Deaths and blogspot

England was amazing. The wedding was in Huddersfield which is a town North of Manchester, South of Leeds. We were there for 4 days, then Timothy and I headed to Manchester for an afternoon and then onto London to stay with my friend Katie O'brien a performance artist.

I loved it over there. The wedding was beautiful and it was sunny 6 out of 7 days. I usually never shoot weddings. This is because they are insane. Everybody says "I want something unique... I don't want traditional wedding photos... I really want your style in the pictures." What they don't realize is a) They do want traditional wedding photos and b) "my style" takes hours to set up each shot and stylize, and it usually doesn't consist of a bride, a groom and Great Aunt Jeanie. But this was family and it was really fun. It made me think that maybe... just maybe I would shoot another one.

Introduction.

A photographer friend of mine suggested I make a DVD introducing myself with some photos... So I did.  

I take suggestions.  Go ahead and give me some.

So I had a dream last night that I was talking to the building manager of my loft and I was telling him how I needed to get out of our lease because I had a business opportunity in London.  

Is this a premonition?

I leave Tuesday for the UK.  I am thrilled.  I just got my passport on Friday... I like to live on the edge.  And I have not packed yet.  However I did purchase a new lens to shoot with while I am there.  

On Friday I also met with the Ford Agency in SF to talk to them about what they need from shoots, also about scouting models- as I always seem to run into stunning people who... once they find out I am a photographer, want me to jumpstart their career as a super model.  It was a good meeting.  They were nice, however model and talent agencies always sort of creep me out.  Everyone has a huge ego... or at least they put on that front.  I get that you are working with pretty people that are making a bunch of money, but seriously... you are just the pimp. 

I am also finding it an interesting learning experience to blog honestly.  My last blog was extremely honest, I had a lot of readers and received tons of hits daily.  Then myspace booted my profile :(  I hadn't backed up any of my blogs, so it has been hard getting back on the blogging wagon.  It is like writing a novel and having your one copy burnt in a fire.  

This time I have opted to not blog about super personal life stuff- unless it is really funny- but to instead focus on my photography, my goals and being a young up and coming artist.  Which is I think much harder than just telling you guys about all the silly nonsense in my life.  It is also hard to show all of yourself when your career name is tied to it.  Like if I tell you guys about the time I sat on the shower drain and my butt cheek accidently got hickied in the shape of the drain- would you think I am a complete freak and not hire me...

You tell me?  How much over-disclosure should one participate in when blogging?

This last month has been filled.

day 4 of Lé Apple

Oye... I am exhausted. I have been a photo warrior these last couple days. I think hugely because of my deadline (ie: plane back to California) thus I have been super photo girl knocking on doors, sending emails into the wee hours and being fearless with the hundreds of NY security guards I have met. I have decided where I would like to live if I do ever dig my heals into the East Coast. SOHO. Mainly because of the cute boutiques and restaurants... Kim says "you and everyone else".

Here is where my journey has taken me so far:

Artist and Creatives,
Ogilvy,
Universal Music Group,
Cosmogirl,
Redbook,
Seventeen,
Harper's Bazaar,
Rolling Stone,
Elle,
Complex Mag,
Ecko,
Tokion,
Fader,
Condé Nast (ate lunch in their amazing cafeteria... seriously, wined and dined... well, at least dined.)
Concept Farm
Duetsch
Kid Robot,
Kate Spade, (the receptionist looked like Jackie O.)
Marilyn Cadenbach,
Oliver Piro,
Publicis
Randy Cole (super awesome place. I hung out there for almost an hour, telling a little too much of my life story to Meredith- Randy's assistant.)

I really enjoyed going to Randy Cole's place today. The building is awesome and reminds me of my loft in Oakland, (which I now miss terribly). I first sat down with her assistant Meredith for a bit and showed her my website which she remembered from previous emails. Then I got waived into Randy's office and I encountered the moment of "ahh!" that many people experience when they meet this girl named Frankie. I wanted to be like "SEE! We are a match! It's perfect, you... woman... Randy... me... woman... Frankie... get it..." Thank god for the occasional filter that edits out those brilliant mental moments.

