Ian Curcio describes the story behind landing a one-on-one shoot with soon-to-be NBA superstar Zion Williamson at the athlete’s high school.

Find out what our Client Outreach team got up to in March as it relates to updating our database and hearing back from clients.

Wonderful Machine’s client outreach team chugs right along with the new year, adding to and updating our internal database at a prolific rate during February.

Los Angeles-based Margo Moritz, alongside her partner and fellow WM member Tom Kubik, travels cross-country from West to East on Amtrak. During the eight-day round trip — in between which was client shoot in New York — Margo photographed Amtrak employees and some of America’s most beautifully undisturbed vistas.

Dallas-based Jami Clayman works with Pizza Hut to get still images as they complete a TV commercial shoot. The intermediary client, Austin-based video production company Revelator, found Jami through a Google search.

London-based Christie Goodwin gets interviewed for a sprawling, six-part music documentary called “ICON: Music Through the Lens.” Featureing musicians, journalists, and photographers, the film examines the cultural impact of music photography. Christie appears in five of the six episodes.

In an effort to get vulnerable small businesses more federal aid money, the Biden administration is changing the rules for the Paycheck Protection Program. One of the main differences is that sole proprietors — i.e., freelance photographers — are now eligible for loans even if they don’t turn a profit.

Before heading to Scotland, Sweden-based Chandler Borries asked outdoor gear brand Arc’teryx if he could photograph some of their new cold weather gear for company’s website and social media platforms. A longtime client of Chandler’s, Arc’teryx said yes, and the photographer went to work.

Wonderful Machine’s client outreach team continued its great work after the calendar flipped, adding a host of new people and companies to our database during January.

NYC-based Karen and Francis Hills talk about their ongoing portraiture work for residential realty agency Brown Harris Stevens. The pair have had BHS as a client for nearly 10 years, and continue to provide the company with headshots for their agents that get uploaded to the website.

Cleveland-based Angelo Merendino reconnects with Cleveland Magazine to photograph his fourth “Most Interesting People” cover for the publication. Instead of shooting the honored guests at a party thrown by CM — as is tradition — Angelo photographed each MIP at his studio.

Boulder, Colorado-based Brendan Davis completes a trip he’s dreamed about since childhood, paddling 315 miles from source to sea down the Hudson River in a record 14.5 days.

South Carolinian Bobby Altman heads to Primland Resort in Virginia to get imagery of the property and the variety of activities it offers. The work can be found on the resort’s website as well as their social media pages and print marketing materials.

Montana-based Andy Kemmis works with Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana to meet and photograph citizens who have been negatively affected by the state’s budget cuts to health services. The imagery will be shown to legislators in an effort to get more state funding for such services.

Berlin-based Patrick Wack returns to China’s Xinjiang region to document how its “minorities are being culturally wiped out.” Patrick first went to Xinjiang for the series “Out West,” but returned to focus on the cultural genocide of the Uighurs. Both projects ran in Papiers, Radio France’s quarterly magazine.

Denver-based Carl Bower meets with people who have persevered through numerous traumatizing life experiences and asks them to share their biggest fears. The award-winning work will be shown at two solo exhibits next year.

During the month of December, our Client Outreach team continued to add and update prospective clients for our database.

Photographer Michael Marquand has been working with e-comm-based enterprises more than ever. With his recent shoot for Anecdote Candles, Michael explores how e-commerce has been thriving in ways that physical stores haven’t since coronavirus came changed the world.

Dane Jens Kristian Balle recently won an award from Prix De La Photographie Paris (PX3) for his crisp shot of an overpriced roll of toilet paper. The award was under the “Advertising/Self-Promotion” category.

NYC-based Tina Boyadjieva visited Jordan right before lockdown struck — and got home just in time — to see ancient temples and meet some of the locals. Her shot of a Jordanian woman was selected by the International Center of Photography for an exhibit called ICPConcered. The exhibit ran through December 31.

In late 2020, president Trump signed the CASE Act into law. The legislation, part of Congress’ $1.4 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, allows creators to take action against people who steal their work without having to go through a federal court.

Arizona-based Blair Bunting contrasts a shoot done last summer in China and one completed this summer in California — the former had 60 people on set while the latter featured just four crew members.

San Francisco-based Joe Weaver linked up with Matt Horn, whose self-named Horn BBQ recently opened in Oakland. Joe’s shots were featured in numerous outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Eater, and Yeti.

Raleigh-based Bryan Regan gets work from two stories in the December issue of Walter Magazine, name after the city’s namesake, Sir Walter Raleigh. One story was a personal project Bryan pitched to the publication, while the other was about a local theatre troupe that puts on A Christmas Carol every year.

Pacific Northwesterner Blake Jorgenson heads to Utah for a three-day whirlwind of a shoot with Ram Trucks. Blake called the experience, his second time working with the client, “a real adventure.”