Elliot Mandel is a full-time photographer based in Chicago and specializing in live music performance, artist portraiture, event coverage, and editorial projects. As a child, he picked up a cello long before a camera. His intimate knowledge of music and the delicate atmosphere of a performance inform his sensibility as a photographer in order to create images that tell stories and illustrate the emotion of live music.

Mandel’s clientele includes many of Chicago’s finest ensembles, Grammy-winning and nominated artists, elite concert presenters, universities, and non-profit organizations. His photos have appeared on album covers and in notable publications of international, national, and local circulation, including Gramophone Magazine, Sports Illustrated, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Chicago Magazine. His jazz photos have been shown at the University of Chicago, the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, Austria, and PurePoint Financial - Gold Coast, Chicago. He still takes cello lessons at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music.

Past Exhibits and Events

Chicago Jazz & Blues: A Photographer's View - Juried Group Exhibition, Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, September 27 - December 8, 2019.

A Command Performance - Jazz photography, with paintings by Arthur Wright. PurePoint Financial, 852 N. State St., Chicago. September 2018 - August 2019. Learn more.

Chicago Jazz & Blues: A Photographer's View - Juried Group Exhibition, Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, September 22 - December 8, 2017. Awarded "Best Image at a Club."

Featured Artist - Black Music in Chicago and Vienna: Roots & Routes. Symposium presented by the U.S. Embassy Vienna, University of Vienna, Austria, and Fulbright Austria. AmerikaHaus Vienna, Austria. June 27, 2016.

Chicago Jazz: A Photographer's View - Juried Group Exhibition, Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, September 23 - October 25, 2015.

Chicago Distance (solo) - Pianoforte Chicago, November 6, 2015 - January 6, 2016.