About Me

Joni Kat Anderson
Joni Kat AndersonPhotographer / Modern Day Cartographer
I am a native Californian who has made my home in Chicago. I find joy in viewing and capturing the beauty of the life that surrounds me, whether it’s the spontaneity of a moment or the curve of an object.

Photography has allowed my artistic eye and my love of interacting with people and places to meld into the perfect career. As a certified Google Trusted Photographer, I am able to photograph interesting businesses and help their owners introduce their locations to the world through Google virtual tours.

Some of my highlights

My Work Process

Whether I’m out shooting for myself, or making photographs for a client, I do my best work when I’m completely absorbed by my subjects. I’m driven by that feeling I get when I click the shutter at precisely the right moment to capture what I’m seeing.
When photographing for clients, I feel it’s important for me to have a full understanding of the essence of their business, product or performance. This allows me to get in their mind space while photographing so that the end result is an alchemy of my vision with their vibe.

Growing up surrounded by a family of artists, I learned early on to view the world through an artistic lens. My father, a noted special effects make up artist for film and television, taught me via example to pursue my own creative self. He introduced me to sculpture which developed my keen sense of shape, shadows and contours.

During college, I began pursuing a career in front of the camera as an actress. After college, I moved to Chicago to hone my acting skills – this may seem like a backwards move, but Chicago is an actor’s town and I was able to land top agents, join the Screen Actors Guild and act on stage and screen. Through this process, I learned how to use the light while in front of the camera.

Eventually, I realized that a career in acting did not allow me enough control over my own destiny. So I returned to my sculpting roots earned from my father and launched an award winning jewelry line, JKAT Jewelry. For 10 years I used my innate understanding of shapes and contours to create sculptural sterling silver jewelry that sold in stores like Marshall Field’s, Fred Segal, and Bloomingdale’s.
While running JKAT, I discovered that I really enjoyed shooting the product photos of my jewelry. I’d dabbled in film photography over the years and fell in love with the mystique of capturing shapes, shadows and mood in a lens. Over time, this passion grew until I felt it was time to shift into a new career…photographer.

Originally a technophobe, I used to break the computer every time I sat down to it. However, over time I have developed a love for all things technical. Using DSLR cameras and my work with Google has expanded my appreciation.

I am an avid music lover. The process of making it, the feelings it evokes, and the healing it can provide are some of the reasons that one of my passions is photographing live performances.

I have worked on a few films, creating special make up effects alongside my extraordinarily talented father and brother. Some films I’ve worked on are: “Angels & Demons”, “Dead Presidents”, and “Backdraft”.