Last week, Jess and Ben headed west to Chicago, where they packed four portfolio events and a few other stops into two very busy days. Their first destination was the quaint Chicago suburb of West Dundee, where they presented our photographers’ books at the boutique graphic design firm SamataMason.
SamataMason has recently expanded into a full-service creative shop, working on branding, case studies and identity assessments for their clients, who include Chiquita, Motorola and Prudential Insurance. Jess and Ben met with two of their principals (above).
As they were poring over the books, the conversation turned to how SamataMason chooses photographers, since they are deluged with dozens of mailers every day. Not surprisingly, the only mailers that they keep are the ones that they consider unique. As an example of a leave-behind that avoided the circular file, they specifically mentioned Terry Vine’s promotional piece.
Next stop was the McDonald’s headquarters, where Jess and Ben met with the Photography Supervisor, who hires photographers for the company’s corporate communications. She had specifically asked Wonderful Machine to bring along lifestyle work, and before she even looked at a book, they spent some time discussing how McDonald’s hires photographers and uses images.
The entire corporation has access to a networked library of images from their shoots. These images are labeled with the licensing terms, but since there are so many people pulling these images, they prefer to work with photographers who will license images forever; this way, they don’t have to worry about images being used after the licensing term has ended.
The Photography Supervisor then carefully reviewed the twenty books we had selected for her, and she gravitated towards the photographers with good story-telling ability. She tends to avoid giving too much direction, and instead encourages photographers to be spontaneous and have fun with the shoot. McDonald’s is trying to get away from perfectly posed images of models biting into a freshly-styled Big Mac, and is moving towards using “real people.” In fact, in shoots now taking place at McDonald’s restaurants across the country, they often ask diners on the spot if they wouldn’t mind having their picture taken.
Chicago photographer Eric Klein’s lifestyle book received rave reviews at McDonald’s:
That evening, our envoy stopped by Saverio Truglia’s studio on the way into the city to pick up his portfolio for the next days’ meetings. Saverio was in the middle of a casting call, so Jess and Ben just followed the line of thin twenty-somethings and ended up at Saverio’s door. Our team wasn’t able to stick around for the go-see, but we were told Ben had perfect hair for the job. (From left: Jess, Saverio and Saverio’s studio manager Annika).
Later Jess and Ben met with a few of our Chicago-based photographers at a the Plymouth Restaurant and Bar in the South Loop. With fans and mist keeping them cool on a 90 degree evening, the photographers traded stories about their experiences with clients and their opinions on the direction that the industry is taking. While Chicago has seen the effects of the recession and the changing landscape of the editorial market, there is still a lot of work out there and our photographers are keeping busy. (From left: Ben, Becky Hill, Scott Bell, Eric Klein, Peter Hoffman.)
On Wednesday morning, our intrepid travelers slogged their way through a torrential downpour and arrived at the shared offices of Arc Worldwide and Leo Burnett. After taking a minute to dry off, they set up for one of the biggest reviews we’ve ever coordinated with these two very large and very prestigious ad agencies. Jess and Ben met with nearly 40 different creatives from both companies over the course of the two-hour review.
Arc and Leo Burnett handle some of the most recognizable brands in the world, including Kellogg’s, Coke and McDonald’s. The creatives were very interested in a number of our photographers for projects they were currently working on. Like McDonald’s, several creatives talked about the fact that they were searching for less perfectly styled images and more “real, gritty” shots, in this case of food. They affectionately referred to this type of food photography as “food porn.”
Our Director of Photography Sean Stone recently helped Leo Gong create his new portfolio, which got quite a bit of attention at Arc Worldwide:
Matthew Gilson, one of our Chicago lifestyle photographers, caught the eyes of a number of creatives with his book:
Alternately, the creatives who were working on the Coke Zero campaign were looking for lifestyle and portraiture that looked very produced and featured high-key lighting. Despite the considerable number of creatives in the room, Jess and Ben still had plenty of time to chat one-on-one with a few of them about their needs when looking for great photography, and they discussed ways that Wonderful Machine could make the process easier and more productive. In the end, the creatives flipped through each book dozens of times, and they had all assembled their own individual piles of leave-behinds to take back to their desks.
