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<\/p>\nERIE \u2013 Have you ever looked at a picture of a product and said, \u201cI\u2019ll take it\u201d? There\u2019s a chance Steve Sullivan helped you decide to buy it.<\/p>\n
Did you ever flip through a grocery flier in the newspaper and say, \u201cMmm, that looks good\u201d? Then you probably saw his work (although you would have needed to be an Eagle-eyed shopper to spot it).<\/p>\n
Or maybe you saw a photo of a green machine and said, \u201cNothing looks like a Deere.\u201d If so, then Sullivan may have been the one to make sure you looked at it.<\/p>\n
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Steve Sullivan of Erie shows off his Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, his primary camera he takes with him on commercial photography assignments. (Cody Cutter)<\/p>\n
The Erie man\u2019s work has been seen by countless consumers, ending up in mailboxes and magazine racks near and far, and websites around the world.<\/p>\n
Sullivan is a commercial photographer who works behind the scenes to set the scene for clients through his freelance business, Steve Sullivan Photography. It\u2019s a job that can be summed up in a few words: pop, stop and shop \u2013 make products pop so people will stop and shop \u2013 and though his job is a snap, he\u2019s had a lot of time behind the lens to make it look effortless, more than three decades and counting, the last 18 as a freelancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got to make you stop,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWhether you\u2019re presenting a product, or introducing someone new, it\u2019s got to draw you into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When it comes to making a product look its best for display in catalogs, menus or online markets, Steve Sullivan of Erie’s photography skills help businesses in their mission to attract consumers to their products. (Photo provided by Steve Sullivan)<\/p>\n
Since graduating from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale with a photography degree in 1991, Sullivan has made a career out of telling stories and selling products with the click of a button. He grew up in Rock Island and worked for a professional photography studio in Bettendorf until making the leap into freelancing in 2007. He and his wife, Tori, moved to Erie in 1999 to be close to her family, and Steve has a small studio next to their home, where he works.<\/p>\n
As a freelancer, he can choose to accept or decline assignments, some that have been nearby and some that took him a few hours from home. He\u2019s shot product photos at Johnson Rauhoff, a creative agency in Benton Harbor, Michigan; and for companies including Walmart, Sur La Table, Cabela\u2019s and Newell Brands. Bethany Lowe Designs, a vintage holiday decor company, also called upon Sullivan for its print and online catalogs.<\/p>\n
Closer to home, Sullivan has done photos for John Deere, Jumer\u2019s Casino in Rock Island, Erie Foods, Drives (now Timken Drives) in Fulton and Rock Island-based Eagle grocery stores \u2014 the photos in the now-closed grocery chain\u2019s Wednesday sales fliers were his work.<\/p>\n
Sullivan\u2019s business keeps him busy. With companies wanting to get photography work done as quickly as possible, there\u2019s little wiggle room on the schedule, so Sullivan has to make sure each click counts. Stylists, sales reps, and the occasional hand model work with Sullivan during each photo shoot to help position products so they look their best \u2013 they call the shots and he takes them, making sure the light\u2019s right and the camera settings are set. The photos are snapped and then it\u2019s onto the next assignment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stylists \u2026 assign you \u2013 \u2018Here\u2019s the layout\u2019 \u2013 and you have to follow what their direction is. An account rep is there, too. They have it laid out and they call the shots. \u2026 You follow whatever they give you.\u201d<\/p>\n
With almost 35 years in the profession, the process has become second nature to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m reliable, I show up and I do what they ask,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing it a long time, so I kind of know what I\u2019m doing. I don\u2019t stumble through it because I\u2019ve done it for so many years. I won\u2019t tell you I\u2019m the best, because there is a lot of good talent out there, but I have years of experience and will get it done. There won\u2019t be a lot of sitting around, and with this, you can\u2019t. It\u2019s off to the next one and they\u2019re ready, ready, ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Businesses not only rely on him to make their products appealing, but to make the people behind them look good, too, with his professional staff portraits and convincingly casual candids.<\/p>\n
When it comes to people, Sullivan\u2019s work has included assignments for American Rental Properties in Moline and various shots and events for John Deere. He recently accompanied a 5-year-old and his family on a tour of one of the Deere facilities in the Quad-Cities through the Make-A-Wish program; his shots captured the child\u2019s experience and were given to the family as a keepsake.<\/p>\n
