Waking up and hitting the road before 7 a.m. isn’t so bad when you’re in good company. What’s more, Jillian and I were greeted with the shining sun and a cool, gentle breeze as we began our journey to New York and the promising meetings that awaited us. We had 31 portfolios packed from our member photographers featuring fashion, lifestyle, beauty, reportage, food and portrait work to showcase at the offices of Marie Claire, Erwin Penland Hill Holliday and Newsweek.
After over an hour of Jillian’s champion maneuvering through the Lincoln Tunnel, we finally made it to the parking garage right around the corner from Hearst Tower. Photo editor Jackie Ladner was in the midst of wrapping up six shoots for the next two issues – we knew she had a lot on her plate! We wanted to do something nice to thank her for taking the time to meet us despite her incredibly hectic week. We made a quick stop at Baked by Melissa (have you figured out how much we love this place yet?!) to pick up a box of cupcakes for the busy photo editors.
The view from the 34th floor of Hearst Tower.
Jackie recognized some of the books from our members. She’s met both Evaan Kheraj and Samantha Wolov and was happy to see their books again. Before moving to Marie Claire, Jackie worked for Teen Vogue and brought Evaan in for a shoot. She’s hoping to hire him again in the future and raved about his soft, effortless style. Jackie was also excited to discover that we can help find international crew contacts after telling us that she was looking for last minute hair and makeup in Barcelona.
Jackie and I looking through Michael Haug’s iPad and discussing a favorite jewelry brand, CatBird.
After lunch, Jillian and I headed to our second meeting with Erwin Penland Hill Holliday, an ad agency working with clients like Denny’s and L.L. Bean. We met with associate art producer Dana Kandic and art producer Trevor Alexander.
Dana, Jillian and Trevor talk about their upcoming shoots.
Dana and Trevor were familiar with Wonderful Machine and have enjoyed working with Aaron Greene, Landon Nordeman and Josh Letchworth in the past. The vivid food photography of both Theresa Fernandez and Alistair Tutton especially stood out to Dana. Trevor’s favorite was the outdoor lifestyle work of Tru Studio, you can see their full portfolio below:
Traffic was out of hand, but once again, Jillian effortlessly conquered the wild and reckless streets of Manhattan landing us at Newsweek for our third review just in the nick of time. With our fear of being late now a mere memory, we headed in to meet with senior photo editor Michael Ip and photo director Shaminder Dulai. Both editors were familiar with Wonderful Machine – they’ve worked with Ackerman + Gruber, Josh Ritchie and Ramin Rahimian. Shaminder mentioned the (old) site being a bit confusing to navigate, so we spent a few minutes taking him on a virtual tour of our newly redesigned site. They loved how much easier the new site is to navigate. The favorites from this meeting included Adam Lerner’s environmental portraits and work from reportage photographers Lianne Milton, Charles Pertwee and Radhika Chalasani.
Me, Michael and Shaminder talking about stock requests.
If you’re a reportage photographer capturing breaking news, send in your best shots to Newsweek. Every week, the editors search for four images for the Big Shots section – the week’s top stories in photos – and they encourage our photographers to send in appropriate photos. For stories taking place during the week, have your images in by 1 p.m. on Friday for consideration. For breaking weekend news, send your photos in by Monday morning. The editors have asked that you email only the hi-res versions. Send them as direct attachments or in a zip folder. With the limited turn around time on each issue, the editors don’t have time to go back and forth about image quality and sizing. If your images get chosen for Newsweek, let us know!
Jill (left) pushes portfolios through the Financial District. Jill catches me snapping some selfies with Lady Liberty while waiting to get out of traffic.
After three fun and successful meetings, we packed up and headed back to Philadelphia, wishing we had saved some cupcakes for the drive home. Check back next month for more portfolio event news or send your book to us.
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