by Elyse Leyenberger
Last Thursday, I arrived bright and early at photo editor Sean Stone’s house for my first New York City portfolio adventure. We cruised up the New Jersey Turnpike with our rental car chock full of portfolios, graced by the sweet sounds of classic rock XM radio. Arriving safely in Times Square, we stacked our dolly with books and prepared for a great day of meetings with various editorial clients.
First up: Condé Nast Traveler’s photography department. We chatted with photo editors Esin and Nelida about some upcoming projects that they were seeking specific images for. As their team of photo editors joined us, they checked out the selection we had spread of our finest travel photographers’ work. Although it was a brief meeting, we managed to chat with the team as they took several leave-behinds and business cards for future reference.
Particularly popular among the Condé Nast Traveler team were UK-based photographer Julian Love’s travel images, bound together in a magnificent leather book. The team also discussed photographer Yadid Levy, whom they had worked with before, but learned of his relocation to Israel. They also loved Christopher Shane‘s food and travel images, as well as his unique scrapbook-style presentation.
As they’re working under a new Editor-In-Chief, the staffers at Condé Nast Traveler were very engaged in looking at the books to see how our Wonderful Machine photographers will fit into their new editorial direction.
Food Network Magazine was next on our list, located on the 35th floor of the gorgeous Hearst Building where we met with Alice, the photography director, and her photo editors. Sean and I passed books around the table as we engaged in conversation surrounding the photographers we were showing, what was in the works at Food Network Magazine and, naturally, about Wonderful Machine.
Popular books among this group included Kyle Dreier’s conceptual food photographs, Brian Wetzstein’s vivid images of delicious food, and Jennifer May’s awesome farm to table work. The ladies at Food Network informed us about a travel insert they are including in the publication, which led us to show them some of the travel and lifestyle books we had brought along with us. They loved Winnie Au’s lifestyle portfolio and took some of her leave-behind envelopes. We threw in some fashionable WM t-shirts for fun as well!
After a food pitstop, we scooted our portfolio dolly to the Time Building to meet with a photo editor at All You Magazine, where we shared food and fashion lifestyle books. The work of Richard Fleischman, Leo Gong, and Julie Bidwell all received a high amount of interest. The editor was excited to hear about our vast amount of members in various geographic locations, because they often have shoots in unusual locations and WM can be a great tool for them.
After our day of successful meetings, Sean and I grabbed a drink at The Ginger Man to avoid the rush hour traffic before heading out of the city and waving goodbye to the beautiful New York skyline. Another successful portfolio event in the books!
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