Anyhow, Meredith showed me the portfolios of some of the artists they represent and I was in awe. Mostly amazed by the incredible editing of images (page layout and selection within the book, and digital manipulation of some of the photos), along with the presentation that left me feeling slightly juvenile.

I wish there was a better education for young photographers. Like how do you expect us to show art directors the images that are appropriate for them to see, when we don't know which campaigns they work with?

Example: My first year out of school I went down to LA and met with a ton of creatives including Tobias. Tobias was with a huge agency outside of LA. I had pulled his name from a list of art directors, knowing that this agency had many clients that I would one day hope to work with.

So I emailed him, he said "Yes, come, show me your book and we will have lunch with another AD". So we go out to eat at this nice place and we order food, I start showing them my book and they are like "Great, do you have any cars?" Err... Not really... I have some shots with cars... kinda. Turns out that Tobias only worked with Automobile companies.

Seriously people.

Anyhow. I am looking forward to gettin back to California... I hear the rain is coming this way and I am not so smitten with wetness.

Tomorrow I have to drop by mini-portfolios to 3 more boutique advertising agencies, and another rep. Then the question is, should I rent a car and take off to MA for a night to see Josie Mae or stay in the city. I guess I could just relax on Saturday and go to the MOMA.

We shall see. Wish me luck.

big ass pond

So I took off to New York to do meet and greets with advertising agencies, magazines, record labels and book publishing houses. It would have been best if I had let them know I was coming far ahead of time... but that doesn't lend itself to the spontaneity

I am in NYC right now showing my book around to Advertising agencies, magazines, music labels and book publishing houses. I started by going to meet with Joe Lombardo from Artists and Creatives. He is a strong, opinionated, loud, encouraging, flaming photographers rep. We sat down with my book and flipped through telling me what caught his eye. His feedback was that it is difficult to see me in my work. His main suggestion was to focus on clean product shots and on single "pow" portraits like the children ones I have done. He said that the heavily staged images are not as clear and direct. It is always really interesting to hear what strikes different people. Taryn Finn from Corbis in LA said that she wanted to see more off beat group portraits.

I went from there to Ogilvy Worldwide where I made friends with the security guard- an older gentleman who wanted to talk about hippies... (you are either queer or hiding patchouli somewhere in your bag if you are from the Bay). He even went so far as to play his Beach Boy ringtone for me. I then headed to Universal Music Group, then over to Hearst. Hearst publishes Marieclaire, Seventeen, Oprah, Redbook, Bazaar, and more. The security in NYC is so tight I had to go through 3 locked doors to meet with anyone. The buildings are huge and intimidating. I sat down with Bruce from Redbook and he thoroughly went through my book and gave me feedback. The images that struck him were the gun shot and the heads from the Alcatraz State Prison Assignment.

I then headed over to Rolling Stone Magazine. Called up Deborah, she said she had bookmarked my website when I sent her the email, and there was no need to drop a promo... I still went to the mail room and had one delivered... I was downstairs when I called her.

Anyhow. New York has been good to me so far. I enjoy the trains. I am walking much more than in Oakland and San Francisco, and it was actually warm today. Like 70º warm.

Now I am going to send out emails.

Oh my goal is to leave this town with a photo rep. I have my eye on this one...

Keep ya posted.

xoxox

Frankie

Truths:

- I say 'totally', 'dude', 'awesome', and 'rad' way too often.

- I believe wholeheartedly in the law of attraction.

- I was born in Denver Colorado, but I am a Californian.

- My first fashion shoot was at 10 years old.

- I was adopted at the age of 13.

- My family is filled with famous artists and addicts.

- My first solo photo show opened when I was 17.

- At 19 I attended a year long vocational boot camp for photography.

- I say no to drugs including the booze.

- At 20 years old I held the title of "Miss Bondage-a-go-go" in San Francisco

- I am one of three people to have ever photographed the fake heads the prisoners made to escape Alcatraz in 1963. The other two are Life Magazine and the FBI.

- I live in Oakland with two incredibly adorable kittens who were found in a dumpster, and one incredibly adorable human man, not found in a dumpster.

- At 23 years old I photographed Gene Simmons from KISS and his family (Shannon Tweed, Nick and Sophie Simmons) for an episode of Gene Simmons Family Jewels for A&E.