For the third straight year, the Golden Globes presented its award for Best Television Series – Drama to the show portraying advertising industry culture in the ’60′s. The show has also become a perennial favorite for modern day ad folk and photographers.
Benjamin Reed‘s image above has become a favorite as well for PDN, as they use the photo to promote their upcoming Faces portrait contest. Benjamin was with the Los Angeles Times when he photographed several of the show’s stars, though he’s now based in Portland, OR.
Being fans of Mad Men, we asked Benjamin what it was like shooting on a period-era set.
Benjamin:
I was given this assignment and I had no idea what Mad Men was. I heard the show won something in the Golden Globes but that was it. You can’t tell people that these days, everyone knows about the show now because it keeps racking up awards every year. The angle of the story was focused on the women in the series.
The set was pretty amazing. That sounds like a cliche’, but you wander around the office setting, or the house and kitchen scenes and it’s impeccably detailed. You see cigarette butts in the ash trays with real ash (at least it looked that way) and kitchen condiments my great grandmother had in her farm house. I remember seeing old LIFE magazines as well, with normal wear and tear that would expect to see in that period. I mean it when I say everything was close to the real deal. You could imagine yourself in that era and literally feel what was like. I imagine you can really appreciate the attention to detail as an actor or actress and feed off of that in your work. January Jones was shot in the kitchen scene, while Christina was shot in Don Draper’s office and Elisabeth Moss in the bedroom.
What I like most about this type of work is shattering my expectations about the subject. You always have an idea of how your subject is going to be and that’s usually based on the persona they create in their work…and 9 times out 10 it’s wrong. The interesting thing about this particular shoot is that I didn’t know who the characters were so I had no preconceived notion of what to expect. You could talk to them just like normal people and they were very warm and genuinely interested in helping you get the best shot. When they moved into character after makeup and wardrobe they became different people entirely, and that was just with body language. I watched the show for the first time later that week and became hooked.
Our Los Angeles photography team Larsen & Talbert rounds out our cast photo lineup with their portrait for Reader’s Digest. The only difference is that this shot is of the actor Jon Hamm, who plays the show’s lead, Don Draper. It’s interesting to see him off-set and not all slicked-up.
And of course we’ve already blogged about our man in Austin, Michael Thad Carter‘s Mad Men-inspired work, which also made its way into our recent Communication Arts ad:
Personally, my wife and I only started watching the show in 2009 on Netflix, so I’m still waiting to see season 3 on DVD. Please don’t tell me what happens yet, because I’m hooked, too.
Fresh from a several-day visit to Boston in December, we have a sampling of videos of several photographer’s portfolios that caught the attention of Beantown creatives. The following are just a few of the 40 or so books that we shared overall with Arnold Worldwide, Mullen, Modernista!, and Fidelity Investments.
About the trip: at Mullen we projected our website on a large screen, with a few prints adorning the walls, in addition to our photographer’s portfolios and our ever-appreciated spread of food. In addition to our other photographers’ work, Mullen’s people asked specifically about local shooters, so we were pleased to point out the Boston-based photographers’ portfolios that we’d brought with us.
The folks at Mullen appreciated that Michael Thad Carter‘s work has a polished, hyper-realistic finish but doesn’t look over-produced. Many kept his “Mad Men” inspired leave- behinds to bring up as inspiration for their Monday morning dissection of the previous night’s episode.
(L): Mullen's creatives browse our books. (R): A Fidelity designer brought their cute dog, who also liked our spread of food.
Modernista!’s (yes, the exclamation point is part of their name) art buyer appreciated our content-heavy blog, as it helps her figure out who some of the up and comers are in the industry.
Arnold probably had the coolest offices, if there was a competition, and they remarked on Tony Garcia, Ken Richardson and Shea Roggio‘s work, amongst others.
Fidelity’s primary art buyer has been in the industry for almost twenty years, with long stints at both Mullen and Arnold, so it was interesting to hear her take on moving from the fast-paced and highly creative world to a more stable but equally demanding one. They’re often hiring regional photographers, and they already knew of a number of our WM shooters. They were also happy to learn a few new names.
(L): Arnold's offices were cool. (R): Hanging out with our Boston photographers.
While in the city, we took some time to enjoy a couple eateries. Sportello, a small, modern diner for authentic Italian cuisine was our favorite (grilled octopus complete with the foam proved their authenticity). The Black Rose near Quincy Market was also a great stop. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to hit Boston’s Little Italy, but all of Fidelity’s creatives highly recommended a visit.
