Join me as we talk about what Covid-19 has meant for our business and creative selves, tomorrow Thursday. Don’t forget to register, as it will enable you to ask questions.
Surprisingly, I’ve had assignments to help keep me busy. But staying safe and protecting others is always a concern, so we’ll be talking about that as well.
Look forward to having you join us!
Running a business will bring moments of truth. Mine came without warning after I voluntarily left my job 5 years ago as a staff photojournalist at the Chicago Tribune. A freelance opportunity had come up that seemed too good to be true. It would be years of regular work and position me well as a storyteller in advertising. I felt that I was ready, both creatively and business-wise, after years of freelance work in photography and video and many years on staff at the Tribune and the L.A. Times.
That opportunity was, indeed, too good to be true. In the rough-and-tumble worlds of mergers/acquisitions and advertising, what appeared to be a 3-year opportunity as a visual storyteller vaporized within a matter of months, to both my shock and that of the marketing director. Our carefully laid plans were thrown out the window and I found myself staring into an abyss, having cleared my schedule in preparation for this opportunity.
So where do you go from a moment like that? How do you survive and thrive in an industry of relentless competition where everyone claims to be a “storyteller”?
Join me and other speakers at the ASMP Chicago/Midwest Strictly Business Seminar this as we share our experiences, insights and much inspiration this January. Early bird pricing ends December 26.
I’m not in charge of the seminar, but I can almost guarantee that you will save a lot of money, and make more, by the advice that we give. Truly, I wish I could have shared these tips with my 2014 self. Someone get me a time machine for Christmas;-)
This week I had the opportunity to be on WGN 720AM with Andrea Darlas on her show, “Andrea and the Reporters”, where she interviewed former Tribune photojournalist Nancy Stone, photographer Will Byington and myself on a range of topics regarding our photography. Andrea (center, middle) is such a pro. Have you known someone so nice and so good at what they do that by the time you’re done with something that might stir some anxiety, you’re like, “Wow, that was too easy!”? We talked about storytelling, favorite pictures, why keeping your outtakes is so important, the kindness of strangers, and generally how our careers got started. It was a fun conversation. I hope you can put it on in the background this week sometime and give it a listen.
Just wanted to give a heads up that tomorrow, Saturday May 18, I’ll be speaking at the Prism Photo Workshop at Columbia College. If you can make it, I’d love to see you. I’ll be speaking at 11am for about an hour about how to take photojournalism and storytelling into other areas to expand your influence and business. I was added a few days ago to the keynote spot when my friend John White had to attend to a personal situation, hence the last minute notification.
For those interested, the Prism Photo Workshop was started by Michael Zajakowski, Alyssa Schuker and Michelle Kanaar with the mission to “provide resources and support for young photographers of diverse backgrounds to tell the stories of underrepresented people and communities with dignity.” We believe it is imperative that news organizations — and the journalists who represent them — are credible, diligent, and reflect our communities accurately and faithfully.”
Over 100 people have already signed up online, and you can do so too. Or you can show up at the door. Hope you can join us!
Everyone has an opinion about border immigration, fewer people have a clear grasp of the facts, and even fewer have the up-close and personal experience to speak from. This Saturday, November 10th at 5 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church/Chicago Temple across from Daley Center Plaza, I’ll be introducing photographer John Moore and former Border Patrol agent and writer Francisco Cantú. Here is a description of the event from the Chicago Humanities Festival page:
“Odds are, you’ve already seen one of John Moore’s photographs this year. Before it became a viral symbol of the humanitarian crisis unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border, a photo with the caption: “A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained” was a real-time, real-life scene unfolding in front of Moore, a Getty Images special correspondent. “This one was tough for me,” he said. “As soon as it was over, they were put into a van. I had to stop and take deep breaths.” Moore, a Pulitzer-Prize winner, has focused on the issue of undocumented immigration and the militarization of the southern border. He has earned access to immigrants on all points of their journey, as well as to ICE and Border Patrol agents and USCIS officials. Moore will join us to discuss Undocumented. Former United States Border Agent and Whiting Award-winning author of The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches from the Border, Francisco Cantú will join in conversation.”
I’ve admired John Moore’s work for some time. He’s an accomplished Pulitzer-Prize winning photojournalist who, after traveling the world for Getty Images has been focusing on immigration and border issues for the last decade. It’s an honor to introduce them both.
There will be a book signing after the program.
Hope that we can see you there.
After many years on the street in Chicago as a photojournalist, one of the concerns that I heard consistently in underserved communities was the need not just for good jobs, but for opportunities for those getting out of jail. It made no sense to me that someone who paid the penalty for their crime and who wanted to rebuild their life would be denied that opportunity because of their jail record. So when I was approached to do to a video for Recipe for Change, it was meant to be.
Recipe for Change is a non-profit organization that provides mentoring and guidance to non-violent detainees in the jail and prison system through culinary, fine arts and life skills training. It operates an active educational program five days per week in the Cook County Jail. The heart of the program is Chef Bruno Abate, who received a “call from God” that led him to start the program. He doesn’t just give cooking advice, but life advice. An equal dose of inspiration.