After a quick lunch, Ben and Jess pushed their hand truck, stacked with books, about seven blocks eastwards to Element 79 Partners. Element 79 is an ad agency that focuses on creating a “deeper” brand experience and strives to create “raving fans” for their clients.
The review went very well. About 20 very friendly creatives took a tour of our photographers’ work. Many were specifically looking for lifestyle photography, and others were looking for photographers who showed people with food. One creative director in particular spent about ten minutes looking through the books and writing down names, and then another ten minutes on our website in search of photographers who shoot people with food.
Jess and Ben left Element 79, after making some strong connections, and wrapped up an intense two days with a trip to Gino’s East for some well-deserved Chicago deep-dish pizza before catching a late flight back to Philly.
APA/NY held a daylong workshop last week called “Fools Rush In” (it was on April 1st), which included portfolio reviews and a panel discussion on “The Bright Future” of photography.
Panel (from L) at Bathhouse Studios : Savannah Spirit, Karen D'Silva, Charlie Fish and Sean Stone. Photo by Bron Imaging.
In the morning, our photo editor/portfolio consultant Sean Stone reviewed portfolios alongside creatives from Martha Stewart Living, McCann Erickson, and Marge Casey, among many other industry consultants and players.
The portfolio reviews were setup like “speed-dating,” with each reviewer spending 15 minutes giving their input on a photographer’s book. This went on for three hours. Sean said it was exciting and exhausting at the same time, because he was held strictly to the 15 minute timeframe, and sometimes he had more that he wanted to say! He also told me that he talked so fast that he could barely catch his breath. However, it was a good way to strip his opinions down to the essential.
In a few instances, Sean felt that photographers were protective of their work and weren’t open to critique (and he’s always cordial in his approach). He recommends that any photographer attending a portfolio review should try to stay open to input. Of course, they should take each reviewer’s opinion with a grain of salt, too, and ultimately balance the feedback with what creative direction they’d like to go in. However, if 20 professionals tell you to remove an image, or drop a series because it’s not as strong or unique, you may want to weight that more heavily. Overall, he tried to convey that it’s always better to show consistency in one or two styles than try to be all things to all art buyers.
After the reviews, Sean spoke on the panel discussion on “The Bright Future” of photography, led by consultant Karen D’Silva. The talk was really about what photographers can do to help themselves in a bad economy (which generally applies to a good economy, too!), and the industry trends that may enhance their opportunities. To paraphrase D’Silva: 2008/2009 were tough years for many photographers, and now it’s time for them to get in control of their own bright future.
A few things that stood out to Sean from the panel discussion:
Creativity
If not enough paying jobs are coming in right now, it’s an opportunity to spend more time shooting portfolio work. Shoot the kind of work you’d like more of, and perfect your technique.
Karen D’Silva also suggested that leaner budgets sometimes push photographers to innovate. Ie. if someone was accustomed to shooting a certain way in the “flush” days of greater budgets, limited resources might inspire a photographer to change their approach and try new ideas.
Stock Photography
In 2005, Getty Images licensed 1.4 million stock images. Last year, that number jumped to 22 million. Photographers can decide if they’d like to be in that game, but the #’s are hard to deny.
New Media / iPad
2010 is the first year that more advertising money is being spent online than in traditional media.
The iPad is on everyone’s mind right now, and magazines and advertisers want to take advantage of this interest.
For magazines, it’s an opportunity to deliver content more cheaply. According to D’Silva, 90% of magazine expenses come from printing, shipping and paper costs — so there’s potential for budgets to be freed up, and the money could be used for more creative content (photography included). Especially as publications like The Wall St. Journal and The New York Times are already figuring out ways to charge readers for their iPad content.
