Ress works in both commercial and documentary photography. 

Recent clients include Toyota, Liberty Mutual, Pirelli F1, MIT Technology Review and The New York Times. His work has been recognized in Photo District News; American Photography; Communication Arts; The International Photography Awards; The One Show; D&AD Awards; and The Cannes Advertising Festival. 

Ress first became interested in photography under the influence of the extensive archive of FSA photographs in Lousiville’s Speed Museum. His project America Recovered - A Survey of the ARRA looks to reconsider that legacy in the context of the recent economic collapse and subsequent stimulus legislation. It was accepted to Photo Santa Fe; awarded distinction by The Forward Thinking Museum; 

and recently published in both Time Magazine’s Lightbox and Harper's Magazine. 

In addition to his regular commercial assignments, Ress recently completed a fellowship with the Center for Social Cohesion and Arizona State University and in conjunction with the New America Foundation. The resulting archive of images documents where Americans go to find a sense of community and connection to place. A series on the California aqueduct was recently published in UCLA"s BOOM Magazine and included in "After the Aqueduct," an exhibition at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. America Recovered was featured at the 2015 Reyner Banham Symposium with a theme "The Aesthetics of Citizenship" at The University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. In 2019, America Recovered was published by Actar, with a foreward by Bonie Honig and essays by Miriam Paeslack and Jordan H. Carver.

Publications + Exhibitions

Ress, Chad. “America Recovered”, Actar Publishers, Barcelona & New York, Essays by Bonnie Honig, Jordan H. Carver and Miriam Paeslack, 200 pp., 50 ills., hardcover, ISBN: English 978-19-45150-93-7, Summer 2019

After the Aqueduct, Group Show, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), 2015

Ketcham, Christopher. “The Great Republican Land Heist,” Harper's Magazine, February 2015

Cockburn, Andrew. “Weed Whackers - Monsanto, glyphosate, and the war on invasive species,” Harper's Magazine, September 2015

Richtel, Matt. “California Farmers Dig Deeper for Water, Sipping their Neighbors Dry,” The New York Times, The Parched West Series, June 5, 2015

Christenson, Jon. “All Along the Aqueduct,” BOOM - A Journal of California, 2013

Looking at the Land: 21st Century American Views, Group Show, RISD Museum of Art, 2013

Volner Ian, Ress, Chad. “Portfolio: The Invisible Stimulus,” Harper's Magazine, November 2012

Ress, Chad. “Familiar Yet Unfamiliar America,” Zócalo Public Square, November 14, 2012

Ress, Chad. “Assembly Required,” Zócalo Public Square, July 11, 2012

Ress, Chad. “Weirdest of Wonderlands,” Zócalo Public Square, March 25, 2012

Zala, Krista. “A Light in the Desert,” MIT Technology Review, October 2011

Begley, Sharon. “How Prepared Are We for Nuclear Disaster?” Newsweek, March 20, 2011

Hinderaker, Andrew. “Chad Ress – America Recovered,” Time Magazine Lightbox, June 2011

Horne, Rebecca. “Show Me the (Stimulus) Money,” Wall Street Journal Ideas Market, April 2011

Dalton, T.K. “Professional Photographers Discuss Their Craft,” The F-Stop, June 2008

Davos, Alison. “Q&A: Chad Ress, Los Angeles,” Feature Shoot, February 2009

Smithson, Aline. “Profile: Chad Ress” Lenscratch, September 2009 

Grants + Awards

New York State Coucil for the Arts (nysca), 2018

Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University, funding support, 2018

University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, research support, 2017

Katz Fellow, CSC, New America Foundation, 2013

Santa Fe Review Center, 2011

Forward Thinking Museum Selected, 2011

PDN 30 Nominated, 2013

AI-AP American Photography 26, 2010

Luerzer’s Archive 200 Best Photographers, 2013, 2009

AI-AP American Photography 24, 2011

International Photography Awards, 2010

Communication Arts Advertising Annual, 2006

AFM Minnesota Best Photography Gold, 2006

Luerzer’s Archive’s Best Campaigns, 2006

PDN 30 Nominated, 2006

D&AD Awards Public Service Campaign Gold, 2006

Communication Arts Photography Annual, 2003-2004

Visiting Artist / Guest Lectures

Peter Reyner Banham Fellowship Symposium "The Aesthetics of Citizenship,” Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, Jordan Carver, Organizer + Fellow, 2015

University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA., Guest of Professor Richard Ross, 2015

​University of California Los Angeles, CA., Guest of Professor Nicole Belle, 2013

University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA., Guest of Professor Richard Ross, 2009

Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA., 2008

Chouinard Foundation, Los Angeles, CA., 2007

Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA., 2007