KELLY SOMMER - ARTIST OF THE MONTH

There are artists who search for extraordinary moments, and there are artists who reveal that the extraordinary has been surrounding us all along. Kelly Sommer belongs to the latter; she is an observer. Her journey into photography began in 2017, with a simple gesture from her children: a small Canon Powershot, gifted out of love,

handed to someone who didn’t yet know she was already an artist.

At the time, she lived in Northwest Indiana, a place where inspiration felt quiet, almost hidden. So she began driving into downtown Chicago, at first not to seek stories, but to

chase the city’s architecture. She photographed clean angles, illuminated windows, and the measured geometry of buildings, always waiting for people to step aside before she pressed the shutter. Human presence, then, felt like an interruption. With time, it would become her compass.

Kelly discovered that life, unfiltered, unposed, often fleeting, was not obstructing her frame; it was enriching it. She learned to look not only at structures, but at gestures.

Not only at the city, but at the people who animate it. Today, she gravitates toward street photography, drawn to expressions of happiness, to brief and fragile

interactions, and to the quiet poetry of everyday life. She doesn’t search for drama; she searches for softness.

Trains and train stations became her recurring muse. In her eyes, they are theaters of constant change, shifting light, shifting seasons, shifting emotions. They offer what

every photographer dreams of: honest, unrepeatable scenes that belong to no one until the shutter meets them.

Kelly photographs with conscience as much as with instinct. When she senses a moment that could be powerful yet risks portraying someone in a negative or

vulnerable way, she chooses silhouette over exposure, dignity over sensationalism.

She goes out every weekend, no matter the weather or the season. Chicago has become her open-air classroom, her community, and her creative family. The friendships she has formed with other photographers energize her, pushing her to try new angles, reflections, perspectives. Her style, as she describes it, “varies greatly.”

And then there is printing! The moment when her work becomes tangible. “Printing my photos ALWAYS makes me so happy,” she says. To her, a printed photograph is

not merely the final step of the process; it is the moment when the image becomes real, when the hours spent chasing it suddenly make sense. Holding a print is holding

a memory, a story, a small piece of truth.

Kelly Sommer is at the beginning of a creative arc that is still rising. She dreams of creating a photo book centered around Chicago’s trains and stations, preserving the very places that shaped her artistic identity. She hopes to organize a photo walk that supports a local cause, proof that her camera is not just a tool for seeing, but a tool for

giving.

In a world that moves too fast, Kelly offers us a reminder: beauty is not loud. It is found in a face, a reflection, a quiet conversation between light and shadow. Sometimes, it is found by simply looking, really looking, at the moments we pass every day.