did, and the enormous help and expertise of a great gang of climbers who joined us.

While 9 prints were commissioned, I ended up creating a larger body of work since the photos required hours of travel to re-do if anything went wrong. The full collection is below.

Climbers pictured:

Won Huh, Mike Phu, Josh Sheldon, Alex Park, Sahil Ahmed, Jean Kang, & Jackie Challoner.

Enjoy some behind the scenes pictures of my family visiting the prints in person. Not sure about you, but no matter what level of professionalism I reach, if my mom asks me to pose by something I made, I still will…and add a hand on my hip while I’m at it.