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