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This past Wednesday, Bill, Nadia, and I took a trip down to Washington, DC. It’s not often that we head south since most of our meetings are in NYC or NJ. So this was a unique opportunity for us! Even more so because we met with National Geographic, The Washington Post, and Washingtonian Magazine—three historic publications!
Our first meeting was with National Geographic. Here we met photo editors Shweta Gulati and Julie Hau, as well as Jay Sumner, the media manager for National Geographic Explorer, a kids’ magazine sold directly to schools around the nation. The editors enjoyed our portfolios. While they were interested in travel and reportage, they also showed liked the portraiture and lifestyle. Jay Sumner noted that her biggest challenge was finding authentic-looking stock photos—especially ones that show ethnic diversity. One of the editors keyed in on Noah Willman’s work, who is ironically a DC native.
We started to talk about insurance. Whether in a war zone, remote mountainside, or high seas adventure; National Geographic has a particular type of insurance to cover photographers, which includes extracting photographers from dangerous places. They also prefer to work with photographers who have experience working in high-risk conditions. For example, to send someone to a war zone, that photographer must have experience navigating a war-torn environment.
We were also told that the National Geographic editors like to be pitched stories. While they typically don’t license images, not explicitly shot for them, they will hire a photographer to expand on their projects. Finally, 21st Century Fox, which owns National Geographic’s for-profit division, is to be purchased by Disney. It’s speculated that this is a huge play to create a streaming service to rival Netflix. National Geographic’s content would no doubt help with this goal.
Our second meeting was with The Washington Post. The Post was recently acquired by Jeff Bezos, who moved the publication into a new building off K Street in DC. Their office used to sit right over the actual printing press, where the staff could feel the building shake anytime the machines ran. The presses now live in Springfield, VA.
I’ve never seen the old space, but their new office is incredible. We weren’t allowed to take pictures (except for the one you see below), so I’ll have to describe it to you. First, quotes fill the wall! The Washington Post has always been a “words” newspaper, and it takes great pride in its writing. The proof is in the pudding—in their newsroom sits a glass case with 5 Pulitzer Prizes! The main feature of this newsroom is the activity. Overhead screens display a constant feed of analytics and Twitter posts. (Probably why we couldn’t take photos.)
Meanwhile, reporters are busy discussing and writing stories. You feel the news happening when you enter the room. It’s exciting stuff!
We met up with photo editors for The Washington Post and the WP Magazine, and, after Bill demonstrated our website, we passed out portfolios. We knew to bring reportage, as well as food and lifestyle, to fill the photo needs for the newspaper and magazine. We learned the magazine typically strays from the reportage aesthetic. Instead, they hire photographers with one specialty to shoot each story.
Once we finished our talk, we brought out the portfolios. The editors at WP already knew a good amount of our photographers, but there were a few pleasant surprises. They particularly responded to Mark Lehn, Ben Weller, and Jennifer May.
Our final meeting was with Washingtonian Magazine in a coffee shop. It was harder to spread out our portfolios in the shop, but we managed, and our contact was excited to take a look. My priority was to show our food photographers. However, as soon as I mentioned food, she told me they already have an incredible photographer that they’ve worked almost exclusively with for years. While I understood, I suggested we take a look anyway. She was open, so I pulled out Scott Suchman’s food portfolio. She laughed because Scott Suchman was already her incredible, exclusive food photographer. It truly is a small world.
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