Associate Producer, Alex Subers, joined me this month on our second portfolio event of the new year. We arranged meetings with FX Fowle, New Republic, and AKA. This time around, we headed for a one-day trip to New York City, full of anticipation and excitement, while catching up on some of our earliest memories during our drive to the city. With Alex’s exceptional driving skills in The Snail (his Lexus hybrid), we were able to weave through New York Fashion Week traffic (safely) and hop into The City Bakery for the go-to everything bagel and a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
After breakfast, we walked up and around the corner to our first portfolio meeting with the architecture firm, FX Fowle. Once we checked in, we were escorted to a conference room to start preparing for our meeting.
Shortly after, we were greeted by Brien McDaniel, Director of Communications, who mentioned he jumped to the opportunity to meet with us in search for new resources. He asked us to bring portfolios of local architectural photographers in New York as well as international photographers in China, Dubai, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. During our discussion about their upcoming projects and the opportunity to work with us on production, Brien mentioned he wanted to look for a local female architecture photographer. Right in-between us was Donna Dotan’s portfolio, which he immediately reacted to when he commented on her presentation and pointed out his dream home on the first page. We then had the chance to show some of our international photographers’ websites and presented the work of Antonio Saba in Dubai. Make sure to check out his site!
After our first meeting, we had a couple of hours to ourselves for us to wander around the city, so we spotted our first landmark, the Flatiron Building (and stopped to take some pictures, of course). We sat around, enjoyed the weather, and scoped out our next café spot for lunch.
After chowing down and reviewing a list of some of our photographers, we were ready to make our way to our next meeting with Stephanie Heimann, Photo Director of New Republic.
Stephanie welcomed both of us each with a copy of their most recent March 2017 issue of the New Republic Magazine. She guided us through their offices and gave us a rundown of what type of content they look for throughout various features in their magazine. She noted that she had just recently met with Saverio Truglia and specifically had mentioned the relevance of the portraits he produced for his Party People project.
Image of a spread in Saverio Truglia’s Party People book project. Check out his website for additional photographs and details.
We packed up and made our way through the city to our final meeting at AKA, a full-service ad agency specializing in Broadway, theater, and entertainment. While we waited in the lobby, Alex pointed out the names of the conference rooms: Candy Room, Play Room, and Meeting Room. We crossed our fingers that we would make it into the Candy Room because, I hope you guessed it (maybe not), floor to ceiling shelves containing jars full to the brim with an abundance of candy! Alex and I were pleased to be welcomed by Adam Coffia, Executive Producer of Content. Adam so cheerfully brought us into the Candy Room and introduced us to his enthusiastic team of creatives. After a curious conversation as to why the meeting rooms got their name, we dove into business to find out how they source photographers and handle their shoot production. After finding out they seek celebrity, portraiture, and conceptual photographers, they revealed some of their favorite photographers whose portfolios we showed: Scott Nobles, Erin Patrice O’Brien, Cade Martin, Rickett + Sones, and Sally Montana.
While the creative team at AKA was reviewing our photographers’ portfolios, I gave them a rundown of WM’s services on our website.
Yeah…you bet we grabbed some candy for the road!
After a day full of informative and successful meetings, we packed away the portfolios back into our Pelican cases and headed in search for The Snail. I’m looking forward to the next time I’m back into the city for another round of reviews!
Need help getting your portfolio in front of dream clients? Reach out!