The 7 Best Fine Art Photographers in Cincinnati

Nicknamed the Queen of the West, Cincinnati is undergoing much the same revival as other Rust Belt cities. Its ongoing metamorphosis is encouraging creatives from across the country to set up shop in Ohio’s third-largest city. If you’re in need of a fine art photographer to give a flavorful angle to your next big event or portrait session, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve curated a list of the top fine art photographers in Cincinnati. That said, take a look and see just how these incredible creatives can turn your next photo session into pure magic.

1. Tina Gutierrez

As an adjunct professor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Tina Gutierrez brings a holistic study of art, movement, and music into her photography practice. Her influences include the developmental movement, Renaissance and Baroque art, as well as the classical elements of balance and beauty.

We’re especially impressed with her Rare Creatures series: a collaboration among photographer, fashion designers, and professional dancers to evoke ideas of long-lost flying creatures. Her underwater photography takes on a similar style of sweeping limbs and flowing, gossamer outfits. Her sensitivity to color comes across in her work, with subdued backgrounds that make the bold reds​, purples, and golds clamor for our attention all the more clearly.

2. Hiromi Platt

As a fine art dance photographer, Hiromi Platt has a specialist’s vision that comes across in each of her images. Hiromi is an expert at conveying the flow, grace, and poise of each one of her subjects as they showcase their ballet poses and outfits on stage, in studio, or in nature across the USA.

Hiromi uses an environmental portraiture style, bringing as much attention to background elements as she does to her clients to tell a story with a single image. We also enjoyed Hiromi’s Dance for the Paws series, which features rescued animals posing with baby and professional dancers to promote adoptions and raise awareness for rescue and adoption agencies.

3. Beth Phillips

Beth Phillips is a fine art dance photographer covering Dayton and Cincinnati-area high school seniors, pre-professional dancers, and studios in need of coverage. Her studio work is breathtaking, using backgrounds and poses that isolate the subject in ways that leave them suspended in the air — an image of frozen motion.

The monochromatic backgrounds allow our full attention to take in and appreciate the colors, outfits, skin tones, expressions, form, and grace of her clients. Beth’s on-location work is a collaboration between the vision both she and her clients share, choosing locations that best express the idea, such as urban parks or downtown views. Each of her photoshoots immortalizes the years of hard work, passion, and dedication each of her dancer clients has put into their art.

4. Holly Burkholder

Covering families and children, Holly Burkholder is one of the best fine art photographers in Cincinnati today. Holly has a way of getting up close and personal with each of her clients, filling the frame in a way that conveys trust and comfort between photographer and subject. It works especially well with her use of bright natural light, including warm, golden-hour tones that enhance her images without overwhelming the skin tones or fine details in her subjects.

We especially love the attention she gives to out-of-focus areas, choosing angles and compositions that allow the excluded elements to still enhance the overall composition. Leaves, brick walls, and skies create smooth backgrounds perfectly suited to her classic portraiture style!

5. Derek Dammann

With images featured by institutions as prestigious as National Geographic, Derek Dammann is one of the best landscape, nature, and travel photographers in the world. His images feature color over monochrome and showcase sweeping panoramas of locations both famous and hidden, such as William Wordsworth’s Rydal Mount home or sleepy farms in rural Vermont. Wildlife closeups sit next to travel portraits of sugar-white sandy beaches on distant islands.

Derek’s ability to capture diverse genres is unparalleled. We especially love how true to the color and character he remains for each scene he visits. In addition, his editing entails a very light touch that leaves us in awe of his vision.

6. Tony Henson

Landscape, portrait, and headshot photographer Tony Henson’s bold, vivacious style is precisely what you need if you’re looking for a lifestyle or cityscape angle for your next fine art piece. His work employs digital art techniques, such as split-toning and long exposures to create memorable images. He’s especially talented as using city lighting in portraiture for bokeh in out-of-focus areas that’s as mesmerizing as his subjects.

Tony’s style usually has an element of digital photo-editing done in a precise manner that only adds to the wonder of his work. His city images also employ leading lines, foreground interest points, and neon night lights to keep the viewer’s interest. Tony’s absolutely one of the most creative fine art photographers in Cincinnati right now.

7. Laura Katie

Focusing on couples, families, and small businesses, Laura Katie is a Cincinnati-based fine art photographer covering Ohio, the Midwest, and beyond. As a film photographer, her style embraces classic and environmental portraiture to tell the story of your event. Her newborn photography is some of the best we’ve seen, showcasing the very earliest years of a new life in all its delicate beauty. Laura employs a mixture of monochrome and subtle color corrections that bring out the soft freshness of the skin, the wetness in the eyes of newlyweds, and the textures of fabrics without overwhelming color to distract.

She’s especially talented at showcasing moment of intimacy: the closeness of a couple or a child in her mother’s arms. She shoots up close and personal, as well as from a distance to showcase an environment, and she knows how to balance both styles!

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