For more than twenty years, Chris Guillen Photography has been proud to work with Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and its predecessor, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. We have grown an ongoing collaboration that includes patient therapy photography, staff portraits, annual fundraising coverage, and the development of an image library that supports the organization’s communications for both print and digital.
This spring our team - along with our favorite make-up artists from Karen Lynn & Associates - returned to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s downtown Chicago headquarters to photograph new staff portraits.
In the summer we captured research work and patient stories to create updated imagery for AbilityLab’s marketing, website, social media, fundraising, and other outreach. Refreshing an image library every few years gives an organization the opportunity to share their mission with current people, programs, spaces, and technology through authentic, human-centered images.
We also photographed the newly expanded outpatient therapy floor (above), including the innovative spaces, treatment technology, and care experiences that help the AbilityLab serve patients in new ways. It is always meaningful to witness how far rehabilitation and therapeutic care have advanced, and to help document the people, environments, and breakthroughs that make that progress visible.
In May we photographed their annual fundraiser, SPARK, an event that celebrates innovations in their research and helps connect their powerful community to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s mission.
THE SOUL MOVES FIRST is a beautiful phrase repeated throughout the AbilityLab. A tenet embracing the importance and power of positivity as people and families are challenged with traumatic health events in their lives. We are proud to be a visual partner in furthering that message.
