Chicago-based photojournalist John Gress’ work regularly appears on the Reuters news wire and in major publications around the world, including Le Monde, Time, The New York Times, The Times of London, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated. His assignments have included the 2007 Southern California wildfires, the 2006 Super Bowl, the 2005 World Series, and the 2004 Republican and Democratic national conventions. In 2007, he was named a finalist for the National Press Photographers Association’s The Best of Photojournalism Sports Photojournalist of the Year competition.

Gress also works with many of America’s top companies on advertising and public relations campaigns. His clients have included Airborne, Avon, Ben & Jerry's, Chrysler, Cialis, Dodge, Hyundai, Lexus, Matel, Merck, Microsoft, Midas, Nike, Ocean Spray, Sam Adams and the U.S. Army.

Gress arrived in Chicago in 2003 after having worked as a Portland, Oregon-based freelance photojournalist since 2001, regularly handling assignments for the Agence France-Press, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today, and People magazine. From 2000-2001, he was a staff photographer for The Topeka Capital-Journal, where his subjects included the University of Kansas basketball team, the Kansas City Chiefs, and state government figures. Previously, from 1996-2000, he was a freelance photojournalist for the Associated Press, covering the Portland Trailblazers, the USA Track and Field Championships, the 1998 World Cup, and various natural disasters across the Pacific Northwest. In 1998, he was a part-time staff photographer for The Columbian, in Vancouver, Wash.

Gress’ interest in photography began in his native Oregon when, at age 14, he took his mother’s Vivitar point-and-shoot camera to summer church camp. He enrolled in his first photography class during freshman year of high school, and by senior year was covering major events for the Associated Press. In 2000, he received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Portland State University.