Sometimes, work just falls into your lap without you having to lift a finger. Usually, that means a one-off job with the hopes of more work down the line. Not in the case of Francis Hills, however. His business manager (and wife) Karen — who provides the quotes for this story — tells us about how the two first got involved with what’s been a longtime client.
It was summer 2010 when I got a text that simply said, ‘how much for 500 headshots?’ An Executive Director from Brown Harris Stevens, one of the oldest residential realtors in NYC, had gotten my contact details from a mutual friend. We were invited to meet with the CEO and Executive Board and make a pitch for the BHS Portrait Project in July 2010.
Like résumés and company websites, headshots need to be updated at regular intervals. No one wants old, grainy images from years ago acting as their first impression to a potential client — least of all a brand-name company in its field like BHS.
Brown Harris Stevens was looking to up their game and redo all of the agent’s headshots — and were looking for an established portrait photographer to create them. At the time, the firm was known in the industry for its B&W agent portraits and the plan was to stick with this classic look; they decided to switch to color in 2017.
We were awarded the business and then took the next few months to iron out the details. The first session was scheduled Feb. 15, 2011 and we photographed all 500 by mid-July. Since then, we’ve continued to photograph BHS’ new agents, executives, and Board Members as well as “reshoots” of agents who wanted to update their images along the way.
A big part of why Francis landed the work, apart from his pedigree, is the time and effort the Hills’ put into the initial pitch book. A thoroughly researched document, the book covers everything from why certain portraits work/don’t work, to the benefits of B&W photography, to Francis’ experience and background.
The fact that we prepared a pitch book — and presented it to the board — says a lot about our professionalism. Francis and I both have corporate backgrounds and are very comfortable in the C-level environment.
We include competitor research, provide examples of work we’ve done, and visuals of what we recommend creating.
It’s this precursory legwork that allowed Francis to photograph 500 agents — each getting up to 30 minutes for a session — in six months. And once the first batch of shots came in, the work flowed steadily from there.
We’d shoot between 5-8 folks a day for 2-3 days a week. Make up services were also available and online galleries were created for folks to make their choices. It was a logistical challenge but it all worked beautifully. Now we work with BHS on a monthly basis.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this whole endeavor is the fact that no one Francis photographed was an actor or model of any kind. While some people are just naturally comfortable in front of the camera, many others need coaching and a calming influence to look their best. Putting people at ease is a speciality of Francis’ — hence why his corporate portrait photography business is so successful.
Photographing “real” people takes time. We want people to be proud of the images they use. You can’t please everyone, but we’ve had many tears of joy with folks exclaiming Francis created the best portrait of them ever. For a portrait photographer, that is the most valuable compliment.
NOTE: BHS merged with Halstead Real Estate, another NYC real estate brokerage firm, in June 2020. Thus, the BHS website is currently a jumble of Francis’ polished BHS portraits on black with Halstead’s outdoor/overlay images created by various other photographers. The hope is to create portrait consistency for the newly merged entity in 2021!
Credits:
CEO: Bess Freedman, CEO
President: Hall Willkie
EVP, Chief Administrator: Michael Bloom
See more of Francis’ work at francishills.com.
Check out our other great photographers on our Find Photographers page!