Bio
Sandra Steinbrecher is a Chicago-based freelance photographer working on long-term assignments about public education, the arts, and community development. Her work supports and promotes the work of others who are invested in transforming their communities and preserving history. She is committed to building relationships and telling nuanced stories.
In the last several years, Sandra’s long-term assignments for Chicago Public Schools have taken her into schools across the city to photograph, recording their challenges and successes. She created photo diaries of life at Harper, Fenger, Marshall, and Roosevelt High Schools. This ongoing project has become a large body of work about education, activism and the empowerment of young people.
Currently, Sandra is documenting the Salt Shed, the transformation of the 1929 former Morton Salt Shed and Factory Complex, on Elston Avenue and the Chicago River. In the last the last few years, she has photographed people, spaces, and events on Chicago’s mid-South Side for Emerald South Collaborative; documented the efforts to repurpose the former Anthony Overton School, a closed public school in Chicago’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood; photographed life at Alain Locke Charter School in East Garfield Park for CPSLives, an arts partnership program; and documented the art and artists of the Wabash Arts Corridor and the Burnham Wildlife Corridor, two public art initiatives in Chicago.
Sandra is a silver gelatin master printer, and from 2011-2014, collaborated with Ron Gordon to make the exhibition prints from historic original negatives for national and international exhibitions of Vivian Maier's acclaimed images.
Sandra's photograph of three young people at the March For Our Lives Rally in Chicago was selected for inclusion in the exhibition, The Outwin 2019, American Portraiture Today at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC and subsequently went on tour. Her photos of the Wabash Arts Corridor murals were featured in an exhibition about the history of public art at the Chicago Cultural Center. She has exhibited her work at Columbia College Chicago, the University of Illinois, Grinnell College, and Luther College, with the Chicago Photography Collective, the Chicago Public Library, and the Battrell Gallery. Her essay and photos were recently published on Patagonia’s blog, The Cleanest Line, and her images appeared in the CNN national docu-series, Chicagoland, in Smithsonian Magazine, in Rolling Stone Brasil, on the White House website, on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight program, on ebony.com, in the Economist magazine, and in other publications.
Recent accomplishments:
Essay + photos published on Patagonia’s blog The Cleanest Line, December 2021 and featured on Patagonia’s Instagram, 2022
Selected for Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition, “The Outwin 2019 American Portraiture Today”,
October 2019-January 2022Documented 2 public art initiatives in Chicago in 2016, with sixteen mural images installed at the Chicago Cultural Center, 2017
Produced and built "Remembering Vivian Maier: A Pop-Up Darkroom and Conversation", an educational program at Soho House Chicago, 2016
Collaborated with Ron Gordon to print contemporary silver gelatin prints from historic original negatives for national and international exhibitions of Vivian Maier's work. Also traveled to participate in talks and speak on panels for this notable and distinctive project, 2011-2014
Black and white photos of Fenger High School appeared in the CNN national docu-series, Chicagoland, 2014
Documented life at Harper, Fenger, and Marshall High Schools, 2008-2013
Produced and published hardcover photo book of life at Fenger High School, 2012
Fenger photos installed in US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s office, 2011
Exhibitions:
The Outwin 2019, American Portraiture Today, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC October 2019-August 2020, exhibition travels to select museums through January 2022
The Pride and Perils of Chicago's Public Art,
Historical Exhibition, featuring selected Wabash Arts Corridor (WAC) mural photos, Chicago Cultural Center, 2017Street Level, Hokin Gallery, Columbia College, Fall 2017
The Education Project Photo Exhibition,
Solo Exhibition, University of Illinois, 2015The Education Project Photo Exhibition,
Solo Exhibition, Grinnell College, 2015
The Education Project Photo Exhibition,
Solo Exhibition, Luther College, 2013Go Do Good / Chicago Photography Collective, Group Show, 2011
Two Schools A Photo Diary / Chicago Photography Collective, Two Person Show, 2010
Vietnam, Solo Exhibition, Chicago Public Library, 2010
Vietnam, Solo Exhibition, Battrell Gallery, 2009