Resource Magazine Spring 10 by Resource Magazine

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TABLE OF CONTENT SPRING 2010 4

Table of Content: It’s like Resource Magazine’s Cliffnotes.

Masthead: Attendence check! Alex, check. Aurelie, check. Adam, check. Alec, not present.

Letter from the Editors: Inspiration.

Letters to the Editors: Motivation.

Etiquette: Internship. Interns have feelings too.

Resource Guide to: Prop Rental Houses. Rows and rows of....everything.

Industry Tale: The Facebook Debacle. When having friends is a liability.

Tricks of the Trade: Senior Retoucher. Now you see it, now you don’t!

SECTION - PHOTO

History: The Ramones. Skinny jeans, shaggy cuts, and leather jackets. How cool are they?

Gallery: A Year in Pictures. From blog to gallery walls.

Photo Deco-Page: Swim. Or sink.

Technique: Greg Neumaier on Shooting Bubbles. From glass blowing to bubble blowing.

Interview: Frank Rocco, ASPM’s New York President. He will fight for your (copy)rights.

Mini Feature: Paint it Red. The photo to video movement is painting the town red. Get the Alka Seltzer ready.

SECTION - CREW

How to: Pack for a three-day trip. It’s like a cake recipe: if you’re gone for six days, just double the amounts.

Event: One Case Auction. For the love of photography (and your fellow photo productionists).

Interview: Sophy Holland. A rep with pep.

Locations: Boxing rings. Take some shots while you let your aggression out.

Mini Feature: The Milk Family. Once upon a time, there was a studio...

SECTION- STUDIO/EQ

Interview: Gotham Imaging. Printers + Batman = Gotham Imaging.

Development: Studio C. Detroit-bound!

Tech, EQ & Flow: Accurate Color. Color me pretty.

Mini Feature: The Transformation of ARC. From survival to success story.

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SECTION- AGENCY

Ads Rock: HSBC. Holy Shit Banking is Cool!

Interview: Russ Hardin, Creative Director. Where the wild ideas are.

Mini Feature: The Conglomerate. We are all one big agency.

FEATURE ARTICLES

Six Days in Haiti. Relive the six day photo journal of the Haiti tragedy.

Photo Essay: Stop Assisting Gallery. The rise of new photography.

106

“Masters.” A country cannot live without arts.

SECTION- REVIEWS

120

Where to Take your Clients Out: Double Crown and Madame Geneva. British Colonial food makes for surprising bedfellows.

122

Movie Review: 9. It’s the end of the world, but sandbags survived.

124

Book Reviews: Match Prints and Ward 81. Photographers review each other’s book.

128

Directory: People we’ve used and re-used and used again.

136

End Page.

Cover and End Images by Rod Morata: www.rodmorata.com

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Spring 2010 Issue

Resource Magazine is a quarterly publication from REMAG Inc. 139 Norfolk Street #A - NY, NY 10002 info@resourcemagonline.com

EDITORS IN CHIEF Alexandra Niki, Aurelie Jezequel CREATIVE DIRECTORS Alexandra Niki, Aurelie Jezequel

Subscriptions: $30 in the US, US$50 in Canada, and US$60 globally. For subscription inquiries, please email info@ resourcemagonline.com

ART DIRECTOR Sharon Gamss COPY EDITORS Sara Ciaverelli, Maggie Flood, Kate Hope, Michael T. Wilcox DESIGN Paula Blum, Arlette Espaillat, Sharon Gamss, Nazmul Howlader, Katie Iberle, Dylan Kahler, Katherine Lo, Addie Marino, Maria Camila Pava, Dwayne Shaw CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Roberta Bayley, Kiritin Beyer, Simon Biswas, Robert Chojnacki, Cybelle Codish, George Del Barrio, Bill Diodato, Emily Anne Epstein, Tony Gale, Ian Gittler, Mark Gong, Gabriela Herman, Stephen Hurst, Justin Hyte, Sylvia Krivickova, Craig LaCourt, Elizabeth Leitzell, Steve Lopez, Constanza Mirré, Rod Morata, Greg Neumaier, Adam Sherwin, Edward Smith, Carlo Van de Roer, Elias Wessel

Special thanks to: Eduardo Citrinblum, Mark Chin, Adam Davids, Katie Dineen, David Hemphill, Mazdack Rassi We welcome letters and comments. Please send any correspondence to info@resourcemagonline.com The entire contents of this magazine are ©2010, REMAG Inc. and may not be reproduced, downloaded, republished, or transferred in any form or by any means, without written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved. For more info, please visit our website, www.resourcemagonline.com FIND US IN BARNES & NOBLES AND BORDERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY!

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sophia Betz, Simon Biswas, Matthew Bogosian, Marc Cadiente, Cybelle Codish, Kate Dickens, Bill Diodato, Emily Anne Epstein, Charlie Fish, Maggie Flood, Alec Kerr, Audrey Kobayashi, Elizabeth Leitzell, Lou Lesko, Justin Muschong, Jonathan Napolitano, Jodie Steen, Jenny Sherman, Jeff Siti, Kenny Ulloa, Lewis Van Arnam, Carlo Van de Roer, Timothy White, Sachi Yoshii CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Arlette Espaillat, Nazmul Howlader, Claudia Madera, Annie Rudden, Michael Salvador WEB DIRECTOR Nathan Lee Bush PRODUCER Jeffrey Gray INTERNS Annie Chen, Asaberry R.R. Coleman, Samantha Jean-Baptiste, Daniel Perez-Gomez, John Silva PUBLISHER REMAG Inc. DISTRIBUTION info@resourcemagonline.com ADVERTISING Alexandra Niki alex@resourcemagonline.com Aurelie Jezequel aurelie@resourcemagonline.com Dylan Kahler recently left Brooklyn for Seattle and is soaking up the Pacific Northwest. He is a designer and illustrator and brews beer on weekends. www.dylankahler.com

Jodie Steen is president of 127 Productions, a company dedicated to creating consistent color for the creative market. We evaluate your color needs, provide and set up hardware and software and train you to use the solution. 127 also delivers proofing media 7 days a week. www.127productions.com

Kiritin Beyer went to Haiti immediately following the earthquake to volunteer. She's now organizing a “Rebuild Haiti” campaign, starting with the Degand’s school in Carrefour that was reduced to rubble, leaving the children without a place to study. For more info, please go to: degandschoolproject.wordpress.com

Stephen Hurst: “Dream, but Don't Sleep.” www.hurstarts.com Sara Ciaverelli has been working with Resource since it all began. She’s continuously moved around the world. Truly a gypsy at heart, she can’t seem to sit still long enough to work out of our office in Brooklyn. She has settled down (for now) in sunny and snowy Telluride, Colorado.

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Some people say there are three things you will always want in life: love, time, and a great apartment (which is to say, money). Not having one of them will get you down. We understand— it’s hard not to get down. But where there is desire, comes inspiration. Life is a fight to do and be better. Let’s break it down. Love is often, and rightly, the “be all, end all” in most people’s lives. It’s the most powerful of all desires, and the most powerful of inspirations. Use this energy in both good and bad times. Time, which is rarely on our side, can be an obstacle for even the strongest, most talented folks. However, a floating moment can inspire your entire life Money is just about as relevant as it is irrelevant to everything. Nobody really wants money (as in paper and coins), but everyone needs the many possibilities it offers. Whether driven by necessities or fantasies, money draws inspiration. This leads us to the secret fourth source of inspiration. Rock and roll, the one thing too many people are scared of today (but shouldn’t be). We don’t mean rock and roll as in something to listen to. We mean rock and roll as in a way to crack the shell of our precautions, presumptions, self-consciousness and fears. It’s the one thing that can set us free. Take a leap every once in a while and you may find some rare inspiration under all the hurdles of life.

Alex and Aurélie

Illustrations: Annie Chen

Without inspiration, you might not find your way home. But home yet or not, use your blues as fuel, and burn, baby, burn.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS:

Motivation You guys at Resource Magazine really piss me off. I live in France and have been in NY for the past three months; I’ve been reading Resource and scrounging for back copies at my friend’s houses. I hate you for releasing only one issue every three months. I hate you for not having a five hundred pages magazine. Seriously, you guys need to come to France. I’m sick of reading the same old bullshit photo magazines there that bore me to death. Pour tout dire, lire un magazine de photo français c’est comme avoir des pommes de pin dans le cul. OK, OK, you guys don’t really piss me off, I actually love the magazine. But let me tell you, il n’y a rien de semblable à Resource en France. En vérité, ce sont les magazines français qui me font péter un cable. Ils on des photos de MERDE, des articles CHIANTS, et c’est même pas un bon papier toilette... Bring Resource to Paris and you’ll make me happier than if I had sex avec Mélanie Laurent en haut de la Tour Effeil un soir d’été. Théodore Sananes

Tell us what you think! Email us at info@resourcemagonline.com.

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TOUR SCHEDULE New York City- March 25, 2010 Los Angeles- April 8th, 2010 Chicago- April 22nd, 2010 San Francisco- April 29th, 2010 Atlanta- June 2010 D.C.- July 2010 Toronto- September 2010 Miami- October 2010 New York City- October 2010 Hasselblad and Resource Magazine are hitting the road together in an unprecedented partnership to bring todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top photographic companies to photo communities across the US. Show your face. This is where it all comes together. Network, meet the big guys and make your mark. Three Stage represents what the industry has to offer in each city. Root for your city! Also, visit www.hassynyc.com and join the Hassy community. You can sign up, join, challenge and shoot. Winners will be announced at each event.

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ETIQUETTE:

Internship By Kenny Ulloa I Illustration by Claudia Madera

tarbucks run! Does anyone want anything?” says the intern girl, preparing for her simple midday task. “Why is she so, like, happy?” asks the production assistant in that vinegary fashion tone we’ve all come to know too well. You can’t swing a roll of gaffer’s tape two feet in our creative circles without hitting some overly ambitious project. They often require bodies. Happy, well-dressed bodies to counter the resurgence of work. If only there was a way to gather a zealous group of quiet and intimidated young minds... Enter the arsenal of sweaty undergraduates. Battalions of peppy boys and girls ready to impress. A secret weapon reserved for long and dark studio days. A soldier of labor who will, at a moments notice, attack a task no matter how menial or demeaning. A fussy nineteen-year-old in Converse sneakers. The interning experience can lead to a spectrum of emotions. A myriad of crucial events that, without the proper reminders, could transform a Play-Doh art school brain into a dried-out piece of hard gunk that no one wants to play with.

NEVER Photo bubble: Don’t call your intern, “the intern.” Don’t be part of the “Fashion is a cruel world” fantasy perpetuated by reality television. Try, just try, to remember their names. If you’re the type who can’t possibly be bothered with the proletariat, then use memory associations, affectionate nicknames or whatever—anything to avoid making yourself look horrible to the outside world. Respect the (un)hired help! Intern: Don’t be upset if you don’t get an internship at that giant commercial studio/agency/digital/production place. Sometimes the smaller companies—although not as glamorous—may offer a more intimate and fulfilling work experience. And beginning at a start-up can often lead to a more loyal employer. Photo bubble: Be gentle—at least for the first month. Interns are fledglings without guidance. This is an exchange of time for knowledge. Not a time for you to practice any inappropriate power-hungry maneuvers. Don’t hire an intern to do something that they were not signing up for. There’s always plenty of extraneous work to do—but getting an intern to build shelves in your studio is kind of against the rules. Intern: Don’t stay at a place where you feel like you aren’t learning. If you’ve been at John Doe Studios for six months and you don’t know the difference between a c-stand and a clothing rack, it’s time to move on.

Claudia Madera: claudiamadera.blogspot.com

“

ALWAYS Intern: Remember the delicate hierarchy that exists in the commercial world. Be courteous no matter how rough things get. Interning can be a fruitful experience, and it’s the foundation for reputation-building. Be weary of how your attitude and work will reflect on your future career decisions. Keep a distance from the action. Just carefully observe and follow directions without too much resistance. Photo bubble: Everyone loves presents. Keep in mind that little things like party invites and the occasional time on set can make all the difference. Running a sweat shop manned by art students is not good for your kharma. Intern: Remember that interning in the photo industry isn’t exactly typical mail room office duties. There’s a lot of grunt work and fussy personalities to encounter. Do your research and don’t walk away from a place because you think you deserve better. You are fresh meat and you don’t deserve anything. Companies always prefer to hire from within, so there’s a very good chance you will get a job—or at the very least an awesome recommendation—if you shut your mouth and work hard.

134 116

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photographed by Vincent Dixon

reality is what you make it

PROPS. SETS. WARDROBE for the rich and famous.

I need a couch.

Annie Rudden: www.whoscreative.com/anniecat

INDUSTRY TALE:

The Facebook Debacle By Audrey Kobayashi I Illustration by Arlette Espaillat

“ ’ve never saved anyone’s life through photography,” the sports photographer says. “I would love to tell you that I have, but I haven’t. No one has ever lived or died based on my pictures. It doesn’t work that way.”

“This is my business card,” he points to a 3 inch plastic tube with red polyurethane end caps. In it is a 4 gigabyte flash drive, also red, with his name and details engraved on the plastic casing. If you were to plug it into your laptop it would display links directing you to his website, his email address, a slideshow of his work, and several behind-the-scenes videos of him working in exotic locales with athletes both hardened and lithe, laughing as the camera lights flash. All of this set to youthful tracks of bands like Peter, Bjorn and John.

The flash drive looks safe and pristine in its waterproof packaging, as if you could walk to Far Rockaway, toss it out into the waves, and three months later it would wash up on a South African beach where anyone passing could pick it up, plug in their computer and watch exactly what you’re watching right now. Maybe this has already happened. You look up. He’s smiling at you again. You find yourself smiling back. “I had to think about your question,” he says. “About what was my worst shoot ever? You know, I had one in 2004 that really stunk. I just couldn’t get the subject to do what I needed. The pictures ran in the magazine, but they weren’t terribly interesting. However when I really think about it that wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the Facebook debacle.” “This is in March of 2009. A year ago,” he says. “We’re in a studio on the West Coast. Inside. Big

name athlete. Not public in any way. It’s an advertising shoot for a major brand here in the US.” “When you photograph professional athletes there’s always a certain sensitivity involved as they are celebrities in their own right. You get a whole lot of people around them who are ‘yes men,’ coddling them. You don’t want to rock the boat with the talent in any way whatsoever. Then there’s the agency. With athletes or celebrities endorsing a product the agency never wants to reveal whom it is until they spring the ads. It can be very hush-hush.” “Everything goes smoothly. We wrap the shoot and gather ‘round for a group photo. There are the digital tech, two assistants, the studio manager, hair and makeup, the stylist, the client, the account director and creative director, the talent, and of course me. It’s all high-fives, hugs and kisses. Client’s happy.

Arlette Espaillat: www.artlette.blogspot.com

He smiles when he says this, with his hands palm up, outspread. His live-in studio is indeterminately modern and comfortable. There are desks covered with scanners, Macs, magazines, wires; small bookcases and shelves laden with photo books. Music drifts in from the other room.

Talent’s happy. Everyone’s happy. We see them off to the airport and it’s back to work.” “I stay on an extra day to meet with another agency and pitch some ideas to them. It’s 10:30am and I’m showing my slideshows and videos to a room full of advertising types. Then my phone rings.”

in breach of contract.’ Breach is an ugly word. When it’s uttered it’s like a needle scratching a record.” “I tell her to slow down a little bit and let’s talk this out before we start throwing legal terms around. Let’s talk about what can be fixed and what can be controlled now. I’ll accept the blame because I hired these people.”

He makes a sour face. “Normally I wouldn’t take a call during an agency meeting. It’s unprofessional to excuse yourself in the middle of a conversation. But this was a call from the creative director of the previous day’s shoot so I apologize, step into the hallway and close the door behind me.” “Without any foreplay he launches into me. He tells me that the makeup artist posted images on Facebook that have the shoot’s concept visible in the background. It’s a picture of her and the stylist and there, behind them, is exactly what we were shooting. Clear as day. We both know how bad this is. We don’t have to discuss it.” “So I call the hair and makeup girl and ask her to pull down any images that she has posted on Facebook. I call the creative director back and let him know that the photos will be down in a few minutes. He seems satisfied and we get off the phone. I go back to the meeting and apologize for the interruption. No one seems too put out.” “Not four minutes later my phone rings again. This time it’s not just the creative director, but the managing director as well. I step out into the hallway again. There are some angry faces behind me in that room, and some angry voices on the line with me as well.” “They tell me that my digital tech just posted the shoot’s group photo on Facebook. Now this wouldn’t normally be an issue, but because the concept has just been put out into a public forum all it takes is a little detective work to put two and two together and reveal the whole campaign—the talent, the product, the endorsement and the concept. All from these two seemingly harmless low-res photos. The conversation goes south sickeningly fast.” “The managing director’s voice is dead serious. She says, verbatim, ‘We fear the concept that we have sold to our client is now in jeopardy and potentially devalued. We feel that you are

“She’s outraged. She says, ‘I’ve never had this happen before.’ I tell her that I haven’t either. This is all new territory, but something we’re all starting to deal with—how rapidly information gets out there into the world now with Twitter and Facebook. So how can we handle this?” The sports photographer’s face is still open and expressive, but his eyes have stopped moving. He places the blade of his right hand on the coffee table in front of you two, three times, marking out a timeline: once for each sentence.

“Breach is an ugly word. When it’s uttered it’s like a needle scratching a record.” “What I need to do to make the agency comfortable is this. I need to draw up a notarized letter stating that I accept any blame. If there is any backlash from the client then I will eat the expenses. That’s how rapidly you can lose $20,000, not to speak of the fee or anything else.” “The agency also wants all of the behind-thescenes photos handed over to them so that they can monitor the Internet for them popping up anywhere else. The truth is they’re not being unreasonable. They’re just covering their collective ass.” “In the end the client never got wind of the fact that anything happened,” he continues. “They never withheld payment. But I can tell you that I haven’t worked for that agency again. Before that I was doing about four jobs a year with them.” “My relationship with the digital tech is still good. Posting the group photo was harmless, really. I haven’t worked with the hair and

makeup girl since then, but then again, I haven’t shot in that particular location since. She wasn’t being malicious. But the truth is, I’d probably hire someone else next time.” “The fallout of that experience is this: now all my call sheets state that any photos taken on set cannot be posted on Facebook, Twitter or any social networking site. Any status updates cannot include the name of the client or the talent we’re shooting. You can talk about the fact that we’re doing a job in Shanghai or wherever, but names and details should not be revealed until after the ad has run.” “This is a new world. This is a new era. Hey, I use Facebook. Part of how I market my work is letting people know what I do. I show a lot of behind-the-scenes videos of my productions. I just shot the US snowboard team and decided to go out there and do it solo, old school. Twenty-seven snowboarders in three cities. I took cameras with me and mounted them around the room. I gave them to the other snowboarders, to their moms, and let them shoot what they wanted. Best cinematographers ever. I have a video editor who works for me part time and she puts them all together for me.” He holds up the flash drive again. “I will continue to distribute my business card this way. It’s truly viral. People carry them around in their pockets. They pull them out on other photographer’s sets and conversations get started. Your name comes up. Suddenly you’ve infiltrated someone else’s shoot.” “I use the same techniques that my clients use to promote my product, my photography. And I can say it’s working pretty well, so long as I keep all the corollaries under wraps.” He laughs. “Our industry is about change. It’s about the new. You have to adapt or die. Or find another job.” The photographer puts the flash drive back in its plastic tube and closes the red end cap. He places it in your hand. “Otherwise you just become another cautionary tale.”

TRICKS OF THE TRADE:

Senior Retoucher By Jonathan Napolitano I Photo by Stephen Hurst

Over a drink Stephan Sagmiller, founder of Cyan Jack, a digital retouching team in New York City, discussed the art of his craft with an exceptional understanding for all concepts involved within the trade. Stephan’s work began after he secured a degree in 3D Modeling and Animation at Seattle University. He eventually made his way to New York City to work as a retoucher and established Cyan Jack nearly two years ago. Stephan has already had the opportunity of working with clients such as Tommy Hilfiger, SONY Records, DKNY, and Apple. With a strapping grasp of the business, Stephan looks forward to continuing to expand his experience.

