Viewfinder: Leaving behind ‘Guys in Ties’
Daniel Acker willfully gave up a coveted staff photographer position in New York City to relocate to rural Illinois. Life is anything but simple in his town of 800, he says. But he doesn’t regret the decision to train his camera on Main Street instead of Wall Street.




Daniel Acker is a contract photojournalist for Bloomberg and a freelance editorial and corporate photographer based in the rural community of Tiskilwa, Illinois, two hours outside of Chicago.
Acker lives on Main Street with his wife and two daughters in a 135-year-old house with a to-do list he'll never quite complete.
After spending his youth in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, and graduating from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2000, Acker spent a decade as a staff photographer for Bloomberg in New York City. He relocated to Illinois in 2010 to pursue a more relaxed lifestyle in the country.
He serves as a trustee on the village board of his community of 800, and while life is as busy as ever, he savors the quiet moments on rural backroads as often as he's able.
Acker's Instagram feed (@daniel_acker) contains images made outside of his editorial work, which can be viewed at www.danielacker.com.
