About Me

I am Keith OR  I am KBev – It really depends on where you know me from.  I was born and raised in NJ (YES, the Jersey Shore), but went to Boston for school for a few degrees.  After school, a few decades ago, I moved to Chicago.  After 27 years, Chicago is “home”.  

I am a photographer.  I’ve been snapping photos for 20+ years (longer if you include the fact I’ve ALWAYS been the guy with a camera going back to HS and college).  After starting with street photography, it’s been a fun journey of exploration while trying to document and immerse myself in different subcultures.  My favorite is hip-hop culture, especially dancers and MCs.  However, I also pose people with graffiti for my #GrafNModels work.  I also snapped a lot of sideshows, body suspension, pole competitions/ shows, and political events.  Since 2019, I’ve been doing a lot more model portrait work without graffiti.  It’s been a fun new genre with a great community of creatives.

I am a traveler.  Between work and vacation, I’ve been all over the place and have logged over 2.2 million miles on my preferred airline!  The best part is that I bring my camera on most business trips and often add a few days to get out and explore before going home.  That’s allowed me to meet some great people in those subcultures across 5 continents.  It turns out that an introvert with a camera can meet great people anywhere in the world.

I’m not one to sit around.  When I decided to take a 6 month sabbatical, I started thinking of a project.  This little project is the result of dozens of conversations on how to combine a 15-20 country trip, photography, and a podcast into a single thing.  I couldn’t just travel and take pictures.  I had to do more.  A podcast for each country?  Sure, I’lll try to learn Adobe Audition and figure out how to post them on Podbean.  A website to share content?  Sure, I’ll figure out WordPress and get a Bluehost account.  At least I know how to share my photos on my website and IG feeds.  I’m still a novice at all these new tools, but i expect to get better as this thing rolls.

Peace,

KBev