Community Highlights: Meet Aaron Conway of aaconn or simply Aaron Conway

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Conway.

Hi Aaron, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My love for the arts began as a teenager. In high school, I focused on painting and drawing, often experimenting but always drawn to people. At the University of Cincinnati DAAP program, I followed this path for the first couple of years before shifting to three-dimensional art, video, and sound. I explored how different elements could be combined into a single piece. By the end of my time at DAAP, I had built cameras and delved into photography.

After graduating, I freelanced in video with a friend, working on commercial projects and shooting b-roll for local production houses. This led to a job at a commercial photo studio expanding into video, where I worked on set and as a photo retoucher. Here, I transitioned from video to shooting stills in my free time. I assisted other photographers, learning about lighting and commercial photography. After nearly four years, moving from retoucher to assistant to photographer, I felt ready to work for myself.

I have worked for myself for over 10 years and am grateful for the opportunities, time spent learning, and clients I have served. My studio, aaconn, began as a college nickname—AAron CONway—with a second “n” for symmetry. I specialize in portrait, brand, product, and corporate photography, partnering with agencies and brands, both national and local.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Like anything in life, work can be smooth or bumpy. In smooth times, projects and teams flow easily, work is steady, and time flies. Bumpy times bring either too little or too much work, making it hard to keep up. Creative professionals all face struggles: feeling work isn’t good enough, pushing for career growth, or losing bids for dream projects. Handling rejection and channeling it into motivation is tough, and I work on it constantly.

As you know, we’re big fans of aaconn or simply Aaron Conway . For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My studio is called aaconn or aaconn studio. As a commercial photographer with over 10 years of experience, I enjoy meeting people, hearing their stories, and making true-to-life photographs. I aim for a participant’s perspective—eye-level, capturing real emotions and the connection between subject and surroundings. This approach feels immediate and intimate, even imperfect, making it real. I call these conversational portraits.

My work covers Portraits, Lifestyle, and Product photography. Even when shooting products, I connect my images to the human side and see them as glimpses of life.

What sets me apart is my ability to connect. Photographing and being photographed are deeply personal. Listening to subjects and telling their stories in images isn’t learned—it’s felt. In commercial work, I draw on life experience to create images that feel real, even in staged settings. I enjoy this creative challenge.

A project I am proud of, and that differs from my usual work, is photographing dancers for the Cincinnati Ballet. I’ve worked with the ballet team for nearly my entire career. We shoot campaign portraits and lifestyle images, but most work is dance photography. I have no dance background, but it’s a challenging collaboration among dancers, choreographers, marketing, and me. We strive for the perfect image, which may be a split-second leap where every detail must align—dancer’s form and my lighting, composition, and timing. It’s a team effort: when it works, it’s amazing; when it doesn’t, we try again. It’s distinct from my other work, but working with talented dancers and the Cincinnati Ballet team is deeply rewarding.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
I think the best advice and something that becomes almost a practice in life and in the creative industry is to. Focus on your journey and create how you feel. We live in a world where it is so easy to compare every aspect of life with others’. It’s human nature, and this is why I call it a practice. It’s something you need to keep working on. You should make the work you want to make and not what you think others want you to make. Another is don’t stop hustling. I feel the most inspired when I am continuously creating and moving. You need to be aware of the risk of burning out and take time to breathe and reset, but never stop creating for yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aaconn.studio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaconn.studio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaconn.studio
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-conway