To retouch or not to retouch? Photographers always try to put their best foot forward and we’ve become accustomed to a certain level of precision within a photograph. There’s a certain standard that you have to achieve, and that standard is achieved through retouching. It’s almost jarring now to see an un-retouched image in a magazine. Shoot it. Understand it. I work on fine art projects continuously. I think that’s a lot of what photographers are drawn to when working with me. We can talk about images on a variety of different levels—not just technically but also about how the image will function emotionally, and maybe even on a cultural level. I have in-depth conversations with photographers about their projects and I think they appreciate that. What are we looking at here? There are a couple different types of retouching. There are mechanical-type fixes: when we need to move certain things around and do some basic color corrections. The skin might be too blue; it needs to look like skin. Certain objects need to be removed. Those are things that don’t require an artistic sensibility. They’re either on or off. Then there are emotional and aesthetic fixes, and that’s when I will give photographers multiple versions or different types of stylistic treatments. I may mimic certain types of film if the job calls for it. Typically, color treatments are mostly applied when giving a variety of different options. Color is a primary emotion driver. Tech-know and concepts. There are two aspects to my work. The first is technology and the other is aesthetics. I’m constantly keeping myself up to speed with new technologies. I’ve been using things like HDR (High Dynamic Range Photography) for a long time—even before most photographers. I’m a beta tester for Photoshop so I always know about the next version of the software before

other people do. I’m frequently reading up on many blogs. On the aesthetic side, I’m constantly going to museums and contemporary art shows to see what new ideas are out there. I also give myself a lot of personal projects that never see the light of day. I’m just always experimenting different techniques, trying out new looks, and I’m constantly refining my eye. Instant connection. When it comes to a photographer and a retoucher, they’re like a team. The sooner the retoucher can work with a photographer, the better. It saves a lot of time and money—and it always makes the images look better. Retouchers only have a certain amount of time to work on a project. If they spend all of it just fixing mistakes in lighting, styling or background, that’s time they could have spent enhancing the overall effect of the image. If I’m playing doctor, I’m only going to be able to make it look normal, but I’m not going to make it look exceptional. As a photographer I understand how you want to deliver the best image you possibly can, and by involving a retoucher early on, you could avoid some of those untimely mistakes, move things along more smoothly, and end up with a well-finished product.

Stephan Sagmiller: www.cyanjack.com

Stephen Hurst: www.HurstArts.com

HISTORY:

The Ramones By Charlie Fish | Photo by Roberta Bayley, February 1976, East Village

On the Ramones’ first cover art: The Ramones or Sire Records, or both, had hired a “professional photographer” to shoot the album cover. The band and everyone hated the pictures and they needed a new one immediately. I had just shot a session with the Ramones for Punk and it hadn’t come out, hadn’t even been laid out yet, so we rushed the contact sheets up to Sire and [manager] Danny Fields. This was the image they selected. I had to get permission from John [Holmstrom, co-founder of Punk] because I’d shot the picture for him. But, of course, he was a huge Ramones fan so he was thrilled to let them use it. The back of the record credits Punk, I believe. I was just talking to John recently and he reminded me how big of a panic this was.

On the camera and being a new photographer: It was a Pentax Spotmatic; I bought it on 34th street at a used camera place, Camera Barn. I was shooting in daytime, so while I usually used Tri-x film, I was using Plus-x because it had a fine grain. This was shot in February of 1976. I’d been a photographer for about three months. This was the 28th roll of film through my camera, and this image was the 12th frame. On working in the scene and meeting Punk’s creators: I’d been working at CBGB’s off-and-on since ‘74; I worked at the door. The Ramones lived nearby; Joey and Dee Dee were staying at [longtime friend] Arturo Vega’s loft around the corner, so they were regulars and they’d come to see all the bands. When I worked at CBGB’s the guys from Punk used to come down. I bought a copy of the first issue with Lou Reed on the cover; it was 50 cents. His interview was like a comic, interspersed with real photos of Lou, and the text was transcribed in word balloons. I wanted to work for them because it was the best magazine I’d ever seen. I became the main photographer for Punk. The photo session with the Ramones was an assignment for issue #3, I believe. I shot four or five rolls of film for this session.

Roberta Bayley: robertabayley.com

Roberta Bayley, meanwhile, had been steeping in the music scene for some time. Not only did she co-write a Patti Smith biography, but she was also Punk magazine’s resident photographer. An avid music follower and one of the original CBGB door chicks, Bayley has photographed many of the musical acts of the 70s and early 80s, including Lou Reed, Blondie, Iggy Pop and Talking Heads. We caught up with Roberta to find out how she feels about the iconic image, what Dee Dee was really like and how New York punks differed from British punks.

Charlie Fish: charliefish.info

mere two months after this photograph was taken, it became the cover art for the Ramones’ debut album, Ramones. During their career, the band’s commercial successes were limited. But included in this album were ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,’ two songs that helped establish the Ramones’ legacy as the first punk rock group, as well as one of the most influential rock bands ever (this, despite the fact that neither song ever topped the charts). With a sound and image all their own, the goofy-looking, Forest Hills, Queens natives took to the punk rock scene with voracity, exposing the world to Joey Ramone’s inimitable voice and the oftenshouted riot cry, “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!”

On styling: There was a little bit of on-and-off with the jackets. But when you say ‘styled,’ it’s a concept that didn’t really exist in 1976. They combed their hair, maybe. That would’ve been the extent of it. They didn’t iron their shirts, or repair the tears in their jeans. Their sneakers were filthy. John and Legs were present, and Arturo Vega. He was their designer and design director; he later became their lighting director. If anyone were to have been a stylist, it would’ve been him. But this [styling] was just what the band decided their look was going to be: leather jackets, jeans. On the location: We had shot some pictures in the Ramones’ loft, which is really Arturo Vegas’ loft, on East 2nd Street, now called Joey Ramone place. They weren’t going that well, so we decided to go outside. We went around the corner to what is now a community garden on East 2nd Street—at that time it was a playground. When people go to look for this site now, there isn’t any of the graffiti anymore. You can tell where the wall is; it’s on the west side of the garden. On dog shit and why it’s not cool to smile: The Ramones weren’t doing any mugging for the camera. They knew me and we were kind of just goofing around. If you look at the whole contact sheet, you see the variation. There’s a lot of laughing and smiling and joking. There’s a point when Dee Dee steps in dog shit, finds a stick, wipes the dog shit off his shoe and chases all the Ramones away. After this session, Johnny made it a clear rule that they wouldn’t be photographed smiling. I think smiling meant you weren’t serious; if you smiled in your pictures, you were too teeny bop. But I have a lot of pictures of them smiling. On the band members’ personalities: I experienced Johnny as being fine and friendly; he later got the reputation of being some weird tyrant, but he always liked me and was always friendly each time we met. Tommy’s just the same as he always was. Joey was shy, but always very friendly, and Dee Dee was just insane. He was nice, but he was completely out of his mind. I don’t know how else to describe it. He’s like one of those people who would tell a lie, but he believed it so he wasn’t really telling a lie. I’m sure there’s a syndrome for it, but I don’t have the name for it. Whatever it was, that was Dee Dee. On the Ramones’ long hair: The glitter scene ended around ’73. Even the Ramones were transitioning from that. If you see some early pictures of Johnny Ramone, he’ll have on the lamé sparkle trousers. Everybody was dressing a little different then. When the Ramones decided to become a group, they honed their image. They decided to be very specific about it, leaving glitter behind, even though they still had that long hair. Long hair would be out of fashion soon for all the other groups, but because the Ramones had decided on this look, they were stuck with it, which didn’t bother anybody except for Dee Dee. Dee Dee was more of a fashion player; he wanted to go with the styles. When punk happened in England two years later, these guys really went with short hair. It’s hard to remember now how radical short hair was—if you were in rock ‘n’ roll, you had long hair. That was just the deal. If you were counterculture, hippie or whatever, you had long hair. That was the rebellious thing you did to anger your parents and your school. So short hair was radical. Nobody had short hair, and then all of a sudden everybody had short hair.

What real punks wore: I wore cashmere and pearls. I was very sedate and wore Sonia Rykiel T-shirts. The punk scenes were very different in New York and England. The cliché punk look wasn’t that prevalent here then. Aside from The Plasmatics, who would have crazy Mohawks, it wasn’t the norm. Blondie didn’t dress like punks. The Ramones didn’t dress like punks. Richard Hell started the thing with the short hair and the safety pins and all that, but that was more about what you could afford—which was usually nothing. I would save up for a month to get a $24 Sonia Rykiel T-shirt from Harry Bendel and Richard Hell would mock me and say, “How could you spend $24 on a T-shirt? You’re sick.” People were really poor then, nobody had any money. Rents were like $100, or less. I knew people who were paying $44 a month. On life after being a rock ‘n’ roll photographer: I retired from photography in 1985. I had many jobs. I worked in nightclubs and lounges that don’t exist anymore. I went back to school in the 90s and got a degree in public health. I worked at an AIDS hotline for ten years. I worked for the city of New York and left that job after 9/11. Then I thought: I’m going to go back and concentrate on my photography. Not to shoot, but to get my shit in order and get a website. I sold prints. I got a dealer. And now a Japanese company licenses my images for clothing and other things like rulers, hats and Zippo lighters. That’s how I make a living. I only shoot if I’m requested to. I did Mary Weiss’ cover, the lead singer from the Shangri-La. Her record came out about a yearand-a-half ago and she asked me to work with her; I was really honored. Other than that I only take pictures for my personal use. On an iconic image: It’s very special. It’s a very famous photograph; it’s been exhibited. I relate to it as the image that it is. It’s the most iconic image of the Ramones. Anybody in punk rock knows that picture. I have it at the foot of my bed, atop my dresser. Sometimes I think I want to blow this up really big and then cut out the faces like in the circus where you can put your faces through. And then I also want to put dog heads over their heads. Johnny would be a Rottweiler; Joey would be an Afghan; Dee Dee, a boxer. But it would only be for fun, not for commercial purposes. On the deaths of the Ramones: Joey’s was very hard. A lot of people didn’t have any idea he was sick. I knew. Not the specifics, but I knew he was quite ill for a long time. I heard Howard Stern playing Ramones songs—Howard Stern doesn’t play music—and I just knew Joey had died. That night there was already a memorial scheduled at CBGB for Alan Betrock, of the New York Rocker, so all the old crowd was going to that anyway. It turned into a Joey memorial. On CBGB’s becoming a John Varvatos store: What are you gonna do? Life changes. CBGB doesn’t belong to The Bowery as it exists today. That street changed. New York City changed. CBGB was always exactly the same, but everything around it changed. So it had to go.

GALLERY:

“The Year in Pictures” By Sophia Betz I Artwork courtesy of the artists

The show—a cohesive, if Frankensteinian, adaptation of James Danziger’s eponymous blog, which he began in 2007—hung in Danziger Projects’ Chelsea gallery throughout the coldest days of winter. Danziger started up the popular Year in Pictures blog as a “vehicle for my love and enthusiasm for photography” and to get underrated artists a wider exposure. He decided to produce “The Year In Pictures” exhibit on the occasion of the gallery’s approaching twenty-year anniversary. “Every single person included in the show are people who are worthy of their own shows,” he says. The exhibit’s images, ranging from pieces from Chan-Hyo Bae’s ‘Existing in Costume’ series to Joseph Holmes’ gorgeous portraits of New York City, represented a staggering variety of styles and subjects captured over the past year. Three gallery walls were dedicated to emerging artists, while the fourth held images of some of the great figures of the photography world whom had passed away during the year. Despite what the show’s title may imply, Danziger aimed for an exhibit that was more a look forward than back. The most thoughtfully chosen works, such as David Schoerner’s portraits ‘Adrienne’ and ‘Martynka,’ speak to both perspectives. A reference to Gerhard Richter’s 1988 piece ‘Betty,’ the women in these two works are looking away from the artist, and by extension, away from the viewer. This unconventional perspective evokes an awareness that the viewer, while trying to figure out the subject’s motive for turning away, is, like the subject, actually looking ahead into an unknown situation. Similarly, Mandy Corrado’s ‘Florence Street Studio’ and its use of mirrors turns the relationship of artist to subject on its head, asking the viewer to do more than observe and reflect. This photo, one of my favorites in the show, is a subtle call to action to let introspection lead to creation and productivity. Along with Schoerner’s tributes to Richter hung Stephen Gill’s untitled images from the series “Russian Women Smokers,” which draws from Irving Penn’s “Cigarette 17.” Penn’s influence on Gill’s work is apparent,

and speaks to the major effect Penn had on the photographic industry as a whole during his lifetime. The combination of various images of cigarette butts enlarged far beyond their actual size hints at the collective enormity of all the mundane objects that make up our daily lives. “The Year In Pictures” dealt with the past as a fluid entity, as something to be acknowledged and appreciated, but also as a force that pushes us along, entering and shaping our future. More abstract pieces such as Tsukasa Yokozawa’s ‘Parallel Lives #A4’ were shown alongside Scout Tufankjian’s incredible documentary-style images of Obama’s electoral victory. The balance of subjective works and more literal imagery is rarely seen in group shows and speaks to the fluidity between personal and shared history in forming our identities, and the weight of both aspects of our past. The fifteen emerging artists Danziger selected for the show hail from all parts of the globe. The variety of observations on contemporary culture play off each other to create a look at modern society that is greater than the sum of its parts. Tommy Ton’s high heel shots become more than just fascinating images, but part of a larger comment on cultural evolution. Patrick Smith’s gorgeous, sweeping vistas point not just to the grandness of the landscape, but to the magnitude of the human experience. Danziger uses his blog to express his artistic passions and to expand his readers’ horizons. He discusses all kinds of images as they relate to contemporary culture, posts must-see shows, gives candid insights into culture and art, and draws unlikely comparisons among media. His passion for the image and his irreverent fearlessness in combining seemingly disparate works come through in his gallery show and are readily apparent in the blog as well. Blogging sometimes gets a bad rap and is dismissed as not serious enough, or too ephemeral to make a real impact, but Danziger understands that the Internet can bring art to people in a way unimagined previous to the digital age. This accessibility is key in shaping our collective consciousness and how society and our art move forward. The Internet provides a running commentary, but also a place to keep record of our past. This constantly evolving history and the means by which we express it is our artistic future. Through his blog and “The Year In Pictures”exhibit, Danziger peers forward to what images, and the community that surrounds them, can be. Capturing a moment or an idea with a photograph challenges even the most experienced artists. Translating a digital project into a physical exhibit struck me as an almost equally difficult task, so, even as a Year In Pictures blog reader, I didn’t know what to expect walking into the gallery. The details articulated in the imagery fit what Danziger refers to as his propensity for “positive,” “life-affirming” works. I was left with the image of Jowhara Al Saud’s ‘Golden’ imprinted in my mind on my way out the door—a faceless person taking shape, yet unformed, but glowing, and hurtling forward.

www.danzigerprojects.com

“T

he Year in Pictures” curatorial success lies in its resistance to summation. Any expectation I had of a New Year, best-of roundup fell to the wayside the moment I stepped into the gallery. Instead of trying to represent all that happened in the year, or trying to show a comprehensive spectrum of human experience—impossible tasks— the show was made of images that speak to moments, details and ideas. Together, the works began to speak to the unfathomably vast array of experiences and events that constitute a year.

Top ‘Parallel Lives #A4’ Tsukasa Yokozawa www.tsukasayokozawa.com ‘Golden’ Jowhara Al Saud www.jowharaalsaud.com, Middle: ‘Russian Women Smokers’ Stephen Gill www.stephengill.co.uk Bottom: ‘West 43rd Street (Yellow Cabs)’ Joseph Holmes www.portfoliostreetnine.com/index.html ‘Florence Street Studio’ Mandy Corrado www.mandycorrado.com,

PHOTO DECO-PAGE:

Swim

Words & Photos by Carlo Van de Roer

Carlo Van de Roer: www.vanderoer.com

his series focuses on outdoor swimming pools and public bathsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;sites where the normally parallel spheres of social interaction and solitary communion with nature intersect. Viewed from above, patterns and groupings of people emerge, revealing their interactions both with each other and with their surroundings.

Technique:

Greg Neumaier on Shooting Bubbles By Elizabeth Leitzell I Artwork courtesy of the artist

here are you from? I am from the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. I moved to New York City with a friend eleven years ago. It was time. Did you go to school for photography? I went to the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. I double majored in Photography and Glass. I divided my time between blowing glass, assisting car photographers, and shooting some local fashion stories. My glassblowing experience could be a play off the bubble photography. What made you choose photography over glassblowing? I was active in both mediums. I enjoyed getting dirty in the glass shop and making things. After school I realized operating a glassblowing studio would be very difficult due to the initial start up and operational costs, so I leaned back on photography. I could work as a photo assistant and make enough money to get by, whereas glass assistants usually assist for free. What got you into still life photography? Like many young male photographers, my ideal job would be shooting models all day. When I came to New York my portfolio consisted of fashion, music and portraits. I continued working in that direction with little success. I ended up in a still life studio putting together a book, and it seemed that table top work was easier to come by.

Judging by your work it seems you enjoy yourself with it. Yes, I do enjoy still life and product photography. I have a full time assistant that I have been working with for four years. We run a very efficient studio, which has allowed us to squeeze through these poor economic times. When you’re shooting in your studio, what’s the mood like? It’s a mellow atmosphere—just hanging out and listening to music. I don’t have a circus clown, or a monkey who comes out and entertains people [laughs]. I keep focused on lighting and making beautiful pictures. The clients can relax and enjoy the beautiful city views from my DUMBO studio. What inspired you to shoot this series of bubbles? This is purely a personal work that started back in college when I shot a very simple bubble and used it for one of my projects. It was something I wanted to revisit. What originally interested you in shooting soap bubbles? I wanted to create this glassy fluid shape, and I was going to combine in post with a product. When making this bubble shape, I used the same technique I used in college, minus the fact I was shooting 4x5 film back then. One of the bubbles popped and I actually caught the bubble during the pop motion, which completely changed everything I was working on. I just kept banging through hundreds of

photographs of breaking bubbles. It really started as an accident. I had no idea a bubble would look so beautiful when it breaks. Can you describe the lighting set up? The set up is quite simple: it’s two lights, shining through plexiglass on either side, and a black velvet background. The camera is in the front facing the bubbles. The bubbles are actually pulled from a tub of soapy water and pulled up. I display them landscape because I just think they look nicer this way. I shoot them vertical and display them horizontal. What camera did you use for this, and how fast did you have to shoot? I used a Hasselblad with a 120mm lens, with a Phase One P45 digital back, and Bowens QuadX lights. The shutter speed was 1/500th of a second. Light duration is what really captures the motion. Did you use normal bubble solution, or are there any special ingredients that help different kinds of bubbles to form? I think I used Joy dish soap, believe it or not,

Greg Neumaier: www.gregneumaier.com Elizabeth Leitzell: www.edlphotography.com

and distilled water. To create the bubbles themselves, I used wire coat hangers, lined with cloth—so the soap could adhere to it. And then I used a big wire armature to pull it up. This is very hi-tech stuff [laughs]. Did you have different sizes for this rig? Or was it the same rig you used throughout? I made different sizes thinking they would create different shapes, but everything turns into a circle with bubbles. I learned you can’t make a square bubble—it just all ends up being a circle. But I did do some where I created circles within circles, so there’d be bubbles inside of bubbles. Are the bubbles in black and white a different type of bubble? Or just de-saturated? I started off believing that the soap bubbles would photograph iridescently. This proved to be true but not to the extent of my expectations. The first batch of images was almost completely black and white with subtle hints of color. When I began the second day of shooting, I added a small strip of magenta color gel to the lights to help push the iridescent effect. Did you run across any special obstacles? Yes, shooting bubbles makes a giant mess of soapy sudsy. When the bubbles pop, it makes for slippery floors. I used a long enough lens where, when it pops, it’s not getting all over my lens. I worked at a safe distance. Was there any retouching involved? If so, what was the extent of it? The only retouching I did was to darken the blacks from the background where some velvet showed up. But [overall there was] very, very little retouching, unless there was a big spot on one of the bubbles, like it had caught some dirt or debris. I did levels adjustments, things like that, just to make it a little more brilliant. That was the beauty of the whole project as retouching usually can take a long time.

