The World Through a Lens-Brad LaPayne Photography

Brad began taking pictures with a Kodak instamatic camera when he was eight years old.  As a sophomore, he bought his first 35mm camera, and completed several classes in photography. He also worked for the Daily Illini photo department. After receiving his degree, Brad became a photographer for a large church directory company doing hundreds of portraits weekly.

 A year later, he made an unusual career move - becoming a firefighter for the city of Champaign Fire Department.  He used nearly all of his off duty time to do photography and attend art shows at which he sold the photographs.  Much of his early work was shooting skylines in Chicago and New York City.  Being a sports fan, he approached several professional teams and was allowed to shoot the stadiums.  Building upon early successes in the sports world with the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs, sports became an area of concentration. 

Mr. LaPayne has done panoramic photographs for many historic sports events such as:  World Series, NBA Finals, Final Fours, Super Bowls, 1996 Olympic Games, Opening Days and Nights.    Images have been published by Time magazine and several sports books.  Several of his images of “Ground Zero” in New York were published by the NY Times and one was published as a 2 page spread in a NY Times book (A Nation Challenged) and they have been placed in several 9/11 museums.

In 1995, he received the largest photo assignment of his life.  He was hired by South African Airways to photograph some of their travel destinations in the panoramic format.  He traveled for 32 days to locations in the USA, Germany, UK, Switzerland and South Africa.  More recently, he has photographed the 2009 and 2012 Super Bowl for NBC Sports and did a crew photo for them.  

To view the entire interview with Brad LaPayne CLICK HERE