Apply: Agent/Producer

Wonderful Machine is a production company with a network of 700 photographers around the world. We have 13 full-time and 2 part-time staff members working from our office in Narberth, Pennsylvania.

We're looking for someone who has extensive experience creating estimates for commercial photographers and producing photo shoots. Experience with video production is a plus. This is a full-time, in-house position.

When not working on estimates or shoot production, our producers cultivate relationships with photographers and art buyers to generate new projects. They're also responsible for writing case studies about their projects (at least 1/month), nurturing our junior staff members, and generally helping our company grow.

• You can read some estimating case studies here.
• You can read some shoot production case studies here.
• You can read about our portfolio events here.

About Our Company

Wonderful Machine provides three main services: we promote our member photographers through our directory, we help all photographers with a variety of consulting services, and we produce photo shoots for agencies and brands. We charge photographers a monthly fee for a listing on our directory, and an hourly (or project) fee for consulting and shoot production.

Since all of our opportunities arise out of us cultivating relationships and understanding the needs in the marketplace, we put a lot of energy into learning about the people and companies in our industry. Those people tend to fall into the following categories:

1. Clients (we also refer to them as prospects) are important to us because nothing happens without clients and it’s why all the other types of people exist at all (including us). Clients include ad agencies, brands, corporations, catalogs, magazines, graphic design firms, book publishers, record companies, non-profits, etc. (anyone who uses high quality commercial photography (and increasingly video) on a regular basis).
2. Photographers account for the majority of our revenue through their membership and consulting fees. We work to attract the best photographers from around the world. Having great photographers on our site allows us to attract quality clients.
3. Crew is a term that describes all the people and companies who help photographers execute photo shoots. They include stylists, make-up artists, digital techs, location scouts, caterers, and more. Photographers and clients love that we can help them find excellent crew anywhere in the world.
4. Many photographers and crew work with agents, who help get them assignments and manage their careers. Many of our photographers have agents, and the exposure we provide augments the promotion that their rep provides. We also frequently help photographers find the right agent, and we sometimes help agents with branding, marketing, estimates or shoot production.
5. Resources is a term that covers everyone else in our industry – everything from legal and accounting services to website templates and hosting to associations and workshops. Knowing all the important people and companies in our industry allows us to be valuable to clients and photographers.

Internally, the work that we do to support those relationships falls into three categories: brand management, research/outreach and consulting. Brand management is a term we use to describe everything we do to maintain our directory of photographers (and to support our company in general). Research/outreach describes our efforts to find and connect with the people in our industry who are important to us. And consulting describes projects that our staff members perform for individual photographers and clients.

Hours, Compensation, Benefits, Company Culture, History

We work Monday-Friday, approximately 8:15am - 5:45pm (plus as needed). We expect our junior and mid-level staff members to work an average of 45 hours per week. Senior staff members have greater flexibility to set their work schedule.

We're offering a base salary of $75,000/year plus a year-end bonus based on performance goals.

The benefits we offer include 18 paid days off/year (which can be used for any reason, including vacation, illness, or snow days), 7 paid holidays, an additional 330.00/month towards your health & dental insurance premium (after 90 days), and 401k matching (we contribute an additional 3.5% of your salary when you contribute 6.5%).

The work environment is relaxed, friendly, collaborative, and professional.

You can read more about our history on Kate Osba's blog.

How to Apply and How I’ll Respond

If you think your interests and skills are a good match for us, please send your resume to [email protected] listing your education and experience, and a brief cover letter explaining 

If it looks to me like you might be a good fit for us, I’ll ask to meet up over Skype for a quick chat. I’ll have some questions for you, and it’ll be nice if you have some questions for me.

I hope that’s helpful. Please let me know if there’s anything I could add to make this explanation more useful. Thanks!