Zach Adams joins Illinois Times, Springfield Business Journal

Zach Adams will join the staff of Illinois Times and Springfield Business Journal as a digital media coordinator, effective July 14.

Adams is the owner of 1221 Photography and has done freelance work for IT and SBJ for the past several years. He said he has been interested in photography since high school, but began to take it seriously in 2017 when he started booking sessions with family and friends, shooting maternity photos, senior portraits and family portrait sessions.

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In March 2020, Adams was laid off from his full-time job due to the statewide pandemic shutdowns. He began to devote more time to photography, documenting life during quarantine and photographing community events. Since then, he has become well-known for documenting community happenings such as the Black Lives Matter and Sonya Massey protests, Levitt AMP Springfield Music Series, Downtown Springfield, Inc. events and much more.  His work has also been exhibited at the Illinois State Museum. In 2024, Adams was voted best photographer in the Illinois Times Best of Springfield readers' poll.

In his new role, Adams will be handling photography, videography and digital content for IT, SBJ and related publications.

"I'm excited to see where this can take me," said Adams. "I'm really looking forward to all the aspects of visual storytelling."

Michelle Ownbey, publisher for IT and SBJ, said that Adams will be filling a new and much-needed position.

"We publish new content on our website and social media on a daily basis," said Ownbey. "Having great quality photos and videos to go along with our reporting helps us expand our audience beyond the traditional print publications. We also want to increase the frequency and audience for our digital newsletters and our social media reach."

Ownbey noted that as a locally owned business, it's an asset to have employees who are also involved in the community.

"You can hardly go to an event in this town without running into Zach. We're excited to have him come on board so that he can help us better document and report on all the things that are happening in our community," she said.