Ben Illili

Golden Gate Park 150th Anniversary Exhibit

I’ve been shooting photography for almost 20 years. It all started because of my procrastinating ways in high school. I was put into a black and white photography class because I waited too long to register for a class that I really wanted.  At first, I truly didn’t care for the class, it wasn’t until I got into the darkroom when things began to change. It was a magical feeling seeing my first photo come to life in the developer. 

After high school, my family got me my first camera and I have never been without one since. I took every photography class available in college. I found that I really enjoyed photojournalism and shot the college team sports and events for the newspaper.  

After college I went to distribution and was lucky enough to meet an owner of a regional combat sports website. I covered boxing, MMA, kickboxing, as well as doing portraits and some light video editing.  

When ever possible, I shoot combat sports, portraits, and events for various websites as well as our own Harvey Milk Photo Center and Park and Rec. I also like to dabble in Street documentary as well as and anything that looks interesting to the eye.