A Story in Focus: Brunswick's Gabe Wasylko Captures Cleveland's Beauty in Photos
By Leanna Pistone, BEAT reporter
BRUNSWICK, OH- A brilliant blue sky frames the Terminal Tower. Cherry blossoms fill the foreground. It's a single frame, but it tells you everything about how Gabe Wasylko sees Cleveland.
Wasylko, a Brunswick Schools class of 2015 alum, is the Senior Social Media Manager at Destination Cleveland and the founder of Wasylko Studios, a commercial photography business specializing in portraits, product work and licensing.
His path into photography began during the pandemic. With extra time and a city largely to himself, Wasylko set a simple personal challenge: photograph Cleveland and Northeast Ohio every single day and post the results to Twitter. The project took on a life of its own. What started as a daily discipline became a full creative career, and his following grew from around 600 to more than 125,000 across social media platforms.
That passion culminated in his first book, Capturing Cleveland: A Cleveland Photo Book, released November 19, 2025. Publishing had long been a personal goal, but the book was also a mission. "I've spent years arguing through images that this city is more beautiful, more layered, and more worth your attention than most people give it credit for," Wasylko said.
Ask him for a favorite photo and he'll tell you he doesn't have one, though not because the answer is complicated. For Wasylko, the real value of photography isn't in any single image. It's in the connections. The people he's met along the way matter more than the pictures themselves, an ethos that shapes everything from his daily work to his partnership with Pixel Connection, where he leads free community photo walks around the city.
To see more of Wasylko's work, visit him on Instagram at @gabewasylko or at gabewasylko.com.
Leanna Pistone, Brunswick Middle School, is one of over fifty student “backpack journalists” (grades 6-12) in the award-winning BEAT Video Program. The program, celebrating its 25th year, is sponsored by Donut Land, Plum Creek Assisted Living Community, MODA Gifts, Scripps Howard Foundation and the Brunswick Rotary Club. Go to https://www.bcsoh.org/community/new-beat-site to learn more about the Program, or visit https://thebeat.viebit.com/?folder=ALL to view videos produced by the students.
PHOTOS by Gabe Wasylko. Some of the images Gabe has captured throughout Northeast Ohio.