Detainees can earn a certificate that sets them up to work in restaurants once they re-enter society. Those who go through the program don’t come back. It’s that effective. That, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, is very unusual. There are currently creating a program in the women’s jail.
The production team was comprised of myself, producer Kelly Sullivan, my co-creative partner Laura Husar Garcia and Johnny McGuire, who provided the aerial cinematography that you must see at the end.
If you know anyone who owns and operates restaurants or who would like to donate cooking equipment, please ask them to reach out to the organization through their website, recipeforchangeproject.org.
They could transform a life and change a family for generations.
More often than not when creating an image library for a corporation or organization, I am called upon to create portraits or headshots. It’s logical, since the library is often part of a more ambitious overhaul of a website and that includes the “About Us” page.
But because they don’t reside on the home page, these portraits don’t always receive the same creative consideration. You would expect that to be a creative goal to create consistency in branding, so I’m always prepared for that to be the case. My modus operandi has always been to answer the question, “What is the end goal here?”
This all comes to mind on two recent shoots, where careful consideration was, indeed, given to crafting a look for photos of individuals. In the top example for a healthcare company, the agency showed samples of different headshots, had discussions, and issued a creative brief. On set, the agency creative director and the company’s creative reviewed the images on the tethered laptop to make minor adjustments. The goal was more about color and light but not so saturated in color that it set up an odd pairing for the mature leadership. The background was different but similar, to account for what could be future photographs taken in other environments. Thematically, they had to work together without being identical.
In the lower example, the headshots were taken at a Working Not Working creative gathering. Discussions ahead of time were about how they should be a little more moody, muted with a dark background but not so dark as to create jarring juxtaposition with a smiling, happy person. It was to be more personal and intimate. Again, samples were offered but I was given the flexibility to bring whatever look I thought was appropriate within those guidelines. Practically speaking it was also very quick, since we were doing dozens of subjects and it was taken in a corner next to a crowded bar! But it was a crazy fun time.
Both were a success and an enjoyable experience, in part because of creative direction. To me, that element always been essential in order to align expectations. One reason there is a “Create PDF” link in the left column on my website is because it’s a very useful function in creating a mood board. Clicking on the image shows all the images in the website, allowing a person to create a PDF by selecting images that might pair with the creative look and feel they have in mind.
You would think after all this, the only thing missing from having photographs achieve a creative goal is to have creative direction. Yet unfortunately, the head-scratching truth is that there are photographers who don’t know how to follow a creative brief. I don’t get it. I was on a recent multi-city project where a very thorough creative brief was given to different photographers shooting in different cities. It called for a white background, even lighting but a light source not too hard, very shallow depth-of-field, a certain type of expression. Examples were given. I understood what was needed and rented equipment as appropriate to the project. Afterward, the project manager was happy with what I had done but circled back in a group email (mercifully bcc’d) in which he complained to the other photographers about their lack of follow-through while holding up my pictures as an example (with my name redacted so no one ended up hating me later). Honestly, I don’t say this to brag. How can you brag about something as basic as following directions?
This is perhaps fodder for a different post, but in the end, it appears to me that many photographers are not comfortable shooting outside their creative comfort zones. I understand this to some degree. There are natural instincts as a photographer that take over when faced with uncertainty on a shoot. You solve problems a certain way. You subtly adjust to repeat past success. The insecure impulses associated with a challenge can be hard to fight. But having been a generalist for much of my career in which I have been expected to emulate different looks for different editors over the years, I don’t get caught up with what I’ve done but what I need to do. As with the examples above, I echo what Gregory Heisler used to call the “appropriate response.”
So it’s a two-way street between a photographer and a creative director. It’s fantastic and a relief to have a brief written by someone used to directing photographers but it’s up to the photographer to read between the lines of any project description or brief to ask questions and offer synonyms for ambiguous words such as “candid” or “edgy” to get everyone closer to acting from a shared vocabulary.
The example here is portraits and headshots, nothing terribly complicated. But once expectations are aligned and creative flow is moving forward, it makes the process a lot more reassuring for everyone, no matter the size of the shoot.
The “Hang Time with Sam Alipour” show on ESPN is always a fun segment as Sam hangs out with a superstar athlete trying something they always wanted to do. In this case, ESPN “Hang Indy 500 race champion Josef Newgarden wanted to try his hand at improv comedy at The Second City Theater in Chicago. Actually, he’s a funny guy, and very telegenic. A great subject to work with and we had a lot of fun as I took pictures of their hijinks in and around the film crew that was making a segment for the show.