Did you do all the shooting by yourself? Or did you have someone pulling bubbles and someone shooting? I did most of it all by myself. I would have the armature in one hand, and I’d have my shutter release in the other. I would pull the wire from the soapy tray upwards and shoot. I just repeated that over a period of a couple hours. The next day I tried to experiment with different shapes and I asked an assistant to help. What happens when you pull up the bubble is that it goes kind of fast, and the weight—it wants to kind of fall off. So right when it starts to wiggle and want to fall and break, my assistant would shoot compressed air to create a little distortion.

What was the shooting process like? Did you fire off a lot of rounds for each bubble? No, one shot per bubble, because by the time the strobes recycle [the bubble has burst]. This all happens really quickly. How long would you say you had with each bubble before it was going to reach its doom? A second. There was a series of misfires, where you’re getting no bubble or just spray from the pop. There were all sorts of different results. How long did it take you, overall, to shoot the whole series? I want to say three hours on the first day, and maybe two to three hours on the second day. And how many shots would you say you came up with total, pre-editing? 460. How did you choose the final shots? That was the hard part because each bubble had its own unique quality. There were probably a hundred good ones. I narrowed it down to about twenty images that I thought would make a nice series. Were you looking for a certain kind of shape? I wasn’t looking for anything. Every time I shot, something different would happen, so I would be so excited. I was like a kid in a candy store, just yanking bubbles and shooting them. Some amazing things came out and it just kept leading me to shoot more and more until I completely exhausted myself. Halfway through I’d have to clean up the soap on the ground. Eventually I just got tired and stopped… I was tired of bubbles. How does shooting bubbles differ from shooting normal still life with objects that are less fluid and predictable? Still life I can usually predict and alter the results, bubbles I cannot. Prints of the series are for sale. You can contact Greg Neumaier at www.gregneumaier.com

INTERVIEW:

Frank Rocco, ASMP’s New York President By Charlie Fish I Photo by Adam Sherwin

ithout a lot of fanfare, the New York chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers recently elected Frank Rocco as its new President. He takes over Stephen Mallon’s position, and his priority is to keep the organization on its current expansion. Resource and the RETV crew recently sat down with the new president to find out why photographers should become members, how ASMP fights for your rights, and why the organization remains relevant today, sixty plus years after it was founded.

How have you seen the chapter grow and change? We’re doing more and more. We took it from having no events to having an event almost every month, and we kept it that way for a while. If we can keep it going at the same pace, nobody can ask for more. We have educational events, parties, and networking events. We have a very active chapter. How long is your term? It’s yearly basically, but it’s informal enough that whoever wants to stay in their position usually stays. The presidency is enough of a big job that not a lot of people want to do it. It’s a volunteer and unpaid position; it takes up a lot of time. How many chapters are there? Thirty-seven throughout the US, with some 940 photographers in New York alone. We’re the biggest chapter by far, and we’re the original chapter. ASMP started here before the national office eventually moved to Philadelphia. There’s always room for expansion,

What can joining ASMP offer photographers? Being part of the community is one of the biggest things, whether you’re an assistant or a working photographer. However, education is one of the biggest things [we focus on]. The national organization is sending people around to educate members both in person and online. There’s also the advocacy aspect of ASMP, which fights for photographers’ rights by bringing these issues to people in Washington—whether it’s for the orphan works bill, or any of the copyright issues. ASMP also offers some amazing discounts to its members. Oooh, discounts. On what? A lot of photography-involved stuff and some things that you don’t even need to be a photographer to enjoy—like rental car discounts. Discounts with Apple or Adobe, discounts on marketing services like

www.asmp.org

How have cultural changes like the digital revolution and the current video trend impacted ASMP? ASMP has become a lot more important to a lot more photographers. The fact that an art director—or even the guy from human resources—can take a camera and take a decent enough shot has made photography, in some ways, less valuable. Or, at least, people are not realizing the value of their images. A lot of photographers are working for less, or not holding on to their rights, or giving up their rights entirely. They need to be educated; they need to realize there is value in their images and that they should be managing their rights. Photographers don’t always realize that they’re selling a concept and licensing their copyright, rather than just selling their time. The more watered down the industry has gotten, the more important it is for people to know there’s an organization out there that’s fighting for their rights, can educate them, and help them become professional photographers.

Charlie Fish: charliefish.info

You had been on the ASMP Board for a while before being nominated, right? When I joined ASMP I went right to the Board because the chapter had pretty much fallen apart. The President at the time was undergoing some troubles with a stock company. She was going through litigation and she really had no time to run the chapter. [The national office] called this big, general meeting and asked if we still wanted a chapter or only a virtual chapter. A bunch of us stepped up and took responsibility. Eventually this initial group became the Board it is now. I’ve been on the Board since January 2001.

though. I was asked recently why there is no Hawaii chapter. Well, because a bunch of volunteers hasn’t gotten together there and said they’d like to be a chapter. It takes work, especially starting a chapter from scratch.

Adam Sherwin: adamsherwin.com

Congrats on the recent election. What was the process like? No campaign, it was pretty informal. We elect from within the Board. If there were enough people to more than fill the Board, we would have a paper election, but because we have more positions than people willing to volunteer, we didn’t have to have a physical election. I was nominated by the former President, and then it became a show of hands. I ran unopposed, you could say.

Find a Photographer, the iPhone App.

“Photographers don’t always realize that they’re selling a concept and licensing their copyright, rather than just selling their time.”

ADBASE... If you use even a tenth of these things, you can make your money back. Student members can make back almost their whole membership just on their AT&T bill if they have an iPhone. The ASMP once stood for the American Society of Magazine Photographers. Why did the organization amend its name to include Media? From what I understand, they didn’t want to limit themselves to magazines. If you publish in textbooks, or art books, or the web, you’re still a professional photographer who’s being published. And, probably, there will be a push to include videographers in there as well. How does the magazine and publishing industry’s recent restructuring affect members of ASMP? Obviously, financially, it’s not good for anybody. Photographers get hit first a lot of the time. When budgets get cut, photographers are the first to go. Also, buyouts have become more popular. Magazines now want to own the rights or have the rights for an unlimited time, which is one more reason why ASMP is really important. A lot of photographers are willing to just sign buyout agreements without really trying to negotiate. Now that magazines are on the web, usage is a little tougher to tell in terms of how many people are going to be viewing the images, how many hits does a page have. It’s not the same value as how many magazines sell. Unfortunately, prices are coming down for assignments, and even for stock. But the web might be another medium where, even if you’re getting paid less per image, there are more images being put up. It certainly doesn’t cost a publication as much to put up pages on their website as it does to produce a print magazine, so there’s a chance they’ll be buying more of your images as opposed to just one or two—or whatever they would’ve bought for print media.

How’s this for genius? Now you can find ASMP photographers, searchable by area and specialty, all from (insert your favorite Apple product here). Suitable for anyone who’s in need of a photographer, or for those who like to stalk them through mobile devices.

Photocine hits the town By Lou Lesko

During the transition from film to digital, the basic tenets and techniques of photography remained the same. All you had to do was overlay your existing knowledge onto the new technology and think good thoughts about terabytes.

he current transition to video is more complex. This time around you have to adopt a whole new way of thinking and insert your working knowledge of photography into a medium that has long been the dominion of filmmakers. Happily, our skill set as photographers makes us well suited to bring more to the party than the people who have only a filmmaking background. Unfortunately, photographers can’t completely rely on their inherent skill set. To make it in the motion age of photography, you are going to have to think differently about everything. The tools of this new trade are both tangible and cerebral. You’ll need some new gear for your camera bag and some new concepts for your visual storytelling skill. The name for this new video genre has taken on a few manifestations. Here on the West Coast we like “photocine,” while on the East Coast “photo-fusion” or “film-photo synthesis” are being bandied about. At this point there is no right or wrong answer—a term will find its own way into the industry lexicon. One thing I can tell you is that “videographer” is a universally loathed title. So if you are trying to get a date by talking about what you do for a living, leave the “v” word out of the conversation. You’re still a photographer—the definition of the title is only going to evolve around you. What you need to be prepared for is the expectations that will come with the evolved title, especially in the commercial world. By the end of this year, photographers will be expected to shoot motion more often than not. Six months ago there was a lot of discussion about the Red camera being utilized as the default tool for shooting jobs. We were then to “pull frames” from the high definition video

footage in lieu of actually shooting a hero photograph. While there is definitely frame-pulling from video footage going on for some applications—like current events news and some catalogs—agencies and clients are favoring still shots for the hero images. The bottom line is, even if you hose down a set with video capture, it is not a replacement for photographic sensibility—just like Guitar Hero isn’t a replacement for a real guitar. Pulling a frame will always be a compromise to shooting a still. However, shooting video with a still photography sensibility will be a liability to getting good footage. The days of getting lauded for a pretty video vignette are over. If you want people to be compelled to watch your video, you’re going to need to understand the basics of how a screenplay works. When I started directing commercials eleven years ago, this is the one skill I had to develop quickly to avoid getting tossed out as a music video hack. I’m not saying you all need to become screenwriters. I’m just saying you need to understand the three act structure of story telling and then contract or expand it to suit your needs. The absolute best book to read about this is Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. Rumor has it that the all the people in the story department at Pixar carry it around in their back pocket. I’d also like to recommend John August’s blog at johnaugust.com. He is the writer of Go, Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among others. Once you start getting immersed in story structure, you’ll quickly realize that concept is king in moving pictures. You’ll start hashing out scenes in your head and looking for a thread to tie them all together in a narrative form (otherwise known as a narrative thread). One skill you should start practicing is writing a treatment, which is a one to two page descrip-

e h t e g n a h er c v e n , y r o e st h t t r o p p to su r a e g ear. e g h e t h t d n e i t f a mod m o Always c c a o tory t s

tion of a commercial, television show, or movie. In order to get booked to direct a commercial I have to write a treatment on how I think the commercial should be executed. For a TV show or any longer format, a treatment is a detailed synopsis of the story, complete with beats (a “beat” being a turning point in a story that propels the story forward). The concepts won’t be totally foreign to you after you read the book I recommend above. As a matter of fact, once you learn the three act structure you’ll start to see it in every movie you watch. After you have at least a basic premise for your story, you’ll want to shoot it. The new genre of photocine is mindset, not a gear ownership race. Now more than ever the story of your piece comes first, followed by the selection of the gear to support the execution of the story. Owning a basic kit is a good thing, but all the supplemental gear can be rented. Always find the gear to support the story, never change the story to accommodate the gear. I know we all can’t afford a giant boom for a sweeping high angle shot, but that doesn’t mean you need to remove the scene from your piece—just try to work with what you have and make the shot happen. Safely please—I don’t want hear of any tragedies because one of you got clever with thirty bungee cords wrapped together and slung over the edge of a cliff.

tripod, or a fluid head for your existing tripod, should happen as soon as you can afford it. In the meantime, renting is easy and inexpensive. Sound is a big issue. There are a lot of solutions for recording sound separately and syncing it up on Final Cut Pro. Everyone seems to like the Zoom H4N recorder. You can also get a stereo microphone for your iPhone if you’re doing simple sound capture like for an interview of a celebrity. Use PluraleEyes to bring the sound together in Final Cut and sync your audio file with the video. It syncs dual sound recording in editing timelines using wave form pattern matching—which is a fancy way of saying it takes the soundtrack recorded through your camera that gets laid down with the video and matches it using wave forms to the audio file recorded with the external device. This brings me to editing. There are three solid choices for editing your digital footage. You’ll be surprised to know that you already own one. iMovie, which comes with every Mac sold these days, is a very solid, simple movie editing solution. I was at an advisory board meeting for a college in Los Angeles recently and the head of broadcast production at Matel told me they use iMovie for a lot of their digital editing. This is not

To make it in the motion age of photography, you are going to have to think differently about everything. There are four key things you need to know about when shooting VDSLR coming from a photographer’s perspective: • The background moves with your shot. • Hand-holding a VDSLR camera does not work. • Recording sound needs to be done with device along with the camera. • And you have to edit all this stuff together somehow. You need to understand the concept of the “moving background.” The first few scenes of my first commercial were almost a disaster because yours truly was so used to finding a good background for a photograph and keeping the frame composed appropriately. When shooting motion, that all changes. If your talent is going to be on the move in the scene, you have to walk through the scene yourself, preferably looking through the lens you’re going to use, to see what the background is going to do to your shot. You also need to keep an eye on how the light is falling on your talent as he or she moves through the scene. This is called “blocking” a scene. Keeping the camera steady is paramount to shooting motion. Quite simply the mass of a VDSLR camera is just too small for reasonable hand-held video. You need to extend the mass of the camera. Two major players producing devices to steady your camera are Redrock Micro and Zacuto. Find a rig that makes sense for you technically and financially and purchase it. This is a piece that should be part of your basic kit. And please don’t email me about the success of the bumpy cinematography of the “Blair Witch Project”. That movie was an anomaly. You need to also keep in mind the concept of the fluid head if you’re going to use a tripod. Your basic camera tripod will jerk your frame all over the place. Purchasing a fluid head

an extensive editor and I’m not sure that PluralEyes works with it, but to get started in the genre it’s brilliant. And its short learning curve gets you into the fray of editing quickly, so you can see how cutting a video together works. The next level is Final Cut Express from Apple. It isn’t Final Cut Pro, but it’s pretty damn good for the money. Lastly, there’s Final Cut Pro. If you’re going to get serious about filmmaking with your VDSLR, then you will need this software. I’ve heard of editors who are on a production in New York, get on a plane with their seventeen inch laptop and start cutting television show episodes on the flight back to Los Angeles. This new shift in the photo industry is going to bring a lot of questions with it. And there are a lot of good sources for answers. People are creating seminars and other expensive educational options that are mired in the gee-wiz of the gear. There are also a lot of under-qualified people teaching bad techniques. Ask around before you commit your money to a seminar. Make sure the person teaching is quality. And make sure you’re going to learn what you need. If you’re good technically but a little light on story telling, then you would do better taking a screenwriting seminar. There are also some good places on the web to get information. I have to shamelessly shill PhotoCine News (photocinenews.com) because I’m one of the owners, but before you get that look on your face, check out the site. We’ve signed a former script development executive from New Line pictures as well as an ABC TV producer to write for us. We’ve forged an agreement with National Geographic Assignment to get quality documentary information and footage, and my partners are very much on the inside track with the technical aspects of this new genre. So stop reading this, pick up a pen and start hashing out an idea to shoot, because the definition of a photographer just went into motion.

HOW TO:

Pack for a three-day trip

Michael Salvador: www.michaelsalvador.carbonmade.com

By Jeff Siti I Illustrations by Michael Salvador

inally, a quirky take on how to pack for a three-day trip. Now all we have to do is liberate North Korea and we can close the books on this sucker. Let the sun come on down and eat us ‘cause our mission, the point of our existence—whatever you thought it may have otherwise been—has officially been accomplished. With a few billion years to spare, too. And it only took us a few thousand years of civilization—not to mention wars, diseases, intolerance, Will Ferrell—but we made good time. And what’s better than making good time? All anyone ever wants to do is make good time. If you get somewhere, the first thing the oldest person there asks is whether or not you made good time. So yeah, as a matter of fact, old man, we made some damn good time. You wouldn’t have thought so either, would you? Being that we came in a hybrid and all, but you’d be surprised by how much power they have. They really do get moving. No, seriously, they do. They really do.

A few years ago, how to pack for a three-day trip would have been a much briefer ordeal, and easier too. Step one would have read something like, “Throw a bunch of shit in a bag and go to the airport,” and we could have all gone home early. But these ain’t the good old days, friend, as you probably know. It’s the future, and unlike our cavemen aunts and uncles, we’re needy. So let’s hurry this up and beat the traffic.

STEP 1: Find a small/medium sized bag with wheels. Preferably not black. If it’s black, it should have some defining features so it’s easier to spot. In this step, “find” means look in your closet. STEP 2: Here’s what you need to pack. 1. Toiletries Bag: Some basics include toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, a small container of shampoo, a small container of conditioner (or a 2 in 1), sunscreen, band aids, Q-tips, deodorant, mouthwash, nail clippers, vitamins, and whatever other creams and lotions you wish to apply to your body. 2. Underwear: Three pairs of underwear, one for each day. And throw in one extra pair just in case. So make that FOUR. 3. Socks: The same applies here. Three pairs and then an extra one for good luck. 4. Pants/ shorts/long underwear: This will be strictly defined by your destination. If shooting in Maine in winter, bring two pairs of pants for each day and two pairs of long johns. If you’re going to a warm climate, one pair of pants and two or three pairs of shorts will work. 5. Shirts: No matter where you are going, have five shirts. However, the shirts could be tank tops—in that case you could fit a couple of emergency tops in there. 6. Tops: Obviously, bring enough to keep you warm: three sweaters, three long sleeve shirts and a big jacket if going to some cold miserable location. Even if you are on a shoot in Arizona in August, have a sweater or two for chilly nights (or for AC-crazed restaurants). 7. Bathing suit: Whenever possible, bring a

bathing suit. Lots of hotels have hot tubs and swimming pools, even in Alaska. 8. Footwear: Sneakers, simple dress shoes, and then weather-appropriate shoes—from boots to sandals. 9. Dress wear: You never know what dinner arrangements will take place. Some may be above the on set working dress code. Ladies, bring a simple dress, skirt or dress pants. Men, bring along a sports jacket and some jeans with no holes and frays dragging behind you.

STEP 3: Do the spill check. The last thing you want is a bag covered in shampoo and moisturizer, so take the proper precautions. Any liquid, cream or paste should be secured in their containers, then placed into Ziplock bags. All sharp or flammable objects (i.e. lighters, Zippos, Leatherman, nail scissors, hair scissors, etc) need be placed in your checkin bag rather than your carry-on as they are verboten on planes. Remember most airlines won’t allow more than three ounces of liquid in your carry-on either.

identity/travel information: Don’t leave anything unattended. Check-in bags disappear frequently; don’t lose your money and US citizenship. 5. A pair of white socks: If it’s a long flight and if you think you might take your shoes off, do your neighbor a favor and bring a pair of clean socks. 6. Instant Miso Soup: Airplane food can be less than appetizing, and as of recent, pricey. Instant miso soup is great back up plan. All you need is to ask the flight attendant for a cup of hot water. 7. Passport: When you travel, you should always have your passport, and a second form of picture ID. Trust me. When you get interrogated on your way to an international destination, you’ll thank us for this tip. STEP 5: That should cover the basics. Every airline has different policies and restrictions about baggage weight, so be sure to check with your company.

A FEW TIPS FOR THE FREQUENT FLYER PHOTOGRAPHER:

STEP 4: Pack your carry-on (backpack, purse, laptop bag, or camera bag that fits in an overhead compartment). Generally speaking, this is where you should keep your most prized and valuable possessions. 1. Laptop and laptop charger: Remember when going through security that your laptop must go through the x-ray machine in its own security bin—don’t know why but just do it. 2. Phone and phone charger: Don’t try and pack light here by putting the charger into your check-in. Think about being left with only your carry-on bag. You’re going to need that charger. 3. Camera and camera charger: Even if you’re not the photographer, you may want to catch a couple of memorable moments. Consider bringing an extra memory card. 4. All credit cards, cash, and financial/security/

• If you travel a lot, take advantage of airlines’ frequent flyer programs. It’s free to enroll, and once you’ve reached a certain number of miles you’ll be awarded with free business class upgrades and other front-of-the-line privileges. • Baggage overage trick: Tell the airline that you’re traveling with photo and video equipment. They may not have discounts for still photography but they usually do for video productions. Bring your business cards with you. This should be enough proof that you are “Media.” • America Express’ Platinum business card members have access to first class business lounges in every airport around the world. With certain torturous layovers, this could be well worth the $450 annual fee.

EVENT:

One Case Auction By Sophia Betz | Photos by Steve Lopez

N N

ew Yorkers have a reputation for being gruff, even rude. I tend to attribute this bluntness more to concision than to mean-spiritedness; New Yorkers’ time is of the essence and people want to get right to the heart of the matter. Likewise, when help is needed, New Yorkers roll up their sleeves and get to work.

