New York Diary: Translation and Droga5

September marked our triumphant return to New York, and this month Ally, Rachel, and I met with sports-centric ad agency Translation and hip ad agency Droga5. As usual, our morning started off bright (or rather dark) and early as we headed out to face the mad Manhattan traffic. We headed over to Translation, where we were immediately greeted by fun and unique framed pieces on their walls:

Ally and I are carefree as can be using our new rolling case instead of a cart, left, and Translation’s door signage, right.

After we arrived at Translation, we set up shop in their beautiful conference room with a killer view. With coffee and snacks to munch on, the creatives started making their way in to peruse the numerous books we had brought along. It was immediately clear what a fun group they were, as we talked about everything from photography and sports to the merits of eating ketchup with your eggs (creative Chris Mendez is strongly anti-ketchup and eggs, Rachel and Ally are strongly pro-ketchup, while I, as a non-egg eater, remained neutral). With major sports clients like the NBA and Champs, we made sure to showcase some of our top sports photographers alongside some of our portraiture and lifestyle photographers. They were excited to hear we can help with productions and stock and especially enjoyed the work of Robert Gallagher and Ben Miller, as well as the animals in Lincoln Barbour’s book (who doesn’t love dogs? Georgia photographer Ryan Gibson was also a standout, with everyone ohh-ing and ahh-ing at his work and the quality of his book.

The view from Translation’s conference room, left, and Translation’s creative team hangs out with Ally and me at the portfolio event, right

Last but not least was Droga5. Before the meeting, we were told that they were fans of pressed juices and healthy snacks, so we stopped to pick up some of nature’s treats for them and hightailed it over to their office right off the East River. The drive awarded us some great sights, such as a woman pausing for a selfie and a car in quite an interesting situation (art installation?):

We brought a variety of shooters with us to the Droga5 meeting since they told us they’re interested in all types of work. During the meeting, senior retoucher Pete Gibson talked about how nice it is to view physical books. He pointed out that a print portfolio is much more than looking at pictures—it’s about presentation and speaks to the photographer’s work ethic. Pete also said it’s great to see when a photographer puts so much care and thought into their book. He was especially drawn to the books of Tru Studio, Will McPherson, and Joseph Escamilla. Droga5’s social producer Jem Michael also talked about the difficulty of finding images for unlimited use on social media (because, as we all know, once something’s on the internet, it’s there forever), so she and art producer Bianca Escobar were excited to hear about our stock and production services.

Ally reviews portfolios with the team at Droga5.

Once our meeting was over, we packed up our books one last time and prepared to head home. We chose to be serenaded by the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and N*Sync for the drive back and were reminded that we just couldn’t stay away from you, New York.

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