Tennis instructor Kamau Murray, who coached Sloane Stephens to victory at the US Open, is set to create a powerhouse for young African-American tennis players with a new facility on the south side of Chicago. The $16.9 million tennis village will officially launch this summer, but it’s already in use. It’s really amazing, awe-inspiring. His tenacity and vision will bring much pride to the city. My assignment was to make portraits and candids of him for ESPN’s The Undefeated. As he’s an extremely busy guy, much of my work was done in and around practice, where you could get whacked by balls or stray rackets by the exuberant kids. As with most of my assignments, I try to create a variety of looks so much came down to some previsualization and adaptation after arrival. Except for the last image in which I used three strobes in different locations, I used two lights for my set-ups.
As some of you who have heard me speak or write on the topic, as a visual storyteller I have always been interested in archetypes – universally transcendent types of people Carl Jung believes are found in our collective unconscious. They’re types of people we know without ever having met. Archetypes are shaped by our history, culture and personal context as they speak to us on an almost instinctual level. It’s always worth considering the relevancy of archetypes when poised for any type of mass communication, either in an editorial or commercial context.
Super Bowl commercials, massive opportunities for storytelling around a digital campfire, can be superb examples of how creative minds can tap archetypes to gather a community around a story. They also help to answer the riddle of our times: “How do you keep the human attention span when it’s shorter than that of a goldfish?”
Four years later, I am still inspired by a great example of an archetype at Super Bowl time – the “God Made a Farmer” ad for Ram Trucks, in style and approach similar to the prequel to the more controversial “Built to Serve”. A transcendent voice in Paul Harvey intones our deeper selves to pause to grasp elemental truths about the Farmer archetype, a crucial figure of our food chain and the backbone of economies the world over. It helped the ad was based on the medium of documentary photography, a conduit for authentic truth and spellbinding attention.
Likewise, the “Built to Serve” by Ram Trucks had an equally outstanding message, built around the principle of serving others. It had the blessing of the Martin Luther King, Jr. estate. It had cinematic video of a high caliber. The ad was in part based on the Prophet archetype. What became painfully obvious, however, is that no estate owns holy archetypes – so such an archetype needs to be treated with caution. People the world over depend on the guidance of prophets for hope beyond our material world and things money can’t buy. Given the divided soul of a nation where many are crying out for peace and justice, having a prophetic figure guide us back to materialism in the form of a heavy-duty truck was too much for some.
When you look at serving others, as exemplified by the Caregiver archetype, no figure can perhaps lay greater claim to being the unselfish protector and compassionate giver than a first responder, which is probably why the Verizon ad was one of the few where I instantly started to tear up (nice going all). First responders are both Caregivers and Heroes wrapped in one. They also tap into the powerful Reciprocity Principle. Seeing news photos lifted up in context was also very inspiring to reinforce the “real people” reality of these stories.
The Hero Archetype? Most clearly seen through the triumph of 8X Paralympic Gold Medalist Lauren Woolstencroft, who proves the power of the human will against the odds. We see the courage, strength and discipline to fight our own heroic battles as we are left in awe. Heroes are the role models that transcend circumstance.
The Innovator was represented by Keanu in his ad for Squarespace. As a Creator, he has what could be seen as a burning-bush-in-the-desert experience in the fuller version of the ad online (Neo is the chosen one, after all). What does riding on the back of a motorcycle until launching into the sky have to do with building a website? Is walking on wheels like walking on water? Who knows? He’s too busy fulfilling the archetype of a creator in his vision to create lasting value. Critics will easily get lost in this desert but the message has already been sent, and more importantly, felt.
The Regular Guy’s struggle for respect was exquisitely and comically played by Chris Pratt as he seeks the elusive fame of being featured prominently in a beer commercial, only to find that he finds fame as elusive as the rest of us. How many everyman’s dreams end in a bar with friends? If you know his backstory before stardom, he was homeless and working at a restaurant until he was offered an acting opportunity, giving special resonance to this archetype for those in the know.
If you represent an airline looking to boost travel, why not tap into the Explorer archetypethrough Dr. Oz’s enthralled recounting of all we are capable of seeing, hearing, feeling and experiencing through the human senses? You could live out another Hero’s Journey as described by Joseph Campbell.
I’m sure David Harbour has played stranger things than the Jester, as he romped through all the well-worn commercials to rip up storyboards everywhere he saw them. His running joke irreverence helped us see the commercial landscape through a newer and cleaner perspective, leaving us amused and grateful.
I will never forget making a portrait of natural talent Keegan-Michael Key on a train in Chicago as a comedian with the Second City troupe before he achieved greater fame. I was delighted to see him assume the role of the Sage, a wise and truth-seeking figure, as he set people straight until finally showing them how to navigate the mortgage process for Quicken Loans.
To conclude, there are plenty more archetypes to consider, from Vikings to Knights, and other figures who have come to represent various versions of the Conquering Hero (this is the Super Bowl after all). What I found most interesting and amusing was how the Bud Light ad almost “flipped the script”, where the shining-hero-on-a-horse that expect to act in one way, acts in the opposite.
Good thing our knight had second thoughts. Perhaps we will see more examples of upside-down archetypes next year as we see new twists on the old.