Monika Demel specializes in editorial and commercial photography and is based in Chicago, Illinois.
For portrait work please visit: www.demelportraits.com For commercial work please visit: www.creativeMstudios.com
She holds dual degrees in Advertising Design and Human Behavior. Her ability meet & exceed the needs of a wide variety of clients have helped her clients win awards, increase perceived value, and be an integral part of successful marketing campaigns.
She is an active member of the American Photographic Artists (APA) Midwest. Her work has been featured on the covers of industry trade magazines, the Oprah website and newsletter, and most recently the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, when she was just seven years old she entered a Mother's Day drawing contest. She drew a picture of a mom and daughter with chalk on a sidewalk and won an award for best portrait by a child. Her reward was a gift certificate and a glass bottle of Coca Cola, which she happily drank with her best friend Annie on the front steps of the home. This Coca Cola video was playing all over the world at the time. To her winning this little, glass bottle of Coca Cola was Everything!
Monika arrived in Chicago in February of 1980. That year she went on a school field trip to the Lincoln Park Conservatory and decided to borrow her father's big, complicated, Russian 35mm camera. There she took her very first photo, which she’s kept to this day.
The following summer for her 10th birthday she received a Kodak 110 from her parents. She took photos of everything and everyone, and loved every minute of it. In high school, she was part of the National Art Honor Society and senior year her drawings were selected to be a part of nationwide tour, a travel collection of art for students with promise. A few of her drawings were published in the high school yearbook. (Below is a B/W version, the original was pink and purple.) In college I she was the photo editor for the school newspaper. She photographed sports and events, as well as curated photos for the paper. The year she was photo editor the paper won a national award for best front cover and editorial spread.
Her photos have been featured on the Oprah website and newsletter, in travel books, private exhibits, trade magazine covers, and most recently in the Lourve Museum in Paris, France.
Pastel Self Portrait Published in the Yearbook
Inside the Louvre Museum, Paris, France