Archive for September, 2009

Silent island

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

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Last week supremely talented shooter and stand-up guy Tim Archibald wrote a deceptively succinct post about a condition that just about all freelancers know well, something that T.A. calls “The Silence.” I’ve certainly endured those (and just like a recession you don’t realize you are in/out of “the silence” until months later) and his post got me thinking about a series of conversations I’ve been having recently with newly freelanced friends and colleagues about being an island.

By island what I mean is that all too often freelancers feel disconnected and without a reference point nearby (especially those who have a newspaper/journalism background and are used to the the noise and community of a staff).  The island happens most acutely for me during editing when I just can’t seem to figure out whether a picture is any good (or not), or even worse whether its really great or really shitty, which is actually a much larger problem in terms of moving forward and pushing your self/work.  Whenever this happens I think about my work and JLP headquarters as an island, and occasionally it’s pretty quiet as well.

Lately I’ve added a newer sub-condition to the same island metaphor, spurred on by living in NYC (an actual island) where I’m way more inundated with new art and culture, gallery openings, studio parties, and other photographers always talking about the work and all of its problems.  Surrounded by all of it (and especially right now in such a strange time for photography both in theory and economics) I feel my sense of my own work and methods lose a grip at times.

Last night when having beers with buddy Greg Ruffing (who is in town for meetings and a bit of fellowship) all of us (Jackanory, Harkin, and I) agreed about this greener-grass idea of photographers like Brian Ulrich and Alec Soth whose headquarters in the midwest (though of course Chicago barely counts) allows them to keep some sort of even keel or focus.  That might be total shite, but for the point of this blog post it dovetails nicely.

Above is a picture of a red dot and a ladder which I’ve been staring at for most of the day trying to decide why I took it.  I still don’t have an answer but also don’t want one.  I saw it, I shot it, it’s there, and I like it.  Here’s to big red dots that don’t mean anything.

Posted in Creativity, Freelancing | No Comments »

Long live the portfolio

Friday, September 25th, 2009

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After plotting the demise of the printed portfolio most of the summer in favor of a digital version I put the finishing wraps on my new beautiful 11×14 self-printed book earlier this month.  You didn’t read that incorrectly, I did a 180.  After a lot of tinkering and informal research I came to the conclusion that most of my clients weren’t going to get, or even especially like, my digital idea, that the presentation itself just wasn’t dynamic enough yet, and most of all trying to sell editors, ADs, and art buyers on my photography is job enough without adding a potentially vexing technology into the discussion.

So I created a print book, complete with new engraved covers, and it was just as tough and great of a process as I’ve recounted on this blog a couple of times.  But instead of turning my back on the digital version or putting it on the back burner to fight another day, I decided to make it a co-star in the form of custom USB flash drives that I’m giving away as my “leave behinds” to all of the fantastic people who have made time to see me.  I’m thinking about it as softening the ground for an eventual full-on move into digital, but at the very least it’s pretty cool to play with what is possible, and thus far the flash drives have been well-received.

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Previously promising myself and my rep that I wasn’t going to present another portfolio with those awful poly plastic pages, I had little other choice than to go back to Epson (the 2880) and work with a fantastic, thick double-sided paper (Museo II 365).  The new Epson worked exceptionally well though the process is of course a massive pain (in the end I chose to punch holes, and score/fold each pages myself… not fun).  But I’m really proud and excited for the book and of course because I did the entire thing “in-house” I can update it at will.

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The USB drives will be a constant process of tinkering and perfecting flash drives for each of my clients (one of the cool things about using digital).  Right now the drive contains multiple digital versions of the book (Quicktime formatted, self-playing movie, iPhone-ready version of movie, and a PDF version of the portfolio) as well as extras such as a digital Tearsheet book (another self-playing movie), links to websites, rep, blog, twitter/facebook and more.  Eventually the USB will include more behind the scenes and fun stuff that shows how and why I shoot.

One of the major reasons that I decided to stay away from the print book was of course cost, and absolutely this new book wasn’t cheap (though I saved a whole lot doing it myself, despite buying the new Epson).  But I just wasn’t ready to rely on a Blurb for my main portfolio presentation (though after the awards event for Photography Book Now I can definitely say that I’m impressed).  To me, as I’ve talked about before, photography is a luxury service and must be treated as such from a marketing standpoint.  Especially in a tough economic climate I need to stand apart and hopefully this book and selection of my work will do that.