Case in point: the One Case Auction that lit up Milk Studios this past January. The case: a working free-lancer recently diagnosed with breast cancer and in need of urgent medical attention. The freelancer in question, like so many of her fellow self-employed artists, can’t afford the high cost of a health insurance plan but also isn’t eligible for a subsidized alternative to a private plan. When Resource Magazine’s own Alexandra Niki learned about the situation, she sprung into action. She called on many of her connections in the photography industry, and, remarkably, in just a month, created the One Case charity auction to help finance the much-needed medical care. She secured a partner and host in Milk Studios, located in Chelsea, the heart of Manhattan’s gallery hub. Milk’s Founder and Creative Director, Mazdack Rassi, says of his studio and gallery: “We are especially sensitive to the plight of freelancers, as so many photographers, stylists, photo assistants, and set people don’t have medical insurance. It’s something I’ve long wanted to change, so this was the perfect opportunity to spotlight the issue. We’ve done so many charity events and silent auctions that we can do the production with our eyes closed.” Within the short time span, colleagues and friends moved quickly too—photographers donated a marvelous selection of prints to be auctioned. “Some of the biggest names in the industry just started dropping off prints completely unsolicited,” says Rassi, and all worked to spread the word about One Case through the photography community. More than 1,000 people came to Milk Studios on the chilly evening of January 7th to support the cause; and still more called in bids and continued bidding online in the weeks to come. A sense of community permeated the event, as guests mingled, entered their bids, and took advantage of the rare chance to take something home and give something back all at once. The pieces up for auction included two gorgeous Vincent Laforet prints (one of which claimed the highest bid of $2,400); President Obama portraits by Martin Schoeller; a signed shot by John

51 Delaney; and work by Jimmy Moore and Stephen Mallon, among many others. Rock star portraits, abstracts and landscapes were all in the mix; the auction’s beneficiary herself auctioned off several of her own pieces. The generosity of all involved raised over $25,000, right around what was needed. “The [Milk] Gallery was phenomenal” in pulling together the auction on such short notice, says Niki. To Rassi, Resource is “part of the Milk family” and he didn’t think twice about lending a hand. Braced with the knowledge of what type of prints sold well, and having learned how to effectively promote the auction—and knowing how many artists out there are in need of a support—Resource plans to hold the auction annually to raise funds for freelancers in a similar situation to One Case’s first cause. And, like I said, New Yorkers tend to know how to use their time wisely, so the sky’s the limit with a whole year to plan the next auction. Stay tuned.

Interview:

SOPHY HOLLAND By Kate Dickens | Photo by Justin Hyte

ince hopping over the pond six years ago, Sophy Holland has established herself as one of the most respected agents in New York City. In an industry of mixed reputations, and sometimes questionable integrity, only a few agents stand out for their honesty and passion for the job. Working with Levine/Leavitt, Sophy has represented some of the most respected names in the industry, including Danny Clinch, Sacha Waldman and Dimitri Daniloff. Impressively, in 2009— a year that saw global recession come home to roost, creating unparalleled levels of competition—Sophy and her artists continued to win some of the most coveted campaigns of the year. Sophy talks candidly with us about the growing need for agents with higher standards in today’s advertising world, and how to spot “A good un.”

How has the business changed since you started?

How did you start in the business?

Any advice for young photographers?

My background is in design and I sort of fell into the repping industry when I first came to New York. It was a wonderful mixture of sales, which I love, and art, which is my true passion. I felt like I was one of the few reps who understood the business from the artists’ point of view. I am intimately aware of how attached artists are to their work and how sacred their integrity as an artist is. But most of all I value the time and effort taken to create what they do. Being able to keep that in mind when selling or promoting their work is key.

My advice is always to take time to learn how to build your brand. Being talented and taking great photographs is one thing, but marketing yourself as an artist and promoting your work will take you to a whole other level. I often tell young photographers to get someone else to help them edit their photographs. If you don’t have an agent, get a pair of unbiased eyes to view your work. I regularly see artists who are attached to certain images, not because they are visually the strongest but because they have personal associations with the image that convince them of its purity or importance. But outsiders may not see or know these personal

The biggest change I have observed has been the rise of the digital image, which ultimately turned photographers shooting film into a real minority. Also, as an agent who has always represented car photographers, I’ve watched CGI change the face of automotive campaigns. Why do you think artists need agents? There really isn’t enough time in the day to answer that question. Artists are phenomenal people, yet often they are completely unable to sell themselves. Many artists value having an agent for this reason alone. But most importantly to me, an agent is the artist’s advocate, making sure their views are known and their rights are respected. It’s an agent’s job to break down doors every day on behalf of their clients. Another reason is negotiating money. No one likes or wants to talk about money, particularly if it’s for themselves—it’s frowned upon socially. Being able to negotiate and be respectful of all parties involved requires experience and finesse, which is not a skill that people pick up simply because they are an amazing artist. Believe me when I say some artists would rather poke out their own eyes than have to estimate their fees. That’s where I come in. The rush of signing off on a deal is one that I thrive on, because trust me folks, it is no small feat... The relationships that are forged whilst working on tough projects are surprisingly deep, and can often lead to friendships that last for years. I still have conversations over drinks that start with, “God, do you remember that job we worked on? How did we ever make it happen?”

associations. Not being able to objectively edit your work could really be a hindrance to your development in the long run. What role do you play in editing and marketing the artists? Editing is something that takes both practice and a good eye. I’ve edited my fair share of books and my rule is that if the image isn’t strong and cannot stand alone as a representing image, then it shouldn’t be in the book. I also spend a lot of time choosing images for websites, e-promos, pdfs and mailers, and the same rule applies. What’s a typical day like for you? A lot of emails and phone calls! My days really do vary, which is part of the reason I love this job so much. I can be knee-deep in fifteen jobs at once. In the rare moments that it’s slower, I’m reaching out to my clients and scheduling meetings to show new work. It really does depend on the work flow. But whatever I am doing, I always remain in constant communication with the artists that we represent. Print mailers vs. email blasts? BOTH! Print mailers, as well as hard copy books will always play a part in the industry. There is something that is just fantastic about flipping through a book, as opposed to just looking at websites. But obviously, given the fast pace of advertising, and the fact that our clients are often out of state or country, websites and email promotions allow for easy access to the work and bookmarking. Do you travel to other cities in the US to connect with art buyers? Yes, often. Thanks to my career, I’ve been lucky enough to travel extensively for both shoots and meetings. These can be anywhere from Texas to Boston or from Colorado to London and Paris. People tend to make time for you if they know you are traveling from out of town. Traveling is definitely a perk of the job, but more importantly, in this industry it’s great to be able to put faces to names and to connect with those people who you collaborate with remotely. v

a j p rod uc t i ons

a j p r o d u c t i o n s | n y, i n c p r o d u c t i o n - c a s t i n g - l o c a t i o n s c o uting

917.209.0823 212.979.7585 www.ajproductionsny.com ajprodnyc@mac.com

LOCATIONS:

Boxing Ring By Maggie Flood I Photos by Rod Morata

S ince the aesthetics of your typical

Rod Morata: www.rodmorata.com

neighborhood gym will often leave something to be desired, you may find yourself wondering where to go when looking for a location with some classic “sweat appeal.” Maybe you’re just looking for a particular type of action shot, or a place that echoes the salty, cemented interior of a classic-style boxing ring. Whatever your reason, Resource has done the fancy footwork for you. Check out these six New York locales, scouted out specifically to save you any unnecessary blood, sweat and tears.

Fit2fight Club 344 W. 38th St., - #505 - New York, NY 10018 646.823.3936 www.fit2fightclub.com

Trinity Boxing Club 1110 Greenwich St. - New York, NY 10006-1813 212.374.9393Â www.trinityboxing.com

Xfit 28 W. 27th St., 12th Fl. - New York, NY 10001 212.725.7991 www.xfittraining.com

Mendez Boxing 25 W. 26th St. - New York, NY 10010-1039 212.689.5255 www.mendezboxingny.com

Gleasonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gym 77 Front St., 2nd Fl. - Brooklyn, NY 11201 718.797.2872 www.gleasonsgym.net

Church Street 25 Park Place New York City, NY, 10007 212.571.1333 www.nyboxinggym.com

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q u duke it out> stories of a milk fantasy

By Charlie Fish I Illustrations provided by Milk Studios

here’s a time portal on the eighth floor of 450 West 15th Street, where five forward-minded characters from the future emerged to save photography-related industries from becoming yesterday’s lackluster leftovers. They were beckoned, as it were, by our hero Duke—a half-man, half-robot, Vietnam vet with huge camera lens for a belt—who was looking to build a creative, service-oriented environment where all his photography, fashion, art and media friends could collaborate and redefine their industries. But that’s the very end of our tale, and the best ones usually start at the beginning. Milk Studios was created in 1998, when Mazdack Rassi, aka Duke, Erez Shternlicht and Moishe Mana joined forces to open a photography studio. To separate themselves from the pack, Rassi’s hospitality background ensured that Milk would be run from a hotel management perspective, offering “a neutral space” that was heavy on service. “Our first booking was Patrick Demarchelier. That was how we started, and we’ve never looked back,” Rassi says of Milk’s auspicious start.

s edgar

Can I please shoot here? It would mean so much in front of my client,’” Rassi says. Milk wanted a space that was affordable, but with all the bling to make it stand apart from competing budget studios. Here’s an interesting tidbit: the name ‘formula’ came about during a drunk, four-in-the-morning conversation Rassi had with photographer Edward Mapplethorpe. “What you should call it,” Mapplethorpe instructed Rassi, “is ‘formula.’ Because that’s baby milk.” As Rassi set about creating the space, Duke set about finding someone to run it. One thing was certain: flat screen TVs and all the latest video games were mandatory. “Everybody would come out of the studio and play games,” Rassi says about Formula’s youth culture. Buzz, the face of Formula, essentially came for the games. “Then he started working down there. Now he won’t leave,” Rassi adds. With his Pac Man belt and cell phone antennae, Buzz is a perfect fit among the gamers, not to mention the new generations of photographers. Milk Gallery had actually been in existence since 450 West 15th Street was still nothing more than a whole lot of concrete. Transforming that raw space into a proper art gallery in 2004 changed Milk Studios. “We were able to give to the photographers we worked with a vehicle to show their personal work,” says Rassi. “Milk became a community as soon as we opened the gallery.” The new space was designed by Richardson Sadeki and

In the beginning Milk was home to then-emerging photographers, people like Alexi Lubomirski, Ben Watts and Greg Kadel. As they rose to prominence, so did Milk. With time, bookings had doubled in size and clients were asking why the hospitalityminded studio didn’t offer a whole host of other photo-related services. Milk happily obliged. Its various divisions changed the way the company operated, turning the sought-after studio into a one-stop creative shop. The first division to open was Milk Equipment Rental. Its loading docks are filled with a burly, hardworking and heavy lifting crew. With some $7 million worth of equipment to protect and manage, Milk needed the best to properly run Equipment Rental. Enter Edgar. “To do Milk Equipment Rental, you have to be strong,” Rassi says. “He’s the guy who loads the trucks and puts everything together. Edgar’s a big, badass gorilla. You don’t wanna mess with him,” he warns. With a red goatee and massive arms, Edgar looks like the kind of gorilla who might’ve served jail time—but he’s a gentle giant, from what I’m told. House, the Milk Group’s production and casting division, was established in 2002. “House has unlimited access to talent, both models and actors,” says Rassi. The House team has decades of casting between them, and has worked for Bank of America, Pepsi and Mercedes Benz, as well as legendary directors like Robert Altman and fashion clients like Gucci. They’re creative, dramatic characters in their own right; teaching acting classes and attending seminars are just part of the job. Duke invited Billie, a mysterious, hoodie-wearing director with red-rimmed glasses, to be House’s casting director. No need to worry about her alien propeller ears, however, Billie’s floating won’t scare away potential wide-eyed talent. Formula was created that same year, born out of the need to offer younger generations of photographers an affordable place to work. “We had all these young photographers who couldn’t afford [Milk Studios] and were always telling us, ‘I just got my first job. Don’t make me go to a slummy studio or to Midtown.

>billie>

buzz

ohn

If Rassi (and Duke, for that matter) had stopped there, Milk would undoubtedly still be one of New York City’s premiere destinations for photography, casting services, equipment rental, production, exhibits and events. But what good is having a time portal in your office if you’re not going to bring about futuristic changes to the industry? As Rassi knew he needed another division to bring the Milk Group into the digital age and beyond, so too did Duke know he needed a heavy hitter to run it. Big John, with his USB port as an arm and Texan swagger, was the obvious choice to head Milk Digital. Though Big John’s digital know-how is instrumental in running Milk Digital, you mostly find him tending the salooninspired Whisky bar in Milk Digital’s lobby. Created in 2008, Milk Digital is an asset management company that packs a mean, digital punch. Photographers can essentially shoot, download their images into Graceland (Milk Digital’s network of servers), then go home and access their images online. In fact, everything

Big J

headed by Giada Torri. That is, until Duke and Giada collaborated to bring in a Japanese alien hybrid from the future, Bianca, who communicated not by talking, but by thought bubbles erupting from within her skirt. Sounds insane, I know, but she really was the best. Her aesthetic and curatorial skills were unmatched! And so Bianca emerged through the time portal on the eighth floor and joined the Milk Group as Milk Gallery’s curator.

jj is done online, from editing to granting editors access to their files. “The idea,” says Rassi, “is to not take hard drives, laptops and monitors from place to place. People come, shoot and leave.”

Big John was also able to upgrade Formula with this same integrated system, enabling the younger generations to get a head start on a technology that will surely prevail in years to come. This new workflow was born from a Milk and Hasselblad partnership. It’s a move on Hasselblad’s part to reach out to emerging photographers. It’s a move by Milk and Formula to expose young shooters to tomorrow’s technological advances.

With his cast of characters all summoned through the aforementioned portal, Duke was able to establish a studio doppelganger in Hollywood’s photo district. The current still-to-motion move, coupled with Milk’s new roots in motion picture Mecca, will no doubt be instrumental in further nourishing Milk’s latest division—Legs. Fitting name for their new film division, as Milk’s branches go places. Legs has already done twenty-two short films for Diesel, commercials for Ugly Betty and Diet Coke, and a music video for Florence and the Machine. And, oh yeah, they were nominated for an Emmy for their short films Screen Test, done in tandem with The New York Times Magazine. Georgie Greville leads the division, though by now we know that a more, um, animated substitute is not too far behind.

Bianca

The Milk Family—Duke, Edgar, Bille, Buzz, Bianca, Big John and soon Legs’s avatar—have made Milk Studios and its umbrella divisions an undeniable force in the photography, fashion and media industries. In fact, Milk has gone from being a place where you could rent a studio and equipment, to becoming an artists’ hub with tech savvy creatives who work alongside you. Photographers are now prepping to become directors within Milk’s walls. As media companies shift towards more of an online mentality and video becomes an integral part of online magazines, more film directors are approaching Milk for help and knowledge. “All the media are starting to merge,” Rassi concludes. The zany, futuristic cast of characters that make up the Milk Family agree. Hey, they may be fictional, but the services they offer are revolutionary. And very real, indeed.

INTERVIEW:

Gotham Imaging Words and Main Portrait by Emily Ann Epstein

eter Berberian and Ryan Speth are the superheroes of the printing world. They’ve got all of the prerequisites—killer costumes (Italian suits), superpowers (prints that sing), a secret lair (well, maybe it’s in Chelsea), and a Pulitzer Prize (who needs the keys to the city?). Don’t believe us? Read on.

How did you meet and decide to start Gotham Imaging? Peter: I was working at a lab, Coloredge when, in 2002, they bought Lexington Labs. A bunch of their crew came over to work with us. A few months later, some guy showed up with a really inappropriate t-shirt on... Ryan: That’d be me. Peter: He was the guy who would stand there and guide the conversation in a way that would make it end. Now that I know Ryan better, I know he just likes to fuck with people. Ryan: I had been working freelance outside of the lab business for a year and a half and ran into my old boss. He said, “There are a lot of really bad printers in this lab and I need you to come help me clear house.” He brought me in and I was the outsider— people didn’t like me to begin with. After a while, Peter was the only good printer left.

Peter: We looked at each other one day and thought, “How much is it to set this stuff up on our own?” Ryan: I was spending my darkroom time listening to business audio, because, you know, NPR gets boring after a while. I gave myself a business school education in the darkroom. So when it came to this... Peter: Ryan is insanely good at filling out paperwork—which is a skill I have no interest in. I’m an idea man, but he made it stick to the wall and have legs. Who knows what I would be doing now without him? How do you divide the responsibilities? Ryan: We play to each other’s strengths. I do the behind-the-scenes numbers—accounting, money crunching, management—while Peter does a lot of the money negotiations. Peter: Dick jokes. Nothing but dick jokes.

Who are your highest profile clients and who do you most enjoy to work with? Peter: I LOVE THEM ALL. We have a really unique relationship with The New York Times. We’ve printed every single one of their exhibitions. They’re good to work with and they trust us so it’s a really good relationship. Ryan: That job lead to us doing all their portfolios for the Pulitzer Prize. The people at The Times really enjoyed working with us. When everything went digital, they couldn’t fire the printer, so they fired the guy who dealt with the client. No one was in the customer service business. No one asked the clients, “What do you need? What went right? What went wrong?” Our clients spend time with us. They have our cell phone numbers so if anything happens they can reach us. Peter: Let’s take for example the first show we did with Jesse Frohman in 2007. When he put the prints in the frames, they all scalloped. He called us and we went to the gallery in Brooklyn—I want to be there, I want to see what’s happening. We go that extra mile. We don’t go on vacation when a job is pending. Ryan: When we worked with The Times, we looked at prints and discussed them—”How’s this going to look on the wall? What’s hanging next to it?” We went while the show was being hung and checked in on the progress. Peter: The first year, we competed against two other printers. Everyone else messengered their prints but we went up

Emily Anne Epstein: www.emilyanneepstein.com

Ryan: I’m the behind-the-scene guy, and he sits up front and tells dick jokes to keep clients happy. Peter: We try to put ourselves out there any way we possibly can. From printing the right shows to making the right connections, this job is all about who you know. And I’m partners with a talented guy who makes really good prints, so with the combination of the two, we have a lot of things going for us.

Bob Dylan: Don Hunstein © Sony Music Entertainment , Polo player: © Richard Phibbs, Obama: © Damon Winter / The New York Times

and said, “Here are our prints, let’s talk about them.” We don’t just mail it in. If you work that way, the nuances are lost. Ryan: We spend time and talk to editors and photographers. We ask them, “What were you feeling when you took this? What do you want this to look like? Old chrome? Old black and white? Or something completely new?” Ryan: Even though it’s all digital, it’s the same conversation [people had] with traditional film. That’s what’s missing from the industry. Peter: It all turned into saturation and noise—it wasn’t, “Dodge here, burn here.” Ryan: The passion got taken out. Where do your passion come from? What moment inspired you to get involved in photography? Ryan: I’ve been doing photography since I was in high school. I built a darkroom in my parents’ basement. I would work in it at night because I couldn’t seal the basement up. Then I went to Parsons to study under great photographers and printers. Personally, I still shoot 8x10 and 35mm—I don’t even own a digital camera. I just have a passion for printing. I always looked at printing as doing a crossword puzzle. There’s a mystery: how am I going to print this? It isn’t just hitting “Print” and maybe burning and dodging; it’s about the questions—“Where is the eye going to go? What kind of emotion do you want to evoke? How can I polish this image and make it better? How can I achieve the photographer’s vision?” Peter: My uncle was a fashion photographer in the 70s, and I always had cameras. My parents really nurtured what I did. I went to SVA, had some jobs, and started printing… I was actually going to be the photographer for the WWE. I had filled out their application. Apparently I had all the skills they were looking for but it took them five months to get back to me. The day we signed the lease on this place, I got a call saying, “Hey, we want you to come here and work for us.” It could have gone that way—I could have been on the road thirty months out of a year—but I did this instead. It turned out just fine. Who are some photographers you’d like to work with? Peter: I’d like to work with some more fine artists because our portfolio is a little commercial. Ryan: We had that conversation when we started. I said I wanted to work for The Times, VII and Magnum. We’ve been convincing

photographers that they shouldn’t be printing. You should be a photographer—preparing the next shoot, getting the next shoot. Spend time with your clients, your wife or your kid. We’re printers, let us do this. Tell me a bit about the changes in technique and technology you’ve witnessed and what you’re doing to prepare for the future. Peter: Everyone knows that c-print technology is dead. There are no new chemicals that are going to make c-prints sing. I don’t even think they are teaching it in college anymore. Pigment prints are here and now, and they’re the future. Everyday there’s new technology that’s getting more advanced. Ryan: One of my big things is that the language hasn’t changed, printing is still a craft. It’s about having a trained eye—whether I’m using a computer or making shadow puppets in a darkroom with my hands. You have to understand what contrast does to grain, how certain papers print. I was always taught that the hand-held print is an object of beauty in itself. That shouldn’t be lost in digital. Finding people younger than thirty who know what a finished, polished print looks like is really hard. I don’t care how good you are at Photoshop, or how many layer masks there are—if you don’t know what a good print feels like, then there’s no point. Still, I just can’t wait to see what’s next. There’s always stuff in the works. Peter: We’re in the collotype phase in the digital realm. There’s a lot out there—it may take some time, but it’s exciting.

