If you’ve ever been to a comedy show—or, if you’ve ever been minding your own business at a bar before being ambushed by a comedy show—you know that Chicago’s known for being a robust comedy city. Part of what makes it formidable is the strength of Chicago’s comedy photographers. You know the ancient adage: if a comedy show happens and no one sees it on Instagram, did it really even happen?
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When Sarah Larson photographed her first comedy show in 2015, she had no idea that it would propel her into becoming one of Chicago’s most prominent indie comedy photographers.
Making comedians look funny: Sarah Larson
Larson mostly photographs indie shows, which can range from the long-running Paper Machete in Uptown to shows at the Hideout to random bar shows run by 23-year-old men with no bed frames (my words, not hers).
As for the flower shop? “I worked there last week. For a few hours, just to help out,” she laughs.
When you see photos of a performer on the Laugh Factory stage, for a second—if you’re foolish—you believe that the pink-yellow glow of the Laugh Factory’s stained glass backdrop is naturally washing the performer in sunset jewel tones. That’s how easy Ashley NiCole’ makes it look. She’s got a special spot at the Laugh Factory where she’ll shoot from multiple angles with the intention of grabbing a shot that pops. Photos are living, breathing entities; when you’re looking at one of NiCole’s, she wants you to feel like you were at the party.
She’s been a photographer for 15 years, professionally for eight, and a comedy photographer for nearly four. In addition to Laugh Factory photos, NiCole’ freelance shoots indie shows, headshots, and even some food. NiCole’ is ambitious in an aspirational way. She works hard because she wants her work to be personally meaningful, not to be impressive to other people. Hearing her talk about photography makes you want to start writing your novel, or at the very least reorganize your sock drawer.
With that in mind, NiCole’ has POC performers’ backs. She’s an expert in color-correcting photos for darker skin tones to ensure that photo subjects don’t look too dark, washed-out, or orange-skinned . “A lot of times people don’t consider the lighting hits different on Black and Brown tones than how they might hit on a white person,” she says.
Chris Santiago loves to hang. In fact, he loves to hang so much that he’ll drive around the city with his camera and lighting equipment just to photograph comedians in their homes. Well, that, and he’s addicted to collecting things. And on a galaxy brain level, he needs a concrete reminder of his own existence. It all coalesces into why he’s embarked on a project to document the Chicago comedy scene, which he calls a “visual, historical record of people that were doing this one specific thing during a span of time.” So far he’s done more than 100 shoots of comedians in their homes. It’s exhausting, but doable for someone who is the human equivalent of a bouncy ball, vibrating with frenetic energy.
