His photography is edgy, often of models wearing things—outfits or makeup—that are kind of crazy, something you normally would not see, he admits.

Valdez has an interesting vision, a truly creative mind and perspective, which he now translates into brilliant digital photos of fellow Chicagoans. With no regard or obstacle too big to overcome since he is deaf.

"When I decided to become a photographer, I started saving my money to buy all of the equipment that I needed. I started small, and it's grown from there," said Valdez, 24, who lives in Buena Park. "Being deaf does not affect my photography. ( The subject and I ) both know what we want the end result to be, so there's not a lot of communication that needs to take place. You can tell me what to do [ during a shoot ] just by gesturing, and I can do the same."

Heck, Valdez has even photographed a hearing wedding in the past, "and it was fine," he said.

But that's not his field of choice.

"A lot of my pictures are serious pictures, not a lot of smiling involved," he said. "I know that hearing people often get their inspiration from music, but I don't. I get it from visual things, even small details. Someone once told me that I was missing out because I couldn't hear music. But I always say, 'How can I be missing out on something I never had?' And because of that, I have a different perspective on things, and that helps me be original in my photography."

Valdez, who is gay, was the youngest of five siblings raised in Willow Springs. He has two brothers, two sisters and his parents have been happily married for 35 years.

Valdez is the only one in his family who is deaf.

He graduated from Hinsdale South High School, then Illinois State University in 2007. He now works at Chicago-based Deaf Communication by Innovation ( DCI ) , where his specialty is photography, video production, graphic design and marketing.

"Back in college, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do within the arts. I knew that I loved painting and I loved photography," Valdez said. "A classmate in college gave a presentation on [ late photographer ] Richard Avedon, and his In The American West work was that at ah-ha experience. I really liked it. His work really inspired me, and I then immediately knew that I wanted to follow his path. Sure, I knew it was going to be a slow process, but that's not going to stop me. If I want something, I make sure I get it."

So, in addition to working full-time at DCI, he now plans weekly photo shoots. Sometimes to help others expand their portfolio, sometimes to expand his. He also shoots family portraits at times, among other photography projects.

"I think Vinny is one of the most talented people I've ever seen. With his photography and his painting. He just has a vision, very stylistic, very detailed, and very creative. He really has a passion for it," said DCI co-worker Lainie Williams.

For more information on Valdez's work, visit www.vinnyvaldez.com .

More about Vinny Valdez:

—Painting: "It's just for fun, very time-consuming. People are always asking me to paint for them, or to put my stuff in an art gallery. I should, sometime." He had one photo and one painting on display this summer at the Center On Halsted

—Schooling: Valdez was not planning to go to college, but earned a scholarship. He was a dean's list student in high school.

—Valdez developed photos for the first time as a high school sophomore in a black-and-white photography class.

—Hobbies: They include Trac-ball, tennis, being outdoors—and catching turtles and snakes. "As a kid, I always looked for turtles and snakes, and then brought them home. My house used to be like a zoo. The bathtub was full of turtles. At one time, I had 35 turtles." He now has turtles, snakes and a cat.

—Deafness: He lost his hearing at about 16 months old. Doctors still don't know how or why.

—Family: "When my mom found out that I was deaf, she told the family that she was going to raise me just like my brothers and sisters; there would be no difference in the way I was raised, and I never was treated differently. That really helped me. I relied on my brothers, my sisters and my mom while growing up. They exposed me to a lot of different things." No one in his family is trained in official American Sign Language; they communicate via a family-taught signing language.

—Working at DCI: "I love working here. Before I started working here, I wasn't really involved with the deaf community because I was in a hearing college, and I actually lost my connections in the deaf community. Working here, I've re-established a lot of those connections, met a lot of people and am part of [ major deaf ] events.

—Vinny on Vinny: "I look at myself as a regular person before being [ tagged ] a deaf person. I just do things without thinking about the fact that I am deaf. I don't think about things. That's the best way to go, I think."

—On the gay deaf community: "The gay deaf community is small; I'm more a part of the gay community. There are deaf people in every gay [ sub-culture ] , such as twinks, bears, etc. Deaf people are all spread out within the gay community."