Of course, a larger screen like the iPad’s lends itself to having a digital portfolio that photographers could carry to meetings, or at least to bring to networking events (without the weight/heft of an 11×14 portfolio) — although Sean doesn’t necessarily recommend that as a replacement for a print portfolio. Some of the audience members at the panel discussion worried that everyone’s books would start looking the same, but Sean Stone thought the potential for dynamic presentations was much greater with a digital book. Especially when you consider how relatively few options there are currently for printed portfolios, in comparison with digital presentations.
Additionally, video has become much more valuable to online media, and the panelists recommended that photographers keep an eye on technologies to meet this relatively new need for motion content.
Sean’s suggestions to the audience revolved mainly around the “basics”: photographers should keep their portfolios and websites well-edited, consistent, and targeted. Same with their websites and branding in general. He maintains that good images always trump the flashy container that holds them. And a solid presentation of your work should happen no matter what the economic climate.
Roger Snider approached us a few months back to create a new photography portfolio for his niche specialty: shooting big rig trucks. After some soul searching, our photo editor/portfolio consultant Sean Stone came up with with an interesting, custom approach to the portfolio, and one that involved skulls and flames:
I asked Sean Stone a few questions about his approach to the edit and the physical books themselves, which are fun to hold because of their glossy, metallic surfaces and custom-painted design.
What did Roger approach you to do, and why?
Roger approached me to create a portfolio specifically for a project called the Shell Rotella Superrigs Calendar. He wanted to have the book done in-time to be considered for this very big job. Its a calendar of custom trucks in different locations, and their drivers, which is exactly what Roger shoots. He wanted to create a book that would really set him apart from the competition for the calendar, but also something to help him expand his brand.
What was the extent of your input?
Roger put a lot of trust in my opinion to make the edit, and really gave me free reign to assemble the images in the way I thought would be most effective. He wanted to be sure we included the more polished work and didn’t include his more journalistic work, which was recently featured in National Geographic.
He sent me 200 images, which I honed down to 30 for our first approval round. Roger was happy with the edit, and sent a few new images which he thought would enhance what I had put together. Fortunately, a few of them fit in nicely, and we were done editing by round two.
Of course, this doesn’t include the internal rounds that I had before presenting to Roger, which include printing thumbnails on paper, allowing me to quickly re-arrange the spreads to perfect the edit. I’ll also run my edits by some of our marketing people, to get another perspective on the images’ relevance to art buyers. My goal is to make a book that shows a consistent style, unique imagery that brands the photographer, and also has marketability.
The hardest part was creating an edit that looked fresh, when dealing with a subject that is, on the surface, all the same stuff. Sort of like if I was making a book for a food photographer who only shoots sandwiches. But Roger has a huge variety of content, style and location. The longer I looked at his work, the more I appreciated the subtlety of his truck photography.
As far as the physical book goes, we both agreed that bigger would be better. We chose to use 11 x 17 landscape because the format allowed for almost no cropping, compared to a 16 x 20. I thought about a number of options for the book itself, something that would be economical but make a bigger impact than a standard book.
As I researched options for customizing the books, the idea of truck materials kept coming back to me. The sturdy aluminum of the Pina Zingaro was immediately attractive.
I also located a double sided luster paper for him, which was surprisingly hard to do. I then printed and assembled his books. The pages are hand punched by me, because Pina uses a weird size post in their Machina line of books.
I also thought that we should take advantage of Roger’s connections in the big rig business, and get his books tricked out like his subjects. Roger loved the idea and sent the books to be painted by his friend, Jeff Botelho, who builds custom trucks from his shop in Los Banos, California. Jeff made three custom painted books for us:
These were based on color schemes of trucks he had produced [including the truck in the image below, which is also in Roger's portfolio]. Do the green flames look familiar?
And what does Roger think of the finished product?
He’s been very happy with the books, so much so that he’s having me edit and create a new portfolio for his other line of photography (no trucks involved).
