About Christian Hansen

It all started when…

My big brother left his old point-and-shoot camera at home when he returned to college in 2007 at the Air Force Academy. I still remember the exact model: it was a Canon A510 point-and-shoot camera. I started taking photographs of anything and everything without any real clue as to what I was doing. By 2010, I had truly begun to develop an interest in the craft of photography, the science behind it, and what is needed to make a good photo come to fruition.

I remember enrolling in a photography class in high school but had to drop it after a week because it required a DSLR camera, and we didn't have the money for it at the time. At least, that’s what my parents said; they might have just thought I wouldn't stick with it and didn’t want to waste $500 on a camera. Eventually, I started using an old Sony Handycam video camera to take photos and began photographing various sporting events when I was a journalist for VAVEL USA, an online sports publication I wrote for during high school. I continued this until about 2016 when I finally got my own DSLR camera.

2016 was a huge moment for me. My favorite baseball team won the World Series, I conducted an on-camera interview with Kevin Durant and various members of the United States Men’s Basketball team, and I began shooting concert photography. This eventually led me to some of the greatest and coolest opportunities I’ve ever had.

I began shooting bands at local festivals and had a blast figuring out how to use a camera since I never had any formal education on it. A couple of years later, I got a job working at Onesti Entertainment in St. Charles, IL, which changed my life. I started photographing some of the greatest rock bands of all time: Ted Nugent, Buddy Guy, UFO, America, Bret Michaels of Poison, Jimmie Vaughan, Night Ranger, Chris Daughtry, The Allman Betts Band, and many more. The opportunities at the Arcada Theater presented me with even bigger opportunities, like shooting photos for John Mayer, Luke Bryan, Kameron Marlowe, Michael Phelps, etc. I did that for a short period before COVID shut everything down, leaving me with nothing to shoot. Eventually, comedy was the first live form of entertainment to come back, and I started shooting for various comedy clubs and comedians. Then, I began shooting for Chicago Fire FC of MLS, and before long, concerts returned, and I was doing that again.

I had no set plan as an aspiring photographer who picked up that Canon A510 in 2007, but I had a huge love for it. To this day, that love and passion remain the same.