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Prior to working at Wonderful Machine, I was a photo editor at The New Yorker. While there, amidst the hustle and bustle of producing shoots, editing incoming assignments, and researching archival work, I had the good fortune to meet many talented photographers who would drop by the office to share their work. This is how I came to meet Christian Witkin a few years back, who came to WM this spring looking for a streamlined edit of his portfolio and a new website.
The project would take place in two separate phases. First, I’d tackle the edit, then Jemma would handle the new site design and build. Christian is a photographer with a very deep archive of work straddling decades and genres, with an incredible eye for portraiture and a sensibility that feels relevant to both commercial and fine art photography.
I needed to work with an experienced photo editor who could help me edit down my deep archive into a comprehensive, simplified yet relevant presentation. Additionally, I required a fluid and modern yet classical presentation of the edited categories for my website. When I heard Honore was one of the editors at WM, I jumped at the opportunity to work with her.
As with all of our projects, the process began with a phone call, the first of several that would take place throughout collaboration. These calls established what work to prioritize on the new site and how to bring it together in a harmonious way that was true to Christian’s unique point of view. We knew that creating a sense of intimacy and immediacy was key, and that the edit would be held together by an emotional consistency as well as a more explicit organizational structure.
As someone who straddles both the commercial and fine art worlds of photography, it’s difficult for me to let people edit my work. However, there comes a time when allowing a new, professional, neutral set of eyes becomes critically necessary.
Christian had recently completed a book called Light of Light, which became the starting point for us. Since this body of work brought together so many elements of what Christian’s imagery entails, it was a logical place to start reconceptualizing the sequence for his new site. From there, we moved on to the other galleries on the site: Ordinary Beauty, Movement, and Celebrity.
Editing the celebrity work presented some unique challenges. Since the subjects are so well known, the work can appear dated or archival when the individual appears much younger than they currently are, or when the fashion is obviously out of date. Christian had tons of celebrity work for me to draw on, so I had plenty of material to work with. I also wanted to connect the celebrity gallery with some of the other work on the site.
Bon Jovi’s portrait, for example, with his head not visible in the frame, was a way to link the celebrity work with some of the other body fragments seen in the other galleries. Additionally, finding the right balance of color and black & white imagery throughout the site was an important part of the process.
After the galleries were completed, I passed off the edited sequences to Jemma, who took on the next phase of the project: a new website!
Our first steps were to get a feel for how Christian wanted the new website to appear, flesh out what needed to be built, and review his goals for the project. After taking a look at some website designs that appealed to him and comparing them to Squarespace templates, we concluded that building a site on Squarespace 7.1 version was our best option.
We identified four goals for the project. First, we wanted to achieve a fluid, bold, and artistic design with a clean, minimal look and a functional navigation. Our second goal was to find a way to create a stunning yet easy-to-navigate pop-up menu. Third, Christian wanted to introduce more of his motion work, so featuring a video on his landing page became one of our top priorities. Finally, he wanted to be able to connect his work with both commercial and fine art clients. Since his work already resonates with those clients, we just had to find just the right design to achieve that.
Shortly after we mapped out the site’s new structure to match our goals, Virb abruptly shut down with little notice. Luckily, Christian, who had hosted his site on Virb, and I were about to begin working with us on a new website. Unfortunately, this also meant Christian had no way of sharing his work and contact info while we built his new site.
Our solution was to connect his domain to his Squarespace account and create a public page with his contact information, social media links, and a quick bio. However, we couldn’t make his site public unless we subscribed him to a plan, which is always the last step after the photographer approves the final design (this allows the designer and photographer to experiment with different options throughout the project, if necessary). Thankfully, Christian trusted us to build a great website for him, which made me more eager to exceed his expectations and create a website that represents his work, vision, and brand.
With his approval, we published his site with an Under Construction page and moved forward with the project. This also gave us the freedom to build the site without worrying about what was visible to website visitors, and it gave us more time to tweak out details if needed. Before we added Honore’s edit to the site, I wanted to find the right layout to showcase Christian’s images. As mentioned, his photography evokes a sense of intimacy and emotion, so I wanted the layout to be more than just a grid of images — I wanted it to compel visitors to take their time as they navigate through the galleries and to maximize each image’s impact as they scrolled down the page.
I created a custom salon-style layout instead of using Squarespace’s default layouts to create an experience that felt similar to walking through a museum. This layout is not something I usually recommend, but for this specific case it felt like the right solution. We also wanted to add captions, which I coded as a text overlay to appear when visitors hovered over an image. Unfortunately, this design didn’t seem to work out the way we were hoping it would and wasn’t exactly fitting Christian’s vision. After some more brainstorming, we then decided on a three-image grid layout.
Once we finalized the gallery design, everything else came together pretty smoothly. As we installed Honore’s web edit on the site, we built the ABOUT/CONTACT page, which leads visitors to an archive of other projects, a gallery of tear sheets, and a select client list. Then, we created his MOTION gallery and added his videos to the page, which led us to designing the landing page.
As we were nearing the end, we built his navigation menu. Rather than using Squarespace’s default top bar navigation, I coded in a hamburger menu (also known as a mobile menu), a feature that Christian seemed eager to have on his site. Finally, we added a background image, and who else could be more fitting than the actor Javier Bardem?
When the hamburger menu was open, I noticed it was a bit confusing to navigate between galleries without visual cues to indicate what page visitors were currently visiting and which links they’re hovering. To solve this problem, I styled the text with more code that would respond to hover actions. After that, we put the finishing touches on his blog and store, which he’s planning on using more alongside his social media platforms to consistently promote his work.
I plan on more personal involvement thru my web blog and web store, in addition to uploading new imagery, the idea being to keep viewers engaged thru conversations and social media. My two important social media outlets, Instagram and LinkedIn, are highly important vehicles for my presence in this world as a creator of powerful imagery and content. Most of my marketing happens there and ties in beautifully to my new site.
Once everything looked ship-shape, we went live; Christian immediately received positive responses and feedback when he shared the new site on his aforementioned Instagram and LinkedIn. Having taken everything into account, Christian was immensely pleased with the work.
I knew Honore was a perfect fit since she worked with both art and commercial photographers at The New Yorker. In addition, she is schooled in both the analog and digital photography eras and possesses experience, knowledge, and wisdom well beyond most photo editors today.
Jemma, meanwhile, brought positivity, patience, and an acute modern eye to the project. They worked smoothly with the edit Honore and I had established and integrated the imagery into a perfectly designed ecosystem for my new site. Their enthusiasm and diligence on getting the site just right was infectious! I would like to thank Wonderful Machine for the introduction to these two wonderful professionals!
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