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Round 2 of the process is coming up fast as I re-configure the first editorial/portrait book seen above into more of a commercial/advertising presentation in time for my rep Leah to head into NYC.  I’m already dreading the scoring and folding, but art is supposed to be hard, no?  Any new or old clients reading this who are interested in seeing the new portfolio themselves… please give me or Leah a call or e-mail and let’s schedule a meeting!

Posted in Creativity, Freelancing, Promotion | 10 Comments »

Searchers II

Friday, September 18th, 2009

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Last week I made a quick trip down to suburban Philadelphia to meet up with Tim Miller of Texas Equusearch and his search for missing 29-year old nurse and mother Toni Sharpless who disappeared on Aug. 23, 2009.  When I first met Tim on a People Magazine shoot a couple of years ago I was so struck by his incredible drive and determination that I’ve stayed in touch over the last couple of years in hopes of creating a long-term document on civilian search-and-rescue teams and Tim’s personal story.  The day spent in Philly with Tim easily pointed out how important the project is and also how lackluster my attempts to truly dig into the guts of shooting it.

My plan was pretty simple: keep shooting when I had the free time and Tim and his team were relatively close to wherever I was, and hopefully get one of my clients interested (several were, but wanted to see where it was going) enough to give me the freedom to make it a priority and devote money and time to make it real.  But looking at my pictures over the last few searches its easy to see that it’s just not enough.  It’s akin to waiting for the phone to ring instead of getting out there yourself.  A personal project is just that, personal.  If you aren’t personally willing to devote the resources you can hardly expect anyone else to (unless you are one of the thinning few documentary photographers in the world who have that sort of carte blanche).  So it’s obviously time for a new plan.

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This search was Tim’s 1,093rd which is almost unbelievable for a non-profit, civilian team to have executed in the last 10 years (Tim explained that the number is misleading because he only did about a half dozen searches each of the first two years).  Both Tim and the detectives believed that Toni Sharpless’ car would be found in a river (the first image above is of the boat ramp where the search was focused) about a 1/2 mile from where she was last seen (today the media reports that police now do not believe the car is in the river after all).

Long-term projects are really hard even under the best of circumstances.  Really good ones come from photographers who stick it out and spend the time to be there for the important moments which give a story its arc, going back again and again and again.  There are also skill factors, planning and other stuff, but mostly it’s a matter of time and timing.  Knowing this as I do I’m excited to keep at it and continue to push myself to do more and better.  The story to me isn’t really just a story anymore, it’s become personally important to try to expose and promote Tim’s mission and passion.  I mean this as an attempt of advocacy, not simply illustration.  And so I’m going to continue to be in close contact with Tim and the team and head down to Texas for a chunk of time as soon as possible to give my project the energy it deserves.  I’ll report back to share where the road takes the project.

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Posted in New Work, Projects | 1 Comment »

The Big Tuna

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

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Maybe 2009 will be remembered as the year of Big challenges?  So it was last month on assignment for Forbes to photograph legendary NFL coach and current Miami Dolphins VP of Operations Bill Parcells at the team’s training facility.  Now I’ve had a few challenging shoots with the Dolphins… the recent Jake Long shoot for ESPN was done in a 10 minute break between torrential downpours and thunderstorms.  All good fun and par for the course, really.  But this time the ante was upped.

My access (really not even the right word to use) to “The Big Tuna,” as Coach Parcells is known, was right smack with the other members of the local media outlets during the first 20 minutes of the team’s morning practice.  OK, fine, but I was asked to make a “portrait” for the cover story.  I don’t usually think of the word portrait when I’m holding a 400mm lens and am stuck a couple of hundred feet away from the subject (on the wrong side of the harsh morning light), in sweltering south Florida humidity, but sure.  If this was a newspaper and it was a daily coverage story on Parcells, then cool that makes sense.  But this is a cover story in an important national business magazine.

The image above was my favorite and I was super pleased that Forbes used it because it summed up exactly what the situation was like (as well as another small one in the table of contents).  I hope that the Dolphins and Parcells really don’t like this one so that next time they give me or some other photographer the 20 seconds (yes, seconds) that I begged to be allowed for a full lit portrait anywhere they wanted me to set-up.  In fairness the Dolphins media relations crew did warn us, and Bill even generously asked/shouted to me “did you get everything you need?!” only minutes into my shooting.  You’re welcome, Forbes that I did not flip him off or shout back any Serena-esque choice phrases.

Ah yes, the glamorous life of a freelance magazine photographer…

Posted in Freelancing, New Work, Portraits | 1 Comment »