Baran-Unland: Remembering longtime Joliet photographer Bob Campbell

I was sad to see read in The Herald-News on Friday morning that longtime Joliet photographer Bob Campbell had lost his “courageous and valiant battle” with esophageal cancer Tuesday, according to his obituary.

He was 69 years old.

I’d met Campbell early in my writing career, almost 25 years ago, simply because he was so well-known for a wide variety of portrait and wedding work, as well as commercial and fine art photography.

In those early years, I wrote a regular “Artworks” feature for The Herald-News, which shone a spotlight on local artists of all genres. Campbell not only connected me with other photographers, but he’d even pop up at various fundraising events I covered (often donating special photography packages).

“Anytime you can contribute to a good cause, that’s a good thing,” Campbell said in 2022.

“Anytime you can contribute to a good cause, that’s a good thing.”

—  Bob Campbell, longtime Joliet photographer

He’d also call from time to time to chat about his latest photography technique or share a piece of Joliet art history with me.

One of Campbell’s most vivid photographic memories was taking pictures at Joliet Jam on Sunday, May 19, 1974, held at the stadium now known as ATI Field at Joliet Memorial Stadium.

Joliet Jam was a music festival that featured the Beach Boys, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Henry Gross, New Colony Six and late Chicago disc jockey Larry Lujack as master of ceremonies, Campbell said in 2019.

The event, which was advertised “on the radio and in posters,” was expected to attract 8,000 attendees, Campbell said in 2019. Instead, about 23,000 came out, he said.

“I was just getting into photography,” said Campbell, a Joliet Junior College student at the time of the concert. “I had gotten a telephoto lens in addition to some other lenses. I was allowed backstage, so I got to talk to them.”

Campbell said in 2011 that he enrolled in formal photography classes after opening the back of his camera and mistakenly exposing his Beach Boys images.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in cinema and photography from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1976.

Before opening a home studio – Robert Campbell Fine Portraiture – Campbell shot yearbook pictures on location for a Chicago-based company, sold cameras for Crest Hill Photo and even temporarily opened a studio in Joliet.

He became known for capturing his clients’ personalities and environments in his portrait work, which he once said were difficult to execute since the photographer must mimic the precision of studio directional lighting on every location, he said in 2011.

“You need a specific time of day and, on top of that, you’re dealing with temperature, wind and the elements,” Campbell said in 2011.

Despite entering the digital age, Campbell loved film and still was using a black-and-white enlarger from college in 2011. Still, he successfully transitioned to photography’s digital age due to his long-term professional relationships with clients and continually assessing and refining his skills.

“I don’t sit back on my heels,” Campbell said in 2011.

For his 25th anniversary in business, Campbell donated half of his family-sitting fees to Easterseals Joliet Region and half of his pet-sitting fees to the Will County Humane Society in Shorewood.

Then, for his 50th anniversary in 2015, Campbell displayed a large sampling of his work at Joliet Junior College’s Laura A. Sprague Art Gallery.

Campbell exhibited his work at least twice in his career at Ascension Saint Joseph-Joliet – in 2014 and then again in 2022. During last year’s exhibit, Campbell featured images of babies and children in honor of the hospital’s 140th anniversary.

In 2021, Campbell stretched his creativity and fulfilled a longtime dream by recording his first CD: “Mr. Nostalgia.” Lockport artist Sandra Rust designed the cover, which features Campbell’s father in the driver’s seat of a car in his “St. Joe’s baseball uniform from 50 years ago,” Campbell said in 2021.

“It’s an entertaining album,” Campbell said in 2021. “It’s got pop, rock. One song has a Latin beat. The last song is disco-style.”

He’d recorded two songs in 2004, another six in 2009 and the last two at Sounds on Sage in Channahon in 2021.

“This album had been on my bucket list, and then I started not feeling well,” Campbell said in 2021. “So I thought, ‘I’d better get it done.’ ”

Campbell’s visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday and from 9:30 a.m. Tuesday until memorial services at 10 a.m. at the Carlson-Holmquist-Sayles Funeral Home & Crematory, 2320 Black Road in Joliet.

Memorials to the family are appreciated.

Denise M. Baran-Unland is the features editor at The Herald-News. Contact her at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.