Sandra Steinbrecher is a Chicago-based documentary photographer working on long-term assignments about public education, the arts, and community development. Her work supports and promotes the work of others who are invested in transforming their communities and preserving history. She is committed to building relationships and telling nuanced stories.

For nearly two years, she photographed the transformation of the former 1929 Morton Salt complex on Elston Avenue along the Chicago River, into the Salt Shed, a stunning music venue. This work was awarded a grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and is now a book. The Salt Shed, is due out in September 2024, from Trope Publishing Company.

Recently, she photographed the changing seasons at the historic Garden of the Phoenix in Chicago’s Jackson Park, recorded the efforts to repurpose the former Anthony Overton School in the Bronzeville community, and collaborated with numerous artists, documenting their public art pieces and installations. She documented life at several Chicago Public Schools across the city, independently and for the arts organization, CPS Lives. This ongoing project has become a large body of work about education, activism and the empowerment of young people.

Sandra was a silver gelatin master printer for over twenty years, and along with colleague Ron Gordon, made the exhibition prints with original negatives from a collection of Vivian Maier's acclaimed, historic images, seen around the world. 

Sandra's photograph of three young people at the March For Our Lives Rally in Chicago was selected for inclusion in the highly competitive exhibition, The Outwin 2019, American Portraiture Today at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC and subsequently went on tour. Her photos of the Wabash Arts Corridor murals were featured in an exhibition about the history of public art at the Chicago Cultural Center. She has exhibited her work at Columbia College Chicago, the University of Illinois, Grinnell College, and Luther College, with the Chicago Photography Collective, the Chicago Public Library, and the Battrell Gallery. Her essay and photos were published on Patagonia’s blog, The Cleanest Line, and her images appeared in the CNN national docu-series, Chicagoland, in Smithsonian Magazine, in Rolling Stone Brasil, on the White House website, on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight program, on ebony.com, in the Economist magazine, and in other publications.

Recent accomplishments:

• Essay + photos published on Patagonia’s blog The Cleanest Line, December 2021 and featured on Patagonia’s Instagram, 2022

• Selected for Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition, “The Outwin 2019 American Portraiture Today”,
  October 2019-January 2022

• Documented 2 public art initiatives in Chicago in 2016, with sixteen mural images installed at the Chicago Cultural Center, 2017

• Produced and built "Remembering Vivian Maier: A Pop-Up Darkroom and Conversation", an educational program at Soho House Chicago, 2016

• Collaborated with Ron Gordon to print contemporary silver gelatin prints from historic original negatives for national and international exhibitions of Vivian Maier's work. Also traveled to participate in talks and speak on panels for this notable and distinctive project, 2011-2014

• Black and white photos of Fenger High School appeared in the CNN national docu-series, Chicagoland, 2014

• Documented life at Harper, Fenger, and Marshall High Schools, 2008-2013

• Produced and published hardcover photo book of life at Fenger High School, 2012

• Fenger photos installed in US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s office, 2011

Exhibitions:  

• The Outwin 2019, American Portraiture Today, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC October 2019-August 2020, exhibition travels to select museums through January 2022

• The Pride and Perils of Chicago's Public Art,
  Historical Exhibition, featuring selected Wabash Arts Corridor (WAC) mural photos, Chicago Cultural Center, 2017

• Street Level, Hokin Gallery, Columbia College, Fall 2017

• The Education Project Photo Exhibition,
  Solo Exhibition, University of Illinois, 2015

• The Education Project Photo Exhibition,

• Solo Exhibition, Grinnell College, 2015

• The Education Project Photo Exhibition,
  Solo Exhibition, Luther College, 2013

• Go Do Good / Chicago Photography Collective, Group Show, 2011

• Two Schools A Photo Diary / Chicago Photography Collective, Two Person Show, 2010

• Vietnam, Solo Exhibition, Chicago Public Library, 2010

• Vietnam, Solo Exhibition, Battrell Gallery, 2009