Another recent event for Deere was for a \u201cWomen in Ag\u201d program, where he captured candid shots showing the reactions of office workers getting a look at how some of its equipment worked on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all candid, looking and pointing at the equipment,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cThat\u2019s fun, because I don\u2019t have to shape it or fold it into a nice neat box, I\u2019m going around looking for smiles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sullivan\u2019s photography experience began in the days when a photo shop was a dark room, not a computer program, and has evolved along with the advances in technology, when memory cards and megabytes have replaced canisters and rolls of film. He\u2019s not young anymore, he\u2019ll admit, and he realizes a new breed of tech-savvy photographers has joined the field.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t deter him, it helps make him better, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes some skill,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cThere are people out there who are really advanced: You got to do the Photoshop, the computer work and on the camera end. I learn a lot from other people. Even today, it\u2019s my favorite thing to do, to talk to another person about what they\u2019re doing, in the photo world especially. Back in the old days of film, it took a little more effort. Now a lot of that can be fixed on a computer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s photographers can learn from Sullivan, too. Sometimes old tricks still work, like the time he showed a photographer how using the graphite from a pencil to make an etching on a glass filled with clear liquid pop out \u2014 no Photoshop necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was making the drinks according to layout, and one of the glasses had an etching on it with a little design, but you couldn\u2019t see it in the photo,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201dI got my finger dirty with a pencil and I rubbed it on the glass, and it popped. She looked at me and goes, \u2018You are old. The young kids would have tried to fix it in Photoshop, but you fixed it right here.\u2019 With film, you kind of had to fix it right there because there was no retouching. It gave it a little bit of gray, with the liquid being clear, and you could see it.”<\/p>\n
On days when he\u2019s not on jobs or editing photos, he works on his new passion \u2014 this own artist\u2019s \u201cblue period,\u201d as it were.<\/p>\n
Sullivan has recently renewed his interest in another form of photography, cyanotype, a primitive form of blue and white imagery.<\/p>\n
Cyanotype photography is a cameraless technique that involves laying an object on paper coated with a solution of chemicals before exposing it to ultraviolet light and washing with water to create stunning white and Prussian blue (cyan) images. Since April 2024, Sullivan has captured natural items such as leaves and grass using the process. His works are displayed and sold at The Loft on Main in Morrison and Ember on the Hill in LeClaire. His works also were featured throughout July in a monthly art gallery at CGH in Sterling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remembered it from school, but I couldn\u2019t justify buying the chemistry and paper for that, and in my mind there was no way I was going to make a living on it,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI saw other people do it, and I recently visited someone in a hospital and I was in a hallway, and they had these big blue [images]. I did a little reading on them, tried a couple for myself, and a couple of people said they were amazing. Here I am a year later. I\u2019m having a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s putting products in the spotlight or creating art out of the blue, Sullivan\u2019s storytelling through photos is an ever-evolving adventure, and one that keeps him going after all these years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll go until my body quits,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI plan to keep doing it. I try to keep up. I like talking with people that come from different experiences, and then maybe they can tell me things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Call 309-659-7269 for more information on Steve Sullivan Photography in Erie. Find him on Instagram (@sullycreated) to see his latest cyanotype artwork, or view them at The Loft on Main, 112 E. Main St. in Morrison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ERIE \u2013 Have you ever looked at a picture of a product and said, \u201cI\u2019ll take it\u201d? There\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,15576,15575],"class_list":["post-23467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-sauk-valley-living","tag-whiteside-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}