Our producers Amanda and Ben are back from a snowy visit to New York, where they shared our photographers’ books at McCann Worldgroup and Avanti Press.
They met first with McCann’s art producers who work on several brands within the agency. Of interest: one of their producers working on the L’Oreal brand regards “elaborate” portfolios as the sign of an amateur photographer. She’d rather see simple books with a good edit, ie. the book isn’t prettier than the pictures inside. She receives a ton of fashion portfolios and likes when they’re small enough to view and transport easily (under 11×17, on average).
McCann’s Applebees’ producers said that they aren’t always looking for clean food shots, but ones that are true to the food itself. Of the books that we brought, Lincoln Barbour‘s (out of Portland) fit that description best to them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xUA5n9AkVo
Their other thoughts on portfolios: they’re not so keen on books that consist of loose prints because looking through them can be cumbersome. Some folks worried about dirtying the prints, as well (Neil note: though that could happen with other types of portfolios, especially ones without sleeves).
Next stop was Avanti Press, a greeting card company who also has creative departments in Detroit and North Carolina. In an industry flooded with stock photos, it might surprise some of you to know that they hire assignment photographers as well. Their creatives are always looking for unusual images, and they prefer to shoot whenever possible. They are also one of the few printers who credit their photographers or agency on the back of their cards.
Avanti was particularly interested in James Quantz Jr.‘s work, as he does a lot of animal composites. Especially this image from his elephant series:
New Zealander Ross Brown‘s monkey photo also stood out to them:
A few other tidbits about Avanti:
In 2008 they won an illustration award from Communication Arts.
They sometimes receive correspondences from concerned animal lovers worrying that the animals on their cards (who are almost always photoshopped) were actually smoking a cigar or playing a guitar.
We’ll have more portfolio reviews to talk about in a few weeks.
Susan Seubert recently had opportunity to be a “stranger” in her own city, shooting a feature story on Portland, OR for National Geographic Traveller. Here’s the opener:
I say “stranger” to be tongue-in-cheek, but it’s true that travel photographers like Susan often shoot outside their home cities (a little over a year ago she shot the cover story for NGT on San Francisco). And travel photographers need to document their subject matter in a way that appeals to someone who’s not familiar with the destination. Not to mention that Susan spends part of her year in Maui.
Susan on Portland:
It was great to be able to photograph Portland because it is such a rich city on so many levels. The people who live here do so with gusto, so there’s a lot of enthusiasm about the place. I also know it well (making it easier to negotiate a tight schedule) and although I discovered a lot about Portland during the assignment, it’s always different walking around when you have to do so with purpose (I’ve photographed Portland for many other magazines, such as the recently shuttered Gourmet and The New York Times). Cities are in a constant state of change, particularly Portland, so there’s always something new or classic that’s wonderful to photograph.
I learned a lot about the bike culture of Portland. I photographed no less than 5 different bicycling events, including the annual World Naked Bike Ride. I also rented a cargo bike one day and saw the city by bicycle and was amazed by how many bike routes and lanes there are, making it very simple to get around, even with 50 lbs of equipment!
She’s been shooting for National Geographic Traveller since 2004, and their editor-in-chief Keith Bellows just chose this image for “Traveler’s Best Photos of 2009.”
You should click on the image or link above to see the slideshow on their website, because Keith explains on the audtio track why each of the “Best” images stood out to him. He chose Susan’s shot of the Sydney, Australia swim club patrons for its whimsy and composition, making it an atypical travel shot.
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.