Gotham Imaging: www.gothamimaging.com

DEVELOPMENT:

Studio C As told by Cybelle Codish I Photo courtesy of Studio C y interest in photography began in the early nineties when I was inspired by a teacher/mentor to explore a new medium. I grew up in a wonderfully artistic family full of painters, graphic designers, musicians, and writers. Yet, aside from my father constantly taking family photos, the art of photography was something new. I went to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to continue my studies, and came back to Detroit on a whim, immediately working for a local music publication. With the help of the popularity of my brother’s band (and the fact that he was my most consistent client), I began a career full force into the music industry. From there I started taking on editorial assignments and truly fell in love with documentary style photography. It was during this time (2000) that a friend offered me a studio space in his warehouse. Regardless of the subject or assignment, I love to use only available light more often than not. Unfortunately, that space had no windows. Again, my friend came to the rescue. He showed me an old warehouse space that was ridiculously large (around 10,000 sq ft) and, not only had no windows, but also had stood uninhabited for forty some odd years, was covered thick with brick dust, and had feral cats wandering around. I was in love. With the landlord’s promise to install windows and me bringing in forty gallons of white paint and endless elbow grease, the vision came to fruition. Studio A was born. Studio C, LLC, opened its doors officially in August of 2009, with the acquisition of a second space: studio B was previously a gallery, originally a garage, and had only required two gallons of white paint. I had begun

A friend showed me an old warehouse space that was ridiculously large, with no windows and feral cats wandering around. I was in love. laying the groundwork of this new business with the help of two other photographers, Tera Holcomb and Bryan Officer, who brought their own styles to the table, as well as sweat equity and a shared passion for photography. I made a conscious decision to finance everything myself, and all three of us began building the studio’s reputation by working as each others assistants, artistic directors and editors. I had always wanted to own a studio. From there I had the idea to create an entity that housed working photographers with varying degrees of expertise and experience, offering a “one stop shop” for clients. They come to us with a project and I connect them with a photographer who

fits their needs. Additionally, I wanted to offer other photographers and video production teams from in and out of state the option of renting out the facilities for their own projects. Both physical spaces offer very different things. Studio A is much more of a raw space, and certainly very large, offering an urban backdrop and functionality. Studio B is slightly more polished, smaller, and appealing to an entirely different demographic. The only obstacle thus far has been with getting equipment for those who want to rent the spaces. Everything that a working photographer in Detroit needs, they own. And usually their first purchase is a dolly with which to schlep it around. Detroit may seem an odd place to open not one, but two studios, and even more odd during the current economic climate. However, the work exists. The love for the city is here. Both studios are in the heart of Detroit, and photographers all live in the city. I think that to live in Anywhere, USA, and be a working photographer is much easier today. Having these studios certainly doesn’t limit us to working only here. In fact, the way it has really been most effective is when one of us is on assignment in another state, and Detroit-based assignments are distributed among the other Studio C photographers. Tera and Bryan have definitely been my saviors when it comes to making this work. They are associate photographers with different styles, different approaches and different functions. Tera is a documentary photographer/wrangler/resident recycler and psychologist, and Bryan is a high-end fashion/portrait photographer/Mr. Fix it/resident nerd and lighting genius. Without the support of these two, I would be years behind. It definitely helps to surround yourself with a greet team and to have confidence in their abilities to produce superior work. I hope they will accept this praise in lieu of a paycheck. The ultimate goal is to allow myself and my associates the freedom to take on extended projects in other locations, all generated by the studio. Working commercially and editorially has been very instrumental in keeping the studio up and running. To parlay that into opportunities to work on personal projects and treks around the universe would be the ultimate success. That, and the ability to photograph my dog all day while making a living. His name is Cash. So there’s our story. Three photographers. Two studios. One company. A city on the rise. And a dog named Cash.

Cybelle Codish: www.iamstudioc.com www.cybellecodish.com

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UNPRECEDENTED RENTAL PRODUCT SELECTION

Now there are even more reasons to rent from Calumet! Calumet is continually upgrading its rental inventory with the latest models of digital SLR cameras and lenses, medium format digital backs, lighting and grip equipment. If by chance we don’t have the equipment you’re looking for, just ask us and we will do our best to add it to our rental inventory. In order to make sure that your rental experience with Calumet is successful, all rental items are completely tested before you pick up your order so there are no surprises on the job. Our experienced staff will also make sure that you are comfortable with your equipment before you leave our door. All gear is available at great daily and weekly rates. Call one of our retail locations below for availability and rates. THINK RENTAL. THINK CALUMET.

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1.800.CALUMET (225.8638)

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NEW YORK, NY 212.989.8500 CAMBRIDGE, MA 617.576.2600 PHILADELPHIA, PA 215.399.2155 CHICAGO, IL 312.440.4920 OAK BROOK, IL 630.860.7458 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 415.643.9275 SANTA ANA, CA 714.285.0143 LOS ANGELES, CA 323.466.1238 SAN DIEGO, CA 760.737.6002 STORE HOURS: Call location for times or visit our website.

TECH, EQ & FLOW:

Color Management By Jodie Steen

The display is, in my opinion, the best starting point. No matter what role you play in the imaging process, everyone has to view images on a screen. While inexpensive LCD displays might work for less color-critical applications, a graphics monitor offers the ultimate in color control. A graphics display, such as the Eizo CG series, will produce better gray balance, smoother transitions in tone, and better evenness across the screen as compared to a standard LCD. These monitors have more control for contrast and color and also come with their own calibration software. This means that you can see an image with the utmost accuracy. When you consider that the cost of these displays has come down significantly (with prices starting at less than $1,400), and that the display will last about four to five years on average, this can be a wise investment. No matter which monitor is being used, calibration is a must. Try using a calibration system like the Eye One Display II with Eye One Match software (by X-Rite) if the display doesn’t come with its own calibration software. Even if it does, you will still need a calibrator, called a Colorimeter. Once the display is profiled, it’s time to take a look at the printer. The most common brand is Epson–everything from small desktop models all the way to professional wide format machines. No matter what printer you are using, the key concepts for getting accurate color remain the same. The key rule is to pick one way to color-manage files. Color can be managed through an application, such as Photoshop, or through the printer’s driver. The best way to send files to

print is to select a color profile in Photoshop, as seen in the print dialog box here:

Then, the color management should be turned OFF in the printer’s driver. The same concept is true no matter what brand of printer you are using. You may wonder, “Why is there even an option in the driver for color managing the printer if the color is so much better when managed in Photoshop?” This exists for programs that don’t allow you to apply profiles, such as Preview for example. When there is no option for applying a color profile in an application, the printer’s driver can be used instead. Color profiles are automatically installed when you install the printer, and there are usually several options based on the printer, paper, and ink combinations. If you want accurate color using a different paper, then a custom printer profile is a good option. You can only create a custom profile if you have a Spectrophotometer, a special device for reading color. If you don’t own one, or don’t want to invest the time and money into learning how to create profiles, then you can have a profile built by a color specialist. This can be done on site, or through an online profiling service. If you want to know what a file will look like when it’s printed on a press, then you will need a proof print. Gone are the days of needing a Matchprint or a Kodak Approval. With advanced RIP software, such as GMG, a wide format printer, and the whole system set up properly, inkjet proofs provide extremely accurate color. Making a proof print is different from making a regular old print on your Epson printer. RIP software is a key component in getting the printer to hit a specification, such as SWOP or GRACoL. SWOP is the spec that is used in

Jodie Steen: www. 127productions.com

s a color management consultant, the most common question I get is, “How do I make sure I’m getting accurate color?” Image creators and editors want to know that the image they are seeing on screen is representative of the file, that the display matches what comes out of the inkjet printer, and that the printed proof ultimately matches what shows up on press. It’s a tall order, but it’s not impossible!

the US for web presses; an example of this is magazine printing. If the file is being printed on a sheetfed press (such as a poster) in the United States, then you would use the GRACoL specification. Most retouching houses have systems that are set up to make these types of proofs. Another thing to look for is the control strip, as seen here:

You have probably seen this strip on prints before, and you may have wondered why it’s there and what to do with it. This control strip acts as a snapshot of the printing condition. With the right tools (such as an Eye One Spectrophotometer, and a color application capable of reading the strip, like Measure Tool), you can scan the

strip and compare the measured data to the data of GRACoL or SWOP. This way you can see how far off the printed proof is from the specification. These values are measured in “Delta E”, which is simply the difference in colors. A delta E value of 1 would be extremely close to the specification, whereas a higher value would suggest that the proof does not match the specification very well. A high number is also an indication of a bad proof. Sometimes

accurate color is critical for everyone. At the most basic level, calibrating the monitor is a good start to getting accurate color. From there, understanding how to print to an inkjet printer allows you to manage the colors in-house. If the next step is handing a file off to an outside printer, then providing a proof print that matches SWOP or GRACoL is the best way to predict what the colors will look like on press. Whether your color needs are basic or complex,

you may see a printed label on the proof that shows the Delta E values. In this case, the proof provider has done the work for you, measuring the proof before it leaves the shop and verifying that the proof matches.

setting up a color-managed environment saves time, money, and perhaps most importantly, frustration.

No matter where you fit in the imaging process,

T H E T R A N S FO R M AT I O N O F

ARC By Marc Cadiente I Photos by Adam Sherwin

On any given day, the block of West 18th Street, just northwest of Union Square, offers a quintessential New York scene, full of sights, sounds, and smells. People crowd the construction-laden street, weaving in and out of bookstores, pizzerias, salons and shops. One only has to pause for a moment to get a sense of the city around him, but to capture this image one can start at Adorama, the photography mega store nestled in the middle of the block. Adorama is more than just a store. Like the city itself, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a place with a rich history that faces changing times head-on.

By this time, young Mendel was an integral part of the business, and it was only natural for him to take the helm. In the fourth floor conference room, Mendlowits sits at the table and recalls memories that inevitably contain cameras. “When I was a kid, a ten year old, I would count the parts in bed. I loved them. And I used to accompany my father to the post office to ship off merchandise. It’s like a religion. It’s in my blood.” His love for the equipment, however, didn’t translate to becoming a photographer but rather a better businessman. “Technically speaking, I know zilch, but I do know how to hire good people, and I know how to make a deal.” Mendlowits has been in the business for over fifty years and the way Adorama is run reflects his own down-to-earth attitude and genuine care for people. Adorama boasts a knowledgeable and friendly staff maintaining the feel of old photo shops where customers are provided for on a one-on-one basis. “We show people every product [in a range of what they’re searching for] and put it in their hands.” The philosophy is simple: serve customers

Ten years after the 34th Street store opening, Adorama faced a dilemma—it was outgrowing the space. Mendel felt it was in the business’s best interest to invest in its own building and found Adorama’s current location on 18th Street. For the first several years, the top floors were rented out while the retail store occupied the storefront. But with business flourishing, one by one, Adorama reclaimed each of the floors. Today, the company owns the neighboring building, another building on 17th Street, and a 130,000 square feet warehouse in Elizabeth, NJ, all housing some part of the business operation. Still most of the action takes place on 18th Street. Besides the retail space, the upper levels house the administrative offices, photography learning center, a dive shop (yes, a real dive shop that one of Mendel’s sons opened under the family business umbrella), and a new and improved rental department that promises to expand the business even further. The photography learning center is another way with which Adorama can better serve its clientele, providing anything from new equipment tutorials to more specific seminars and workshops. Just last year, over 1,000 patrons took advantage of the workshops that aim to benefit photographers at all levels. Even if Adorama flourished, improvements always need to be made to increase customer loyalty and improve areas that were slumping—in particular, their rental department. Helping to change the way photographers look at Adorama is Director of Business Development Miguel Goodbar. Born in Argentina, Miguel came to the United States in 1993 with a passion for photography. Here, he attended the International Center of

Adam Sherwin: www.adamsherwin.com

“My father would go to the stores and try to sell the cameras,” Mendlowits recalls. “They thought he was a beggar, but that’s how we lived. We were able to live for over a year selling those cameras.” Success wasn’t far behind. Having saved enough money, Mendlowits’s father expanded to wholesale, importing camera parts and other equipment. By 1977, the family business had grown and the first brick and mortar retail store opened on 34th Street in Herald Square with the name Adorama.

properly and they become loyal. “When customers are looking for [photography equipment], I want them to think of Adorama first.” Further, the company encourages their customers to rent equipment before they purchase it as a way to road-test it first. Mendlowits’ concern for people doesn’t end at the client. It extends to his employees. “When I come in I like to see my people smiling. We’re a team; I’m not a boss. I always respect people’s advice and ask for assistance.”

ARC: www.adoramarental.com

t all started in 1952 with the necessity to survive for a Hasidic Jewish family. Adorama owner Mendel Mendlowits was just nine years old when he, his parents and six siblings escaped the Holocaust and immigrated to New York. Medlowits’ father, planning for their future in America, decided to bring something—anything— to sell in the new country and make a living. That something happened to be cameras—and for no other reason than that they were easily transportable. With two Leicas strapped around each of their necks and some lenses in their bags, the Mendlowits family boarded the ship that would bring them to salvation.

RENTAL IS RETAIL, AND IN THIS BUSINESS, FAST NICKELS ARE BETTER THAN SLOW DOLLARS. Photography before moving on to a photography assistant job. But, as most assistants know, the pay tends to be low and slow, so he turned to equipment rental where he learned firsthand about new products. Miguel became an expert in the field and he passed this knowledge on to photography professionals whom he encountered on the job. Soon he became well known and well liked. “People rely on [my] expertise, but I do this because I like to help people.” Miguel worked for such rental companies as Foto Care and the now defunct 5th and Sunset (at one point even creating his own organization, After Sunset, aimed at helping photo assistants and emerging photographers get into the industry). He was eventually contacted by Adorama and asked to join their team to help bring in more clientele. Miguel, a charismatic businessman with a passion for photography, took this as an opportunity to improve Adorama’s rental department that had been suffering from a bad reputation. How could Mendlowits and his team resist the good-natured and smart man with a plan? The first steps in improving the department was to physically renovate the space. On the sixth floor, walls came crashing down revealing windows that had been forgotten for years. Natural light poured into the space, marking a new era. Furthermore, Adorama invested $2 million to replace old equipment. The rental department also boasts the lowest rental fees in the US, and they have it down to a science. The team spent months studying all the variables to determine prices of equipment; how many times products could be rented, labor that goes into it, resale value, etcetera, and took those numbers and redesigned their fee structure. Rental is retail, and in this business, fast nickels are better than slow dollars. “People love us; competitors hate us,” Miguel says with a smile. After much restructuring, Adorama’s rental department, now known as ARC (Adorama Rental Co.)—Miguel’s idea to create a hip, catchy name and image—is being recognized for all the right reasons. And since the improvements were made, business has doubled. Miguel took on the large task of transforming Adorama Rentals into ARC, updating its branding and creating a more relatable identity that promised to carry the company through to the next level.

So far, his work has been nothing short of successful. ARC’s ads now feel more modern and carry on the message that it is a powerful resource for anyone interested in photography. Miguel continues his work to further develop Adorama and ARC, and his plans are grand, though at the moment they’re still hushhush. But as he says, like the photography industry, “it’ll just get better and better.” Adorama has become an establishment that fits in perfectly on that bustling block in the middle of New York. But it’s more than just a business; it’s a tradition that allows people to capture the world the way they see it through equipment, and most importantly knowledge. Adorama is a story of success—a business born from necessity to survive in a city that can make or break a person. Thankfully, Adorama made the Mendlowits family as much as they made it. The seeds of the business took root in the 1950s, and with its ability to adapt to the industry and allow fresh ideas to enter its doors, there’s no reason why the company won’t be around for another fifty plus years and beyond.

AD ROCKS:

HSBC By Justin Musching I Artwork courtesy of JWT

dvertising for financial institutions tends to project images of stability and security. They’re big on wise paternal figures patiently explaining the importance of their company and how they can help you better than their competitors could; they’re not so big on dread-locked anarchists taking to the streets to bring down The Man, man. When they do feature such chaotic imagery, it’s only to demonstrate how they can protect you from the chance occurrences that sometimes send your world into a spiral. House burned down? You won’t have to worry if you have our insurance. Got knocked up? Start an account for the little tyke so you can pay for college. Aliens invade? We will keep your cash money safe until they are felled by a common virus.

For the past few years, HSBC, which touts itself as “The world’s local bank,” has been taking a dramatically alternative route. In a campaign conceived by advertising firm JWT, the global banking group has plastered airports and city streets with posters highlighting the differences between people, examining how our viewpoints and values affect the world around us. You’ve probably seen one iteration or another of this campaign. When it first premiered under the title “Different Points of View,” it utilized matching images with titles that defined them in completely different ways. In one, a picture of a tattooed biceps is paired with one of hennaed hands. The tattoo is labeled “trendy” and the henna “traditional,” but the pictures are then repeated with the labels switched. Another version shows a young boy John Woo-ing with toy pistols and a little girl putting on adult makeup. The switching labels here are “shocking” and “amusing.” The current incarnation of the campaign, “Different Points of Value,” applies different labels to the same picture. A plastic water bottle, for example, is either “healthy,” “fashionable,” or “wasteful,” while a nighttime skyline is “glorified,” “vilified” and “gentrified.” Though the American creative team of Peter Seterdahl, Michael Hart, and Damian Totman came up with the overall idea, individual concepts and executions were created by JWT teams all over the world. The images, meanwhile, were not taken from stock photo resources but commissioned from carefully briefed photographers, including Henrik Knudson, Conor Masterson, Thirza Schaap, Sara Morris, and John Clang. HSBC has further reached out to its audience by inviting people to share their own unique point of view and set of values. The original campaign targeted 97 million passengers in seventy airports with ads that featured a website, www. yourpointofview.com, where people could provide their opinions on a wide range of subjects and issues. And they

responded: over one and a half million users submitted their thoughts over the course of eighteen months. “Different Points of Values” continues this online and interactive approach through the HSBC Soapbox, a website that lets people voice their opinions on topics like family, education, nuclear power, marriage, and fast food. The Soapbox also extends to public events where random volunteers are filmed as they speak about the things that matter to them. “In a world of creeping globalization, most global banks look at the world and their customers in a homogenous way,” notes JWT’s Axel Chaldecot, TeamHSBC Global Creative Director. “HSBC has a very different stance. If you are going to lay claim to being ‘the world’s local bank,’ you have to embrace people’s differences.” In doing so, the campaign has not solely stuck to safe topics either. While few are likely to come to blows debating fast food, immigration is another matter, a truly controversial topic that can set people off. The campaign, however, finds a way to make this sensitivity work for it. After all, they’re not judging any view points or calling one better than the other; they’re merely showcasing the broad spectrum of opinion in the world, all the while subtly reminding you that, whether you believe in open or closed borders, your will find a trusted friend in HSBC. By couching hot topics in a friendly demeanor, the bank is establishing a brand attitude for one and all. “What this campaign clearly does is to state that HSBC is primarily interested in people,” writes Chaldecot. “This outtake is not abstract, as we all would like to be treated as an individual in a non-prejudiced and respectful way.” HSBC has managed to tap into one of our greatest fears—that our opinions are being ignored or dismissed—and make it work for their bottom line. It’s savvy advertising, yet it possesses a strangely comfortable center. We may not be invited onto talk shows or into the halls of Congress to share our passionate thoughts, but we can always go to the HSBC Soapbox to vent.

