I’m Dan Meken — a photographer and videographer based in the Chicago suburbs, and I’ve been doing this for ten years.  

  It started by accident. I was working as an assistant at an event company back in Kyrgyzstan when a photographer friend had to step away and handed me his camera. Twenty minutes later I’d figured out the settings and was shooting the event. My boss liked the photos. Then kept asking me back.  

  That moment changed everything.  

  I’d always been drawn to art — I went to art school, I can paint, I think visually. But photography gave me something painting couldn’t: the ability to capture real moments as they happen. I went on to study TV, Cinema and Media Arts at AUCA, bought my first camera, and never looked back. Over the next decade I shot for production companies, marketing agencies and NGOs, traveled across Kyrgyzstan, worked in Europe, and even made it to Thailand — paid in photos and adventure  

  A year and a half ago I moved to the United States. And now I’m building something new here in Chicago — doing the work that comes naturally, that I love, and that I’m genuinely good at.  

  I shoot everything — weddings, engagements, events, portraits, street, nature, cars, food. I also do video. What keeps me coming back is simple: this job lets me meet people from all walks of life and see the world through different eyes. Every shoot is different. Every person has a story worth capturing.  

  If you have something worth remembering — let’s make sure you remember it right.  

  Lumix S5II · Full Frame · Photo & Video — including vintage lenses for a cinematic
 nostalgic feel when the moment calls for it.