BIO

Anthony Hernandez is a Chicago-based photographer specializing in environmental portraiture and documentary projects. His art practice is centered on environmental portraiture and community-focused documentary photography across Chicago. With his photography studies at Columbia College Chicago, his work between digital capture and analog 35mm, alongside medium format film, using each medium to serve specific narrative functions within his projects. 

His digital environmental portraits focus directly on local, family-owned businesses impacted by gentrification. Using intentional off-camera lighting, he captures shop owners in their working environments, often surrounded by the textures, shelves, and tools that shape their identity and everyday labor. 

In tandem, both his medium format work focuses on observational portraits of community life on Chicago’s South Side. The deliberate care and physical material of medium format film allow him to slow down and create quiet portraits of residents in public and domestic spaces. In contrast, his 35mm work captures life on Michigan Avenue documenting both its quiet corners and its polished, high-end stretches to present an identity of downtown Chicago.