INTERVIEW:

Russ Hardin By Lewis Van Arnam I Photo by Ian Gittler

recently had the pleasure of sitting with seasoned Creative Director Russ Hardin. Russ is a well-respected brand consultant with over twenty years of experience in building product recognition. Through his highly innovative campaigns he’s helped to create new and enduring identities for luxury fashion retailers, designers and manufacturers—often on a global scale. His résumé includes great American brands such as Marshall Field’s and Lord & Taylor, cosmetics giant Avon, and luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue. His company, christensenHARDIN llc, provides a wide range of creative and branding services across all media. He is a recipient of both Clio and Moebius awards for print and radio.

We all have one “I wish I thought of that” idea. What’s yours? For me it’s the 2006 “Bravia” TV spot, by Fallon/London for Sony’s new LCD TVs. Those 50,000 colored, bouncing balls that blew out of ten cannons, through the hilly streets of San Francisco, took on a life force of their own. It was the definition of real genius. I’ve never seen any TV spot that better captured the excitement of color—and did NOT employ any computer graphics or enhancement. It was simply a brilliant idea—and brilliantly executed.

OK, let’s take Abercrombie & Fitch, for example. When Bruce Weber began shooting A&F it was incredibly controversial (though it was nothing new from Bruce!). What made it rock was his particular view of men and women, which, until then, had mostly graced the editorial pages of top fashion magazines or powered the heady ad campaigns of European fashion houses. That vision was suddenly thrust into Middle America’s living-room and WOW, those young, sexy, sweaty, perfectly sculpted, pouting boys and girls caused a firestorm! It was exactly what intelligent, targeted advertising should do because it brought into sharp 3D the DNA of that sexy, young and dangerous brand. A&F, in this new incarnation, demanded you look (or stare!) and, above all—buy into it. And teenagers everywhere did—en masse! Fast forward to today and observe a more toned-down A&F, with fewer models, more lay-downs, and mathematically less skin on display (probably by design). Sales have trended down to a point where people are thinking, “What in the world?” The company faces a drop off approaching 20%. It kept pounding out the same message, but the controversy had worn off. This is partly due to the advent of skin-baring reality shows and non-stop shopping opportunities online, replete with blogs, chat rooms and social networks of their own. Management somehow failed to sense this shift. Is it possible that someone was asleep at the wheel when a new, great idea was needed? I think so. By the time customers let you know they’re tired of

Ian Gittler: www.lvaplus.com

Where would you like to apply your talents? I would love to get my hands on a brand like Abercrombie & Fitch, or The Gap, or another legendary brand that, I believe, has “fallen and can’t get up!” Super-brands like these have marvelous histories and iconic campaigns. All are textbook examples of branding. Unfortunately brands, just like people, often lose their way. The familiar marketing response is to keep giving customers what they like. They liked last year’s campaign—so let’s do it again, and again, and again. I simply believe that creativity, in all its forms, is what will provide the lifeboat for compromised brands. Newness. Surprise. Excitement. Giving people something unexpected—a bit of theater—is what’s needed. Consumers want something they can believe in, and trust. Authenticity is the highest hurdle for any brand to overcome. People are overwhelmed and have become skeptical about what’s out there. All companies, all products, all brands have to constantly re-prove themselves to a doubting, gun-shy public.

Russ Hardin: www.christensenhardin.com

We’re in a very transparent business, that is to say, every creative execution is on display for all to see. Does this create an invigorating atmosphere, or does it make you feel that all the great ideas have been used up? I don’t think all the great ideas are gone—or used up yet. Right now it seems that everyone is too cautious and unwilling to take a chance and, as we know, great ideas usually call for a little leap of faith. The numbing state of today’s economy follows a decade of pack mentality in the advertising community—and certainly fashion advertising is the most glaring example. Somewhere along the way conceiving a new idea, and then working to realize it, was replaced with the supermodel/super shooter solution. What I perceive as a slide in creativity is, in many parts, attributable to the unimaginative leadership of most fashion brands and department, or specialty stores. Visionaries like Phil Miller, Rose Marie Bravo, Gerry Stutz and Stanley Marcus have, unfortunately, been replaced by “company robots” who stalk the bottom line at the expense of everything else. The baseball bat that’s usually swung to keep everyone in line is branding. Branding, by its innate nature, provides guidelines and unifying elements so a company’s product can be recognized across diverse markets and cultures. Take Coca Cola, IBM, McDonald’s, Goodyear Tires…. strong brands with mass appeal. But lately it seems that branding has devolved to a series of handcuffs and straightjackets used by inexperienced, uneasy company leaders to wrangle everything down to the lowest common denominator. It’s a place where ideas and concepts gasp and then die—where the most mundane and harmless message can be understood by all and, very often, simply ignored. The positive contributions to be gained by intelligently applying the best aspects of branding are still valuable and necessary. What is not valid, however, is the reckless use of these tenants to squelch what’s new, what’s controversial, what ultimately gets attention.

you—you’ve lost them. And it’s murder to get them back. But with all this said, I still believe there’s a brilliant next step for A&F—if they want to look for it. The dangerous comfort in having such initial success is that it spoils you for that next great idea. Rose Marie Bravo, former CEO of Burberry, reinvigorated that tired brand by simply reinventing how their signature plaid was used. It seemed like the answer had been sitting there for years, but it took Ms. Bravo to see it—and then to do something about it.

you, your head and your unique view of the world. Bring something of yourself to everything you do—even if it’s something only you will recognize. Don’t get me wrong—in the end, the concept has to support the creative brief and account for marketing and consumer insights, but it should have your mark on it somewhere, that special something that makes it your idea. Otherwise you’re just regurgitating what’s already out there, someone else’s “great idea.” Be original—it’s harder, but in the end much, much more satisfying.

It’s been said that in difficult economic times the public looks for fantasy “feel good” experiences, such as movies, theater, etc... Is shopping on that list? I think our current economic state precludes the escapist mentality. In previous difficult times, the entertainment industry flourished, but back then it was less complicated to deliver some kind of relief to a battered public. Today’s public is a victim of over-messaging, over-marketing and is over-saturated with invitations to escape. Once a fail-safe placebo, shopping has now been replaced by a stark reserve and a newly found cynicism for material expenditures. The best thing right now is to discover a way to enjoin consumers with something that can make them feel better. American Idol is a shining example of what people really want—that is, to feel recognized and appreciated as someone who has something to offer. How then, in turn, can companies and brands create these platforms for their customers? How do you join a marketing message with a human invitation to be a part of something? That’s the alchemy of what’s needed right now.

On the flip side, how would you advise emerging photographers? When it comes to photographers, my advice is simply, “Be known for what you’re brilliant at doing.” Beware the tenant “Jack of all trades, master of none.” This is New York, an international crossroad for creative resource, and here, clients seek top of the line talent. Even in a struggling economy, clients want to “buy” the best, and getting the biggest bang for their buck means engaging the best talent within their budget. Reps are more important now than ever. Never undervalue your services. Low-balling, just to get a job, rarely works in the long run.

You obviously draw these conclusions from your experience, but you also express the need for fresh thinking and a break from predictability. Are these two elements, experience and innovation, reconcilable? It’s not a matter of age or length of time in the business. It’s about remaining fresh. Newness comes in many forms, and it’s a question of balance—of knowing your audience. Does your concept push the buttons it should? Does it show an understanding of the brand—or is it a slick placebo that might work for a lot of other brands? Balance. Newness. Freshness. Experience. Those are the big four for me. Innovation, when joined with experience, is truly exhilarating. How has this translated in your career? I think my work speaks for itself—that’s a nice thing to be able to say. Throughout all my work I hope people find a thread of humanity, dignity, surprise and humor. I’ve never been a brash talent. What I do, I believe, is thoughtful, well-executed and unique. So often, when developing a new concept, I’ve not been able to rely on swipe to explain it to a client. I either have to draw it, write a brief about it, or somehow act it out. I’m fairly well-known for my dramatic readings of new concepts to an unwitting audience of decision-makers. They thought they were coming to see a PowerPoint presentation—only to find me with a script in hand! What advice do you have for the next generation of “Russ Hardin” hopefuls? By all means try to have an original idea. Don’t rely on finding that perfect piece of swipe that will wow your audience. Just because you found this great image in Vogue, or online somewhere, doesn’t necessarily make it genius! It starts with

In conclusion, how would you describe the current psychological state of our industry? How is “defeated”? You’d think the timing is perfect for new, exciting ideas and concepts. The opposite is true. Companies and brands are doing less rather than more. Budgets have been stripped to the bone. In addition, this financial downturn has given some companies the opportunity to squeeze all their vendors and resources as hard as possible using the handy “economy” excuse. But what’s a person to do? If you don’t choose to work for what’s offered, you stand the chance of being sidelined and forgotten. The decision therefore is a personal one. Trying to balance getting the work, while not getting completely taken advantage of, is tricky. My best advice is to stick close to home. You can’t beat the leg-up you have when someone knows you—or knows of you.

By Marc Cadiente

The universe. An ecosystem. An advertising group. What these three things have in common is that each are like the human body, containing many separate components that support each other so that everything within it is interconnected, ensuring a harmonious and stable whole. Big advertising groups have interests in a lot of other companies—not just advertising agencies but other communication outfits, from social and media networks to public relations, focus group research to online marketing, and package design to event production, among a seemingly endless list of services. These smaller companies make up the bigger enterprise. Like the human body, within advertising groups, there sometimes are duplicate components that provide the same function to the whole system. This is where the similarities end. Whereas the body’s health is dependent on all parts working together—interconnected and interdependent—ad agencies, oddly enough, compete against one another, even if sometimes (and quite often) they belong to the same group. In this case, the ad agencies become more like independent bodies—family members—within the family, and their contentions—acts of sibling rivalry, if you will. The family trees we show here present only a fraction of such advertising groups.

Omnicom Group Headquarters: New York, New York, USA

Arnell BBDO Worldwide DDB Worldwide Element 79 Goodby, Silverstein & Partners GSD&M Idea City Merkley + Partners TBWA\Worldwide Zimmerman Advertising

WPP Group

10AM Communications

IdeaWorks

Headquarters: London, United Kingdom (Head office)

20:20 Brand Action

Jan Kelley Marketing

24/7 Real Media

Johannes Leonardo

A.Eicoff

JWT

Added Value

Kang & Lee Advertising

Addison

Lambie-Nairn

Bates 141

Malone Advertising

Blaze Advertising

Mando Brand Assurance

BrandBuzz

Master Comunicacao

Brouillard

Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

bsb comunicacion

RTCRM

BTS United

SCPF

Burson-Marsteller

Spot Runner

CAW Marketing

tagora

CHI&Partners

Team Detroit

Chime Communications Plc

Testardo Gram

Contract Advertising

The Brand Shop

Dialogue 141

The Bravo Group

Enfatico

the campaign palace

Etcom

The Jupiter Drawing Room

Grey Group

The Partners

Happi Mindshare

UniWorld Group

Hogarth Worldwide

Wunderman

HS Ad

Y&R

Interpublic Group of Companies Headquarters: New York, New York, USA

Accentmarketing

Lowe Worldwide

Ansible

MacLaren McCann

Avrett Free Ginsberg

Marketel

Campbell Mithun

McCann Erickson Worldwide

Campbell-Ewald

MRM Worldwide

Carmichael Lynch

Mullen

Casanova Pendrill

The Martin Agency

Dailey

Tierney Communications

Deutsch Inc., a Lowe & Partners Company

TM Advertising

Draftfcb Fitzgerald+CO FutureBrand Gotham Inc. H&T Hill Holliday Ingenuity Media Group IW Group

Publicis

Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH)

Dentsu

Ad Gear Ltd.

Headquarters: Paris, France

Burrell Communications Group

Headquarters: Minato, Tokyo, Japan

Attik Ltd.

Conill Advertising Digitas Fallon Worldwide Kaplan Thaler Group Leo Burnett Worldwide Publicis Worldwide Razorfish Saatchi & Saatchi ZenithOptimedia

Havas

Archibald ingall stretton

Headquarters: Suresnes, France

As Publicidad Euro RSCG Group Fuel Communications Havas Group ICU Publicidad La Petite BoĂŽte

Caetsu Publicidade S.A. Cayenne s.r.l. D2 Communications Inc. Dentsu Group Drive Communication Frontage Inc. McGarry Bowen, LLC Publicis Groupe S.A. Wunderman Dentsu Inc.

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PHOTOGRAPHY INDUSTRY T E LV I S I O N

RESOURCE MAGAZINE NOW IN AN EASY TO READ VIDEO FORMAT

Motion Graphics by:

www.resourcetelevision.com

Brought to you by:

six days in Words and Photos by Simon Biswas

Haiti

Day 1 - Jan 16th 2010 It has been a grueling forty-eight hours but I made it. I am at a little hotel in Santo Domingo with a bunch of French journalists. I flew in this morning. My flight was at 6:00am, but it was delayed until about 10:30am. As a result I missed meeting up the other photographers from New York who I had been in contact with back home. I was left to figure out my own way in. I am totally exhausted and terrified and have an overwhelming sense of dread. There is a wedding going on downstairs by the pool. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a strange juxtaposition because in less than twenty-four hours I am going to be in downtown Port Au Prince. It was the same at JFK. People on my plane were all dressed for a tropical vacation while just a spitting distance away thousands of people are dead. I guess life goes on. The airport in the Dominican Republic was Hellâ&#x20AC;Ś I just showed up without knowing anyone and hoped someone would let me tag along. It took me four tries but it worked. Channel One News out of New York got me through customs and then everyone afterward blew me off as a liability. I waited around until I met a group of French journalists who were looking to hire a car to go across the border; they were more than happy to have me. I am meeting everyone for dinner in about half an hour. There are all sorts of weird tropical bugs in my room and for the first time all day I have cell phone service. We leave for the border at 4:00am.

Day 2 - Jan 17th 2010 We made it. I am sitting in the garden of the French Ambassador’s Residence in Port Au Prince. The actual residence has collapsed. I somehow managed to get in with two of the French journalists, Coco and Lela. They told the guards I was their American assistant. The residence is home to over a thousand aid and relief workers and is a high tech tent city of its own. There are clean water, food, chemical toilets, showers, and the engineers are working on setting up satellites for Internet and communications. We woke up at 3:30am and had our driver pick us up from the hotel. From there we drove for about ten hours into downtown Port Au Prince. The drive was long and the closer we got to Haiti, the more tense I became. The border at Jamina was the most chaotic and stressful part. Nothing but military and barbed wire. There were journalists everywhere. Hundreds of refugees and aid workers coming and going. We drove past a truck full of refugees and nuns. All the nuns were wearing crosses around their necks and gas masks on their faces. People had warned me there were bandits waiting at the border hijacking aid convoys. Guns and drug traffic are a recurring problem even during the best of times. Once we crossed over I realized there was no turning back. We got over the border with no problem. No one even checked our passports or paperwork. The real question is, how am I going to get back? I never really took the time to think that far ahead. I now know what the end of the world looks like. Downtown PaP is the most horrendous thing I have ever seen. There are no words to describe the destruction. The chaos is so great I can’t really comprehend what is around me. A camera is not enough to tell the story. I watched people pull bodies from buildings and leave them in the streets. Every building has collapsed—it’s as if the city has been hit by an atomic bomb. There is no electricity, no water, no food. The smell is overwhelming. People burn garbage in the streets along with bodies. There is an acrid stench of death that fills the air. Everyone is wearing masks around their faces, but the smell is so overpowering it makes no difference. There are dead bodies everywhere. Sometimes you can’t see them but, as you walk past a building, you can smell death and you know people are still inside. We were mobbed by people asking for help and supplies. I could do nothing.

Day 3 - Jan 18th 2010 I woke up to the sound of roosters at dawn. Coco, Lela and I found the Villa Créole Hotel by accident. What a fortunate chain of events. The hotel itself has more or less collapsed, but they are still renting out rooms to journalists. We arrived and there was hot coffee and free continental breakfast. They also have electricity and Internet, and the best part is that the place is teeming with journalists who speak English. For the past thirty-six hours or so I have been with French people, saying little and understanding less. The hotel staff takes the time to clean the pool every morning. People are trying to hold onto their sense of purpose and routine, but to me it’s just baffling. The entire hotel has collapsed but some guy is cleaning the pool? Really? I spent the morning talking to people and gathering information. I shot at the University General Hospital during the afternoon. From what I understand, it’s the only hospital left standing. The situation is grim. The doctors there are calling it “civil war surgery.” They had 150 amputations yesterday and another 150 today, and most likely the same amount tomorrow. I have never seen such a gruesome, sad sight. So many people with nowhere to go. The doctors are completely understaffed and under-equipped. Amputees are getting Tylenol for their pain. I lost Lela and Coco in the chaos. There were thousands of people waiting for anything. The resilience of these people is incredible. One doctor told me the reason the Haitians are still alive is because of their cultural conditioning. They are used to such harsh conditions that they have the ability to endure. He said if this happened in New York, everyone would be dead in three days. I made it back to the Villa Créole this evening with some aid workers in the back of a truck. I was told never to go out after dark. This was the first time seeing the city at night. People are everywhere and the streets are pitch black except for headlights and bonfires. When I made it back Lela was already sitting by the pool, working. She handed me a beer and a cigarette and I sat down in a daze. We had walked through the gates of Hell. I’m numb. No emotions I have experienced up until this point in my life can compare. I am happy to be safe, but dreading tomorrow. I just heard gun shots a hundred feet away beyond the hotel wall.

Day 4 - Jan 19th 2010 I didn’t get much sleep last night. We never made it back to the French Ambassador’s Residence. I slept under a tree in a little courtyard area within the hotel compound with nothing but a sheet. I spent the day on the back of a motorcycle with Lela. By far the most dangerous possible thing one can do in Haiti, but also one of the most fun. For the first time in four days I had a smile on my face. No helmets, darting in and out of traffic at sixty miles an hour, going the wrong way into oncoming traffic. There is really no other way to get around town since all the streets are destroyed and traffic is too heavy. Here I could be killed by falling buildings, disease, gun shot, among a slew of many other things, so does it really make a difference if I ride on a motorcycle? “Today we enjoy because tomorrow we could die.” Jimmy, a Dominican aid worker. I spent the day at the airport talking to the military about the aid effort. We just walked right out onto the tarmac with zero hassle. There are no rules here. No security. It seems as if reality has been suspended. The airport is totally destroyed. It was a ghost town.There was no one. Rooms full of luggage. Things scattered everywhere. Paperwork strewn about. I was free to do as I pleased. To get out onto the tarmac we had to crawl through the space on the luggage belt where the ground crew puts the bags on the carousel. The other side was a totally different story. The tarmac was frenzied with helicopters, planes, aid and military. We interviewed some people and left. Lela had a deadline to meet. It looked like rain. Rain is bad news. With all the destroyed rubble and dead bodies rain means disease. A doctor told me there would be different stages to a disaster. The first is the initial trauma and injuries directly inflicted by the earthquake. The second is infection, and the third is disease. If it rains, all the rotting bodies and filth will seep into the water and disease will spread like wildfire. Diseases the western world hasn’t seen in centuries. Cholera, being number one, could kill thousands of more people. We made it back to the Villa Créole and I spent the afternoon drinking beers on AP’s tab. I wanted to go out on my own and work but I knew it was not a smart idea. Lela had to finish her story, so I waited, frustrated. “Patience and fluidity,” the two things I keep telling myself everyday. Nothing here can be planned. Nothing can be anticipated. There has been a lot of waiting so far. Today I realized that I won’t make it here two weeks like I had originally planned. Mentally it might destroy me. But financially I just didn’t bring enough money with me. There are no banks and the Haitians know we are dependent on them to be guides, fixers, and translators. I’ll be lucky if I make it through the weekend. We are heading back to what I am now calling my other home, the French Embassy. It’s getting dark.

