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FAMILY TIES For four-generation family business Ebert Studio, the focus is on families By Kerrie Kennedy Photography by Jim Prisching
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f a picture is worth a thousand words, then Ebert Studio in Oak Park has written an impressive tome. Back in 1915, Henry Ebert opened Ebert Studio on Chicago’s West Side, near Madison Street and Pulaski Road. Surviving two world wars and the Great Depression, the studio moved to a storefront in Oak Park in the 1950s, and in 1980, grandson Bob Ebert moved the studio to its current location, a historical home on Marion Street in Oak Park, built by W.G. Barfield in 1897. Jeff Ebert, premier portrait photographer The home features an indoor studio that offers a wealth of natural light, thanks to its bank of northern-facing windows, and a landscaped garden that serves as an course, when they’re seniors in high school,” Ebert outdoor studio. says. “The garden was the main reason my dad bought Years later, he just might see those same seniors it,” says Jeff Ebert, who currently runs the family back in the studio for engagement photos, and photo business. “He was tired of lugging equipment down the road, anniversary photos. around to parks.” In many ways, the studio is in the business of The garden explains why summer is a busy time capturing life itself, reminding people who they for the studio. Before school starts up again, area are and where they belong. Nowhere is that more families gather together to capture a moment in poignant than at Hephzibah Children’s Association time that literally tells the story of their family. in Oak Park, whose walls are lined with framed 8” x From birth to graduation, Ebert Studio has followed 10” pictures of every child that has walked through children and families for years, as they celebrate the its doors—all of them photographed gratis by Ebert milestones of life. Studio. “There really are so many times in a child’s “We’ve been working with Hephzibah for close life that are pivotal—when they turn one, when to 30 years now, ever since my Dad befriended the they turn three and have a little more personality, director, and asked what he could do to help,” Ebert when they turn seven, around the age of First says. Communion, around eighth grade, and then, of
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HINSDALEMAGAZINE | Hinsdale60521.com
STUDIO Most of the rooms at Ebert Studio are used as gallery space, thanks to its bank of northern-facing windows.