Jacqueline Bovaird from Glasshouse Assignment raises this question in her latest email newsletter and also her website. She posed this to Jason Lau at Team One USA, Manuel Oprea at Adweek, her excellent photographers Ryan Schude and Evan Kafka, and also asked me to weigh-in on the matter because Wonderful Machine has photographers in so many different locations. And it turns out to be a more complex issue than I thought.
Jacqueline’s emailer and blog excerpts my response, but she said that she’s interested in posting more of my reply at some point because she liked the depth of the discussion. In the meanwhile, here is my original, full response to her question:
Q: How does a photographer’s location affect their career?
I think a photographer can make almost any location work for their career. There are benefits to living in New York, New York or Austin, Texas, professionally and personally. I’ll let you decide what personally fits your lifestyle, and I’ll focus on the professional.
As for my background: I’ve enjoyed living in larger and smaller cities, having worked in creative fields in New York, Los Angeles, Portland, and now Philadelphia. And working for Wonderful Machine, I’ve seen that art buyers appreciate that we have photographers listed by location, in addition to specialty. Clients contact us to say how refreshing it is to find a solid photographer in smaller markets, because they’re often less familiar with talent in these cities.
We also feature international photographers, so what I talk about below applies to them in many ways. So when I mention “New York,” you can usually substitute it with “London.” The basic tenets of marketing, networking and professionalism should apply, no matter your location. Of course, each country has its challenges, so I’m focusing on the United States for ease of illustration.
And before I go further, I’m going under the assumption that we’re mostly discussing larger and smaller cities, and not with living on a farm in North Dakota, 10 hours from electricity. I would save that for retirement or when you’re so famous that clients will fly you by helicopter to anywhere you desire to do a shoot.
The exception to this are photographers whose location is more integral to their specialty. For example, there are action/adventure photographers like Tyler Stableford, who works out of Aspen partially because of the scenic backdrops required for his specialty.
I’m also assuming that a photographer has done their homework and researched the kind of clients that inhabit their city, or one they’re considering moving to. Agency Access and Adbase are a good start. Also, I know that the Philadelphia Business Journal has a “Book of Lists” which catalogues the top 50 or 100 companies in every industry imaginable in my city. If your town doesn’t offer such a resource, you can find this information for most cities on the internet these days.
In terms of location, I would say that a photographer has a better chance of getting work if they live in or within an hour or two of any city. Additionally, if you are willing to work as a local to the city, and not charge extravagant mileage to your clients, then you will have greater flexibility in how close you need to live to the city’s center.
And honestly, there are people living in Long Island, NY who are a further commute to a Manhattan shoot than some photographers driving there from Philadelphia. And I know some established photographers who will shoot an editorial assignment six hours away for the right project and compensation. You’d be surprised at how close Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC are.
Keep in mind, however, that some assignments can come last-minute. It’s for this reason that we recommend to our photographers that they list only the city that they’re headquartered out of. Every client knows that, for the right project, they can fly a photographer from Kalamazoo to Paris. But they also hire regional photographers who knows the culture of their city and can navigate it well in a tight spot. And who who won’t unexpectedly add a plane flight and car rental as list items on their invoice.
As for where the clients are, there’s no doubt that the bulk of the magazine and publishing world is headquartered in New York, for example. Same with the major ad agencies that have a strong presence, if not headquarters, here. And it’s (almost inarguably) the epicenter of our industry, both in terms of prestigious work and influence. But here’s the thing: New York clients need photographers to shoot all over the world!
On the “smaller” city side of things: most cities have some Fortune 500 corporation headquartered there, not to mention ad agencies, graphic design firms, universities, hospitals, and (at least) a city magazine or two.
In the case of the city/regional magazines, they often provide excellent portfolio opportunities for photographers, which can lead to recognition from the New York players. Texas Monthly is an influential regional mag that comes to mind. Plus, most New York magazines need to shoot a CEO or celebrity from Atlanta at some point.
As I also mentioned, there are plenty of award-winning agencies and boutique design shops in most markets (eg. Wieden + Kennedy’s headquarters are in Portland). And the corporations and institutions can provide steady annual report and other collateral work, too.
Also, working out of a smaller market can make you a big fish in a small pond and perhaps more visible to agencies in larger cities. Another consideration for you may be: if you’re financially and creatively happy living in a smaller city, do you really need to move to a larger city?
By the way, this is not meant to beat up on New York. On the contrary, some of the world’s most accomplished and influential photographers live there and other major cities. And emerging photographers might do well to assist them to learn from “the best.” Plus, it’s easier to run into one of BBDO’s creative directors at your friend’s party in SOHO than in it is in Sheboygan, WI (nothing against the place).
At the end of the day, I recommend trying to live where you wish and seek work with appropriate clients in your own backyard, nationally, and internationally, too. So go show them your portfolio!