Day 5 - Jan 20th 2010 The earth moved under me as if it were Jell-O. I woke up at dawn to the rolling of thunder and the ground beneath me rippling like water. When I came to I was standing outside my tent in a daze with a thousand French aid workers and volunteers looking completely stunned. Without anyone having to say anything, the very core of me knew that was another huge earthquake. We found out later that there was a 6.1 aftershock. Everyone has stories of where they were when it happened. A friend of mine was at the La Plaza Hotel where CNN is satying and said all of CNN was running around in their underwear. One foreign correspondent fell two stories off his balcony and hit his head on the concrete. People found him laying in a pool of blood. Lela and Coco wanted to go to the epicenter of the second earthquake in Boucan, but decided not to when their driver said it was four hours away and would cost at least $500. I was pleased—I didn’t want to go on another crazy mission deeper into Haiti when we had more than we could handle right here. We all decided to go back to the Villa Créole where I met up with Adam, another photographer from New York. He was one of the original people I was supposed to meet at the airport in the DR. We linked up and I split off from the Frenchies for a bit and headed out around town for the day. We went to the Hotel Montana, back to the hospital, downtown, to an orphanage in Petionville, and then back to the Villa Créole. It’s been a long day and my ass hurts from spending it on a motorcycle. Military presence has definitely increased. Today was the first day I’d seen Hummers and convoys of soldiers around PaP. Earlier in the week there were scatterings of UN Military Police and that was it. The hospital is now locked down tight. We spent half an hour talking our way in. As a result of this morning’s earthquake, all the patients had to be moved outside. It was chaos. There were people everywhere just baking in the sun. It had to be close to eight-five degrees and there was no protection from the sun in the hospital courtyard. People were covering themselves with pieces of cardboard to have some sort of shade while others just endured. The military has started setting up medical tents and moving people there. The Hotel Montana is equally a mess and there is a list of missing persons who have yet to be found, including several Americans. There are search and rescue teams camped out around the rubble working around the clock. I doubt they will find anyone alive. The orphanage was a bust. Adam and I spent an hour or so off-roading to meet up with his friends from CNN only to find we were in their way. We left. I was surprised to find out that all the children spoke perfect English. Adam went back to hospital to spend the night and help deliver babies. Lela and Coco went back to the French Embassy, and I just had my first shower in five days. It was ice cold, but it was incredible. Some private contractors running security for the press let me use the shower in their hotel room. They said I looked three shades lighter when I came out. I am going to spend the night here. No need to travel after dark. I am sitting by the pool writing this, listening to all the journalists run around and the now familiar sound of gun shots. Everyone is worried about civil unrest and violence. A Brazilian journalist who lives here told me that now that the shock was over, people were going back to regular Haiti, which is an unforgiving place. Adam is talking about trying to fly out tomorrow. Sounds like a good idea. I’ve only been here five days but it’s time to go.

Simon Biswas: www.simonbiswas.com

Day 6 - Jan 21st 2010 I am finishing a margarita at Chili’s Too in the Fort Lauderdale Airport. I feel like a zombie, like I’m floating in a dream. Nothing makes sense. How did I get here? I woke up this morning at the Villa Créole after another terrible night’s sleep. I spent most of the morning with a bunch of ex-military guys, listening to their stories of Sable rounds and ethnic cleansing. One of them said Haiti was like a vacation in comparison to his tours in places like Serbia. I believed him. I waited till Adam showed up. He had had a long night at the hospital. He told me a volunteer there had a nervous breakdown. She just snapped. She screamed through the night and no one could calm her down. This place was too much for her. She was with a group of Scientologists. What is going to happen to her? They don’t believe in mental health. The plan was to head for the airport. Adam was packed and I followed his lead. There was no need for me to stay any longer. I was low on cash and I had seen all I needed to see. It was all the same no matter where you went. Collapsed buildings, dead bodies, people suffering... I had had enough. I said goodbye to my new ex-military friends and headed to pick up my stuff at the French embassy and wish Lela and Coco farewell. By now, the US military had taken control of the airport and only let people with passports in. We waited in line. No one spoke English and the woman directing into the megaphone spoke no Creole. No one had any idea what was going on. Everyone wanted to leave. I saw one woman with a child. The baby had a US passport but she did not. The federal agent said, “This baby is good to go, we’ll take her but you have to get out of the line.” We finally made it and asked her the best way to get out onto the tarmac. She said, “As fast as you can. Hold your passport up, keep your head down, and go.” That’s exactly what we did. There was a tiny charter jet out on the tarmac with its stairs down—that was our ticket out of here. We walked straight up to the plane and asked the captain if there was room for two more. He asked us if we had US passports. We did. He let us on. I didn’t believe it. It couldn’t be that easy—but it was. I didn’t even think of asking where the plane was going until we were on. In ninety minutes we were in Miami. I wanted to weep. The plane was a millionaire’s private jet that he lent to take people back and forth between the US and Haiti. The pilot told us they had done thirty-five flights in the past week. We landed, got out, and, just as quickly as it had happened, it was all over and I was on my way home. I can’t describe what happened over the course of that week. These are just the facts. I felt helpless from start to finish. I could have helped but chose not to. I was there to take photographs. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t even know why I was there. The decision to go was made in a split second. One moment I thought, “What if…” and the next I was on a plane. Now that I’m home I feel like I never even went. I was on autopilot through the whole experience. I was there but not there at all. I didn’t take those pictures. Some other part of me did. I never once thought about the ethical concerns of story telling or journalistic integrity or the fine line between voyeurism and documenting. It was only after I got back to the US that those concepts played a factor. There was no right or wrong or “How should I cover this?” There was a city that had been destroyed and everywhere you turned there was something to photograph. I didn’t have an agenda. I didn’t have an assignment. My mission was to take photographs. Whatever they may be—good, bad, horrible, or otherwise. This was real. This was around me. Why shy away from the truth? People ask me, “How was Haiti?” and I don’t know how to answer.

stop assisting Stop Assisting provides photo assistants and emerging photographers with an open forum to help them get to t he next stage of their career. Led by Adorama, Profoto, Resource Magazine and Tribeca Skyline Studios, Stop A ssisting is a way into the industry and out of assisting. We are here to connect, facilitate and provide for the rise of new photography. Potential members are selected on the strength of their work. A Stop Assisting membership runs for six months and gives access to intimate seminars and one on one tutorship. Different topics are discussed during each session, from how to budget a shoot to how to market yourself. Assignments are regularly scheduled. We are showing here some of these assignments.

ASSIGNMENT: Environmental portraiture. The subject is Benjamin Kaufman, a small business organizer based in San Francisco. CONTACT: Gabriela Herman - www.gabrielaherman.com

h GABRIELA HERMAN

f TONY GALE

ASSIGNMENT: Landscape implying an unhealthy heart, shot on location in Florida. CONTACT: Tony Gale - www.tonygale.com

ASSIGNMENT: Fashion imagery. The picture is titled “Fortress Around My Heart.” It belongs to a larger series, “I wish I were.” It’s a very personal interpretation of past/future experiences. Even though that image is sad, I envision the whole editorial as very cheeky and vivid, with slight reference to the children stories of “The Shock Headed Peter.” The talent, a five and a half old girl, is wearing a very highend grown up dress. We shot in Central Park at Belvedere Castle right before a big snowstorm in December. I shot separately the smoke and fire and photo-composed the different elements.

CONTACT:

Photographer: Elias Wessel - www.EliasWessel.com Digital Tech: Luzena Adams Photo Assistant: Silas Brown MakeUp / Hair: Katie Chua Stylist: Andrew Clancey Talent: Katherine Fosmoen Post Production, Art Direction: Elias Wessel

h ELIAS WESSEL

ASSIGNMENT: Cosmetics ad. CONCEPT: Reviewing past campaigns for MAC, I realized that everything is about color, beautiful shapes, and countless amount of shades. For this reason, I decided to approach this project from two different angles: --First, the colors and abstract perspective, and how mixing these elements has a big impact on our feelings, looks, and personality. --Second was to show how all colors already exist in nature and how we are able to use them in a creative way. CONTACT: Photographer: Robert Chojnacki - www.robertchojnacki.com MUA: Dana Michele - http://www.modelmayhem.com/1024103 Hair Stylist: Seiji Uehara Wardrobe stylist: Allison Feng Model: Tatjana Sinkevica - http://www.modelmayhem.com/Tanyamoshe Studio: Root Brooklyn - www.rootcapture.com

g CRAIG LACOURT

ASSIGNMENT: Fine art portrait. CONCEPT: I chose to use simple studio setting to let the strengths of the subjectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal style shine through. I used a few props that pertained to the artist. He is a hip hop performer based out of Brooklyn, but originally hailing from Ghana. Having watched his videos, I noticed that he always had a black New York ball cap on and mentioned Ghana a lot in his lyrics. I asked him to bring the ball cap and clothes he would wear to perform in. I also asked him to bring a flag of Ghana to use as a simply styled prop in the imagery. CONTACT: Subject: Sam / Blitz Photographer: Craig LaCourt - www.calindustries.com Production: Roger Grey - www.RogerGrey.com 1st Assistant: Shami

ROBERT CHOJNAC KI

g Constanza mirre

ASSIGNMENT: Environmental portraiture. SUBJECT: Samuel, the son of the owner of a clothing store for men, “Global International,” 62 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side in Manhattan. This is part of a series I’m working on about small business owners in New York City. CONTACT: Constanza Mirré - www.constanzamirre.com

3 103

h SYLVIA KRIVICKOVA

ASSIGNMENT: Fall cover for a fashion magazine. CONCEPT: The idea is to show that romantic, feminine fashion is in style for fall. I shot a female model in a beautiful dress in Central Park with NYC views behind the fall foliage. Balloons fill the frame to give the image a fun, fantasy feel. CONTACT:Photographer: Sylvia Krivickova - www.krivickova.com Model: Maria Shumakh at Q Models - www.qmodels.com Makeup: Katie Pellegrino - www.katiepellegrino.com Hair: Pepper Pastor - www.pepperpastor.com Lighting Design Specialist: Cliff Hausner from Profoto www.macgroupusa.com Photo Assistant: Neil Gibbs - www.negphotography.com Videographer: Michael Krivicka - www.whoisthebaldguy.com Props: Balloon Saloon - www.balloonsaloon.com

ONG C K R A M

ASSIGNMENT: Fashion magazine cover. CONTACT: Photographer: Mark Gong -

ASSIGNMENT: A soccer-themed ad. CONTACT: Photographer: Edward

www.markmgong.com Model: Zosia at Major Styling: Andre Austin Makeup: Roshar Hair: Linh Nguyen

Smith - www.esp-book.com Tech: Brendan Burke Groomer: Mala Elhassan Models: Spencer at Fusion (in red) www.fusionnyc.com Lloyd and Ruis at Request (in stripes) www.requestmodels.com Studio: Tribeca Skyline Studios www.tribecaskyline.com

g EDWARD SMITH

The Vanderbilt Republic Proudly Presents

“MASTERS” AN EXCLUSIVE BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT THE PRODUCTION OF A LANDMARK PHOTOGRAPHIC ENDEAVOR

Seng Nan, Kantoam Ming master Photographed at Wat Sway Thom in Siem Reap by George Del Barrio

On location in Cambodia, The Vanderbilt Republic closely studied a culture in jeopardy to painstakingly craft a new iconography. Here’s how it went down.

s Merriam-Webster defines it, escape velocity is “the minimum velocity that a moving body (a rocket) must have to escape from the gravitational field of a celestial body (the earth) and move outward into space.” Then there’s the Wikipedia definition of interstellar travel. “Interstellar travel is tremendously more difficult than interplanetary travel. Given sufficient travel time and engineering work, it seems possible, though.” There is no formula for what The Vanderbilt Republic does, though the two scientific principles above feel appropriate, in close orbit around the truth. The core thought behind The Republic—that the creative mind can solve any problem— wasn’t new when photographer George Del Barrio and artist representative/producer Matthew Bogosian came to that conclusion in the fall of 2008. Perhaps the quality of their work comes from The Republic’s unique application of that core thought: since the creative mind can solve any problem, let’s throw some serious problems at it. The Vanderbilt Republic is a creative agency with a philanthropic wing dedicated to helping non-profit organizations achieve their goals. Right now they’re partnering with Cambodian Living Arts (CLA), a non-profit founded by Arn Chorn-Pond, an internationally recognized human rights activist and genocide survivor. The CLA does the important work of reconnecting Cambodia’s few surviving performing art “Masters” with the next generation of students. In a country still fractured by the tragic genocide years of the seventies, the gravity of the situation is real: the Khmer Rouge specifically targeted for torture and eventual slaughter an estimated 90% of Cambodia’s intellectuals and artists. Since all Khmer teaching is oral, never written, the few masters who remain are deeply precious, carrying thousands of years of culture within them. The CLA has the vision that by 2020, Cambodia’s international signature can be the arts. The Vanderbilt Republic plans to get them there sooner. The pages that follow contain an exclusive look at the historic first step in this monumental odyssey: a large-format, film-based, nationwide shoot by George Del Barrio of various surviving Masters.

George Del Barrio in the rice fields of Kampong Speu. Photograph by Mauricio Quintero.

2 1,600 sheets of 4” x 5” film. 600 sheets of instant film. 40 AA batteries. 10 cans of compressed air. 2 rolls of black gaffer’s tape. 2 rolls of white paper tape. All provided by K&M Camera.

Equipment sponsors ROOT [Brooklyn] and DRIVEIN24 ensured that high production standards would be maintained throughout the shoot.

Executive producer Matthew Bogosian considers the options midway through the marathon of conceptualization.

Amid the devastation of Pik Nil, Mauricio Quintero, George Del Barrio and Kip McQueen photograph Robam Propeini master Ieng Sithol. Cambodiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s incredible diversity of scene was maximized during the exhaustive location shoot.

Production Schedule Week 1 - Arrival and Scout Acclimation; production meetings with the CLA’s executive staff; scheduling and initiation of a nationwide location scout. Week 2 - Concept & Planning Organization of all facts gathered; construction of a comprehensive location/subject matrix; formulation of a creative roadmap. Week 3-5 - Location Photography Execution of concept; daily creative review; constant adaptation of approach to found reality; development of the application. Week 6 - Studio Photography In-studio portraiture of all masters; creation of a high-concept instrument catalogue; world premiere of “Masters” as an instant-film installation in Phnom Penh; wrap.

Immediately following the conclusion of principal photography, “Masters” premiered in Phnom Penh on Friday, December 18, 2009.

American CREW Matthew Bogosian Executive Producer Dwayne Shaw Creative Director George Del Barrio Photographer Mauricio Quintero

Assistant Photographer

Kip McQueen Advisor Jonathan Wolff Director of Photography: Documentary

CAMBODIAN CREW Arn Chorn-Pond Cultural Ambassador & Translator Rattana EM Regional Logistics Chap Vithur Production Assistant: Southern Provinces Sambor Om Production Assistant: Northern Provinces Sarin Chuon Production Assistant: Documentary

Billboards. The word evokes many associations, all of them closely connected to the various luxuries of our “first” world. Numberless gaspowered vehicles; endless sprawl; smoothly paved, giant highways for near-mindless travel; pervasive electricity grids; luxury products that need vending; advertising budgets, and the everpresent fantasy of a population with free money and time. In truth, extended meditation on what one billboard represents within a society can batter the shores of one’s mind. When you pull back to see them all, nearly everywhere, you start to notice something unsettling about our way of life and the forces at work within it. With “Masters,” an entirely new force is going to work on behalf of something that’s never been advertised, promoted or celebrated on this scale: culture. It’s best said by Rico Blancaflor, strategic advisor to The Vanderbilt Republic and National Director of Site Development for The Posse Foundation: The Vanderbilt Republic plans to exhibit these photographs in a way never seen before—as large-scale billboards, erected along National Road 6 in Cambodia, from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. This truly national exhibition would be built with local materials and labor. We think this phase of “Masters” will create a new category of landmark. One that can intentionally

highlight, reshape and retell an incredible part of humanity’s cultural history. I grew up in a poor South Asian country. I remember the ever-present billboards, with Western agendas and faces. I remember believing that these lifestyles and advertised life outcomes were meant for me—that it was my narrative. In truth, they were neither my culture nor my complexion. I remembered this when I first heard about the idea of a national exhibit in Cambodia. I couldn’t help but think about what it would mean for the country, for the culture, and for the children who would now see the faces of their people. Whose stories have always been there but are now finally told by the right storytellers, standing proudly on the horizon. In sixty days last fall, The Vanderbilt Republic raised $50,000 on the strength of an idea. With the dedicated support of hundreds of followers, fans, backers and believers, escape velocity has been achieved. Armed with an incredible wealth of captivating, truly unique photographic materials, The Republic is poised to accomplish everything they promised Cambodian Living Arts. Interstellar travel is next. And all that takes is effort and time, as they say. To become a part of this effort, visit vanderbiltRepublic.org/next

115 “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.” —Daniel Burnham, 1846-1912

For the Professional Photo Productionist

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WHERE TO TAKE YOUR CLIENTS OUT:

Double Crown and Madam Geneva By Sachi Yoshii I Photos by Kiritin Beyer

Double Crown and Madam Geneva 316 Bowery (at Bleecker Street) New York, NY 10012 212.254.0350 doublecrown-nyc.com madamgeneva-nyc.com

Price $$$ Food *** Drinks *** Ambiance ***

ast meets West is only the first of curious dualities that make Double Crown an atypical and versatile venue for something new. The lavish dining hall, suggestive of imperial opulence, is warmed by exposed brick walls, wooden décor and colorful tile textures from the original floor. Gold trim and ancient iconography is offset by naked bulbs and a shock of red neon accent. Revel in the sweet savory flavors, where the likes of bangers ‘n’ mash ($18) are infused with delicate treats from South and South-East Asia. If you can stomach the concept, British Colonial cuisine certainly makes for excellent fusion food. With such a delectable variety of starters and shared snacks, one may not even reach the main courses. Dining Nonya family-style relies on a meat-heavy menu, featuring a sweet and spicy seared beef salad with mangos, pomelos and crispy shallots ($14), braised pork belly in a chili caramel sauce ($7), and miso-glazed bone marrow to spread over toasted brioche ($13). Definitely order the seared yellowtail sashimi topped with crispy lotus root, dotted with Chinese black beans and lime vinaigrette

($12). As a rule of thumb, anything that sounds less intriguing is probably just that: the duck steamed buns ($8) are steamed buns and the chicken salad ($13) is, well, chicken salad.

Double Crown also features a separate bar, Madam Geneva, accessible from Bleecker Street or through a discreet “secret panel” in one of the restaurant walls. Madam Geneva, the name the British gave to gin during the height of its 18th century craze, features a wideranging gin bar as well as the bar’s signature cocktail ($8-10): a blend of gin and seasonal fruit preserves that, when stirred lightly, will light a fire under any gin lover’s seat. Other cocktails are not to be neglected either. The Pax Britannica ($12)—a mix of gin, Bailey’s, Black tar and homemade pink peppercorn foam—is a personal favorite and not to be missed. You can stop by the bar with your client before, after, or in lieu of a meal, since Madam Geneva also offers a selection of the best bites from the Double Crown kitchen—including unforgettable daikon radish fries blended with sausage ($6) and tandoori foie gras torchon served with earl

grey prunes and a sliced nut loaf ($17). Visit the bar on Sunday nights when the venue transforms into Mr. B’s Hideaway and drink prices dip to the sounds of ska, dance hall, British breaks and dub. Last but not least, in keeping with British (and Easternly) tradition, Double Crown hosts its own rendition of afternoon tea time from 3:30pm to 5:30pm on weekends—a perfect mid-day snack with a royal variety of smoked salmon, ham, and coronation tea sandwiches, Devonshire scones with clotted cream and preserves, hot or iced teas and cocktails ($30). If Madam Geneva sneaks in and spikes the brew, will anyone complain? AvroKO, the designers of the Stanton Social and Michelin-acclaimed Public, have emerged with yet another architectural and culinary triumph. Now, for a pinkie-finger salute.

