Behind the Lens

My name is Max Surikov. I’m the owner of Maxim Photo Studio. I’m happily married with two great sons. In my “prior life” I played competitive table tennis, won in an amateur bodybuilding contest, and passed the CPA exam. I grew up in Russia and moved to the US in 1981. I went to college and received a degree in accounting. However, after a decade of corporate consulting, I decided to make a career change to pursue photography full time and received a degree in Photography from New York Institute of Photography.

In 2005 I started Maxim Photo Studio. The goal of Maxim Photo Studio has always been to provide exceptional wedding photography as well as amazing customer experience while maintaining a great work/life balance for my family. Since I lead every wedding photography, I limit the number of wedding commissions to about 35-40 each year. Over the past 14 years, Maxim Photo Studio has become one of the most trusted and award-winning wedding photography studios serving Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and destination locations. During this time, the Studio has captured over 500 weddings and 600 engagements. The Studio specializes in only Weddings, Portraits and Professional Headshots. We have been voted as The Knot Best of Cincinnati Wedding Photographers for 8 consecutive years and were inducted into the Knot Best of Weddings Hall of Fame in 2015.

Maxim Photo Studio doesn’t utilize a cookie cutter approach for our weddings where we try to fit our couples into a specific mold. We think “outside the box” to present a unique lighting approach coupled with composition and location elements to make each image unique. We work with our couples to define the particular style and types of images you favor.

We use a 2 person approach for all of our wedding photography. This includes 2 lead photographers and not just understudies. This allows us to be in multiple locations on the wedding day and provide a better coverage.

We provide one of the quickest turnarounds in wedding photography industry with your wedding day images being available to you within 14 days after the wedding.

1. My Studio specializes in providing amazing photography coverage. We don’t pretend to specialize in every single aspect of photography such as landscapes, cars, newborns, airplanes or architecture. Although in all honesty, I could probably shoot all of these well. To really be good at something, you have to dedicate yourself to it and that is why we specialize in only Weddings, Portraits and Professional Headshots.
2. We are experts in photographing in all lighting conditions. We can turn a day into night and a night into day depending on the photography setting.
3. Photography is what I do. I don’t have a 9-5 in some office and then shoot at night and weekends. I am 24-7-365 photography driven and can shoot anytime and anywhere.
4. Although I have a great studio team, as a studio owner, I photograph every assignment personally which is important because my style, lighting, vision, and post-processing are unlike any other studios. I want my images to be different than anything you’ve seen out there. Although I produce quick results, we never sacrifice quality for speed; taking care to use only the best photographic equipment available.
5. My Studio is conveniently based in Cincinnati’s Reading Bridal District and Dayton Bridal District and serves the surrounding areas of Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky as well as destinations nationwide.