Restaurants-- Based on three-course dinner, one alcoholic bev, and a 15% tip $ = $25 and under | $$ = $25-$50 | $$$ = $50-$75 | $$$$ = $75 and over Food/Drinks 0 | * | ** | *** | **** Bars/Lounges-- Based on one alcoholic beverage $ = $6 and under | $$ = $6-12 | $$$ = $12 and over Ambiance 0 | * | ** | *** | ****

MOVIE REVIEW:

By Alec Kerr I Illustration by Nazmul Howlader

Scientist: We had such potential. Such promise. But we squandered our gifts. And so, 9, I am creating you. Our world is ending. Life must go on.

Director Shane Acker has expanded his Oscar-nominated ten minute short of the same name to feature length with the help of producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted). The dialogue-less short can easily be found on YouTube and is worth checking out. It is interesting to see how a kernel of an idea was completely fleshed out, even if not all the extra meat turned out to be necessary. The film is set in a world that has been destroyed in a battle between man and machine. All life has been eliminated except for nine rag dolls created by the same inventor who made the first machine that set the world to its destruction. As the movie opens we meet 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), the newest doll to be created. He quickly meets up with the others and discovers them to be an assortment of friends and foes. The world that Acker has created is fully realized and richly defined. The struggle between these surprisingly sympathetic, emotive dolls and the animal-like machines is so compelling that it overcome the lessthan-amazing screenplay that Pamela Pettler (Monster House, Corpse Bride) has written. The arc of the story is fine but, in padding a ten minute short to eighty minutes, a lot of clichés are thrown in to kill time. The dolls are more like archetypes

than full-fledged characters, and the dialogue they are given is hardly original. The short was fine without dialogue and it would’ve been a bold move to go wordless for the feature length version—but it would’ve also made it a tougher sell. All criticisms aside, credit is definitely due to an excellent voice cast that includes Christopher Plummer, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover and Martin Landau. Everyone involved gives a great performance that truly breathes life into these characters in spite of the script’s limitations. The visuals and style of the film are enthralling. The computer animation is truly amazing and makes the film absolutely worth seeing. The look blends imagery that recalls the war-torn ghettos of War World II with a bizarre hybrid of Soviet and Nazi iconography. It’s a post-apocalyptic world as we’ve seen in films before, yet at the same time it still manages to feel new. Once the stage is set, the film is almost non-stop action with brief interludes for the audience to catch their breath. The action sequences are impeccably well executed. There is a certain amount of grace and genuine ingenuity to these scenes that are both clever and thrilling. Little moments and ideas also raise the film above the ordinary. The way one of the dolls uses a magnet to magnetize parts of his head and give itself a high is a small detail that doesn’t further the story but helps more fully realize Acker’s world.

9 Release Date: September 9, 2009 (9/9/09) Director: Shane Acker Writers: Shane Acker (story), Pamela Pettler (screenplay) Voiced by: Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau Producer: John Daly

Nazmul Howlader: www.nazmul.biz

The king of animated features is Pixar. They make films of grace, warmth, humor, and of more emotional weight and substance than most live action films supposedly made for adults. While they are arguably the best, they haven’t cornered the market on animation for both children and adults alike. Last year, Focus Features gave us 9, an extraordinary piece of animation that is simply outstanding to behold. The film received a wide mainstream release but didn’t quite find an audience. It’s a shame because, while there are certainly things to nitpick, something so unique deserves to be celebrated.

Exhale... LVAir

Join us at LVAir.org and watch for fresh LVAir: flowing to your inbox soon

www.lvaplus.com www.lvarepresents.com

Photo: Chris Eckert

BOOK REVIEWs:

photograpy book Ward 81

By Bill Diodato

W W

ard 81 was the women psych ward at the Oregon State Hospital. In 1976, Mary Ellen Mark, who wrote the foreword to Ward 81, documented the place. The ward was then in use and Mark captured poignant portraits of the women held there. Photographer Bill Diodato recently went to the now-closed building.

The book is available as follow: The trade edition is limited to 1,000 casebound copies.

Reviewed by Timothy White: The images in Ward 81 are at once as haunting as they are beautiful. One is drawn inside, as if by some ethereal being. Although I am troubled that this place exists, I am also attracted by its textured, desolate space. Bill Diodato’s photographs capture the stories imbedded in these walls. The empty rooms continue to narrate the stories of the women who once lived here. As uncomfortable as the reality of this place is, I cannot help but conjure its smells, feel the light, and sense the many people and the complex histories that crossed through these hallways and rooms. I am intrigued and curiously fascinated by all the unanswered questions that these photographs provoke in me. These images bring forth a complicated assortment of feelings—at once eerily romantic and disturbingly sad. Bill has touched a nerve. At first glance you only see the starkness and fear, but upon closer inspection you are taken into a soft, beautiful, pastel world. I truly enjoyed this book. Like a dream, it took me to places I’d never been to, but yet seemed familiar. I like Bill’s sense of investigation—I can feel him peering around corners and opening doors. I feel him taking his time to absorb what Time has left him to explore. There is an overall palette that is consistent, and that takes us on an emotional ride through his experience. This is not a book to glance through. This is a book to study, to feel, and to let your mind imagine.

The limited edition consists of 100 signed and numbered slipcased copies.

Bill Diodato: www.billdiodato.com

To purchase copies of the book please contact: linda@lhproduction.com Additionally, Arcana books is carrying this title and may be found at www. arcanabooks.com

YOU NEED TO STOP, BEFORE YOU START. STOP ASSISTING> START WORKING> RISE ABOVE> BECOME A PRO

Stop Assisting provides photo assistants and emerging photographers an open forum to help you get to the next stage of your career. Led by ARC, Profoto, Resource Magazine and Tribeca Skyline Studios, Stop Assisting is your way into the industry and out of assisting. We are here to connect, facilitate and provide for the rise of new photography. Join the community. GO TO WWW.STOPASSISTING.COM TO GET UPDATES ON OUR EVENTS AND REGISTER FOR OUR NEXT SESSION, STARTING APRIL 2010

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Match Prints

By Jim Marshall & Timothy White Reviewed by Bill Diodato:

U U

Match Prints will open the eyes to some and inform others about who created those famous portraits of Jim Morrison and Ray Charles. Its clever juxtaposition of images makes you stop and wonder if Jim Marshall and Timothy White were not shooting at the same exact time. Many of the photographs were actually shot years or even decades apart—proof that two photographers can shoot similar concepts with identical subjects, and yet produce images that send completely different messages. While Jim Marshall has shot many of the iconic rock images of the 20th century, his documentary approach leaves me wondering why this is a lost art. Many photographers today shoot digitally and delete images that at first glance look unacceptable. How many great images would have been deleted if Jim were shooting digital? My guess is none. He captured Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash in moments that could only be created by a master of the medium in full control of his vision. Even with images that are controlled (like Elia Kazan’s portrait), Jim still managed to make them feel like stolen moments. For this he has made an indelible mark on the portrait genre.

Not to be outdone are Timothy White’s images. The cover shot of Robert Mitchum is mesmerizing. Many people would say that having Mitchum as a subject is a can’t-miss. While to some degree this may be true, there are many images of famous actors that are just images of celebrity. The Mitchum image is a riveting capture of a personality, not

a celebrity. This is exactly what separates a great portrait photographer from a celebrity photographer. Portraiture is, after all, not about what the person looks like but who the person is. The James Brown image does much of the same thing. I saw a much quieter side of him than I previously understood. A photo of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown reminds us of how fleeting celebrity relationships are—and for that matter, how fleeting celebrity is. Art purists who spew art speak ad nauseam may say the book is almost too clever. This reviewer would disagree. I feel as though this book would fit perfectly in any photographic library. It will certainly be in mine once my copy is signed by the artists.

Timothy White: www.timothywhite.com Jim Marshall: www.marshallphoto.com

pon first glance, Match Prints appears to be a typical rock and celebrity coffee table book. It captures everyone, from pioneering icons of the sixties to hair bands of the eighties, and documents many pivotal musicians, including those who have fallen from grace—sad reminders of Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame credo.

CALL FOR ENTRIES Submit one or more of your best images created after January 1st, 2009 Over $25,000 in prizes

Enter online: image-ny.org This Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Judges: Nathalie Kirsheh, Art Director W Magazine Katherine Schad, Photo Director O- The Oprah Magazine Michael Boulia, Creative Director BBDO Alex Tasch, Senior Art Buyer Euro RSCG Worldwide Brian Paul Clamp, Gallerist CLAMPART

www.Loupedigital.com

Submissions are open to professional, serious amateur and student photographers residing within the United States. First prize winners in each category (professional and student) will have their winning image published in a full page ad in PDN magazine as well as in a promotional mailer to be sent to 2000 art directors, art buyers and photo editors in New York and other major cities throughout the United States.

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NEW YORK, NY

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– Paul Hawken

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Above Studio* 23 E 31st St. at Madison Ave. New York, NY 10016 212.545.0550 ext. 3 info@abovestudiorental.com www.abovestudiorental.com

Daylight Studio* 450 W 31st St. - 8th-9th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.967.2000 info@daylightstudio.com www.daylightstudio.com

Bathhouse Studios New York* 540 E 11th St. New York, NY 10009 212.388.1111 manager@bathhousestudios.com www.bathhousestudios.com

Divine Studio* 21 E 4th St. - #605 New York, NY 10003 212.387.9655 alex@divinestudio.com www.divinestudio.com

Brooklyn Studios* 211 Meserole Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11222 718.392.1007 brooklynstudios@verizon.net www.brooklynstudios.net

Drive-In 24* 443 West 18th Street New York, NY 10011 212.645.2244 info@diveinstudios.com www.driveinstudios.com

Eagles Nest Studio* 259 W 30th St., 13th Fl. New York, NY 10011 212.736.6221 eaglesnestnyc@yahoo.com www.eaglesnestnyc.com

Greenpoint Studios* 190 West St. - Unit 11 Brooklyn, NY 11222 212.741.6864 info@greenpointstudios.com www.greenpointstudios.com

Factory Studios* 79 Lorimer St. - 5th Fl. Brooklyn NY 11206 718.690.3980 www. factorybrooklyn.com info@factorybrooklyn.com

Home Studios* 873 Broadway - #301 New York, NY 10003 212.475.4663 info@homestudiosinc.com www.homestudiosinc.com

Fast Ashleys Studios* 95 N. 10th St. Brooklyn, NY 11211 718.782.9300 shelly@fastashleysstudios.com www.fastashleysstudios.com

Industria Superstudio* 775 Washington St. New York, NY 10014 212.366.1114 info@industrianyc.com kslayton@industrianyc.com www.industrianyc.com

Gary’s Manhattan Penthouse Loft* 28 W 36th St. - PH New York, NY 10018 917.837.2420 gary@garysloft.com www.garysloft.com Gary’s Loft* 470 Flushing Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11205 718.858.4702 gary@garysloft.com www.garysloft.com Go Studios* 245 W 29th St. New York, NY 10001 212.564.4084 info@go-studios.com www.go-studios.com Good Light Studio* 450 W 31st St. - #9C New York, NY 10001 212.629.3764 manager@goodlightstudio.com goodlightstudio@gmail.com www.goodlightstudio.com

Jack Studios* 601 W 26th St. - 12th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.367.7590 info@jackstudios.com mike@jackstudios.com www.jackstudios.com Jewel Street Studio* 94 Jewel St. - Ground Floor Brooklyn, NY 11222 212.967.1029 booking@jewelstreetstudios.com www.jewelstreetstudios.com Location 05* 200 Hudson St. - 9th Fl. New York, NY 10013 212.219.2144 info@location05.com www.location05.com Milk/Formula* 450 W. 15th St. New York NY 10011 212.645.2797 bevan@milkstudios.com www.milkstudios.com

AND Have teamed up to create a new online magazine.

NEW CONTENT. EASY NAVIGATION.

FUN STUFF.

www.photocrew.com/magazine

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Neo Studios* 628 Broadway - #302 New York, NY 10012 212.533.4195 mail@neostudiosnyc.com www.neostudiosnyc.com NoHo Productions* 636 Broadway - 8th Fl. New York, NY 10012 212.228.4068 info@nohoproductions.com www.nohoproductions.com Parlay Studios 930 Newark Ave. - 6th Fl. Jersey City, NJ 07306 201.459.9044 studio@parlaystudios.com www.parlaystudios.com Picture Ray Studio* 245 W 18th St. New York, NY 10011 212.929.6370 bookings@pictureraystudio.com www.pictureraystudio.com Pier 59 Studios* Chelsea Piers #59 - 2nd Level New York, NY 10011 212.691.5959 info@pier59studios.com www.pier59studios.com

Pure Space* 601 W 26th St. - #1225 New York, NY 10001 212.937.6041 rida@purespacenyc.com frank@purespacenyc.com www.purespacenyc.com Ramscale Productions* 55 Bethune St. - Penthouse New York, NY 10014 212.206.6580 info@ramscale.com www.ramscale.com Root Brooklyn* 131 N 14th St. Brooklyn, NY 11211 718.349.2740 folks@rootcapture.com www.rootcapture.com Shoot Digital* 23 E 4th St. New York, NY 10003 212.353.3330 info@shootdigital.com www.shootdigital.com Scene Interactive* 601 W 26th St. - #M225 New York, NY 10001 212.243.1017 info@sceneinteractive.com www.sceneinteractive.com

Pochron Studios* 96 Van Dyke Street Brooklyn NY 11231 718.237.1332 info@pochronstudios.com rental@pochronstudios.com www.pochronstudios.com

Shop Studios* 442 W 49th St. New York, NY 10019 212.245.6154 Jacques@shopstudios.com www.shopstudios.com

Primus Studio* 64 Wooster St. - #3E New York, NY 10012 212.966.3803 info@primusnyc.com www.primusnyc.com

Silver Cup Studios* 42-22 22nd St. Long Island City, NY 11101 718.906.3000 silvercup@silvercupstudios.com www.silvercupstudios.com

SoHoSoleil Locations* 136 Grand St. - #5-WF New York, NY 10013 212.431.8824 info@sohosoleil.com www.sohosoleil.com Some Studio* 150 W 28th St. - #1602 New York, NY 10001 212.691.7663 somebody@somestudio.com www.somestudio.com Southlight Studio* 214 W 29th St. - #1404 New York, NY 10001 212.465.9466 info@southlightstudio.com www.southlightstudio.com Splashlight Studios SoHo* 75 Varick St. - 3rd Fl. New York, NY 10013 212.268.7247 info@splashlightstudios.com www.splashlightstudios.com Studio 225 Chelsea* 225 W 28th St. - #2 New York, NY 10001 917.882.3724 james@jamesweberstudio.com www.studio225chelsea.com Studio 450* 450 W 31st St. - 12th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.871.0940 www.loft11.com Suite 201* 526 W 26th St. - #201 New York, NY 10001 212.741.0155 info@suite201.com www.suite201.com

Sun Studios* 628 Broadway New York, NY 10012 212.387.7777 sunproductions@sunnyc.com www.sunstudios.com Sun West* 450 W 31st St. - 10th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.330.9900 sunwestevents@sunnyc.com www.sunnyc.com Taz Studios* 873 Broadway - #605 New York, NY 10003 212.533.4999 dwhite@tazstudios.com www.tazstudio.com The Space* 425 W 15th St. - 6th Fl. New York, NY 10011 212.929.2442 info@thespaceinc.com www.thespaceinc.com Tribeca Skyline Studios* 205 Hudson St. - #1201 New York, NY 10013 212.344.1999 bookings@tribecaskyline.com www.tribecaskylinestudios.com Zoom Studios* 20 Vandam St. - 4th Fl. New York, NY 10013 212.243.9663 zoomstudios@yahoo.com www.zoomstudios.net SET BUILDING Tribeca Set & Design 212.444.2230 tribecaset@gmail.com www.tribecaset.com

STYLIST - PROPS, SET, WARDROBE Atelier Twelve 718.624.5744 sonia@ateliertwelve.com spazticdog@aol.com www.ateliertwelve.com Niki Productions 917.974.3212 studio@nikiproductions.com www.nikiproductions.com WARDROBE RENTALS RRRentals* 245 W 29th St. - #11 New York, NY 10001 212.242.6120 info@rrrentals.com www.rrrentalsny.com WARDROBE SUPPLY Manhattan Wardrobe Supply* 245 W 29th St. - 8th Fl. New York, NY 10001 212.268.9993 info@wardrobesupplies.com www.wardrobesupplies.com

WEST COAST LOS ANGELES, CA PROP RENTALS House of Props* 1117 N. Gower St. Hollywood , CA 90038 323.463.3166 info@houseofpropsinc.com www.houseofpropsinc.com PHOTO LABS A&I Photographic Digital* 933 N Highland Ave Hollywood, CA 90038 323.856.5280 mail@aandi.com www.aandi.com

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The Icon* 5450 Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.933.1666 icon@iconla.com www.iconla.com

Belle Varado Studio* 2107 Bellevue Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90026 213.413.9611 andrea@bellevaradostudios.com www.bellevaradostudios.com

Smashbox Hollywood* 1011 N Fuller Ave. Hollywood, CA 90046 323.851.5030 sb@smashboxstudios.com www.smashboxstudios.com

PHOTO EQUIPMENT Calumet 1135 N. Highland Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.466.1238 website@calumetphoto.com www.calumetphoto.com

Lightbox Studio* 7122 Beverly Blvd. - #G Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.933.2080 Info@lightboxstudio.com www.lightboxstudio.com

The LA Lofts* 6442 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.462.5880 thelalofts@hotmail.com www.thelalofts.com

Miauhaus* 1201 South La Brea Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90019 323.933.6180 mail@miauhaus.com www.miauhaus.com

The Studio* 6442 Santa Monica Blvd - #202 Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.791.7757 jewely@thestudiola.com www.thestudiola.com

Milk LA 855 N. Cahuenga Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.469.8900 www.milkstudios.com info@milkstudios.com

NATIONAL

Castex Rentals* 1044 Cole Ave. Hollywood, CA 90038 323.462.1468 www.castexrentals.com Pix* 217 South La Brea Los Angeles Ca. 90036 323.936.8488 rentals@pixcamera.com sales@pixcamera.com www.pixcamera.com STYLISTS AGENCY Cloutier Agency* 1026 Montana Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90403 310.394.8813 www.cloutieragency.com RENTAL STUDIOS 5th & Sunset* 12322 Exposition Blvd West Los Angeles, CA 90064 310.979.0212 keith@5thandsunsetla.com www.5thandsunsetla.com 8443 Studios* 8443 Warner Drive Culver City, CA 90232 310.202.9044 studio@8443warner.com www.8443warner.com

Pier 59 Studio West* 2415 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404 310.829.5959 erika@pier59studios.com www.pier59studios.com Siren Studios* 6063 W. Sunset Blvd Hollywood, CA 90028 323.467.3559 Monica@sirenstudios.com www.sirenstudios.com Smashbox Culver City* 8549 Higuera St. Culver City, CA 90232 323.851.5030 sb@smashboxstudios.com www.smashboxstudios.com

DIRECTORY PhotoCrew.com 310.855.0345 www.photocrew.com GRAPHIC MOTION SERVICES Space Junk 614.262.7665 contact@spacejunkmedia.com www.spacejunkmedia.com ORGANIZATIONS APA (Advertsing Photographers of America) PO Box 725146 Atlanta, GA 31139 800.272.6264 www.apanational.com ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) 150 North Second St Philadelphia, PA 19106 215.451.2767 www.asmp.org

Stop Assisting Info@stopassisting.com www.stopassisting.com PHOTO EQUIPMENT Bron Imaging Group 800.456.0203 www.sinarbron.com Hasselblad 800.367.6434 info@hasselbladusa.com www.hasselbladusa.com Profoto 914.347.3300 www.profoto.com PHOTO-SHARING WEBSITE Fotki 866-554-8544 support@fotki.com www.fotki.com VIDEO SHARING WEBSITE Vimeo www.vimeo.com info@vimeo.com

*Distribution sites.

FOR LISTING OR ADVERTISING INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: info@resourcemagonline.com 212.677.0665

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Six fully equipped digital still life studios. Each with lighting, grip, digital workstation, tools & supplies to provide a smooth workflow for a still life shoot.

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