Scott Pommier – Making The Break

More from my series on photographers making the break. I’ve always wondered about photographers who have very strong work that is from a single subject. I wanted to know how you land your first big commercial job with that kind of specific work. Scott Pommier’s motorcycle photography is a perfect example of this so I asked him a few questions.

APE: Tell me how you got started as a photographer?

cover_twsphoto_devonI shot skateboarding for about ten-years. First just borrowing my mom’s camera and shooting my friends, then shooting for some small local magazines before starting to contribute to magazines like SBC Skateboard, Thrasher and Transworld.

APE: Ok, can you tell me more about being a skateboard photographer? I’m really interested in this because there seems to be a lot of talented photographers in that genre and compared to other sports an emphasis on lifestyle, shooting film, strobes, medium format cameras? What’s up with that?

Skateboard photography, is collaborative. The skateboarders are often performing a trick, solely so that it can be documented. They’re really invested in the process, so as a photographer you’re not relegated to the sidelines. Also, skateboarding magazines have always been driven by the photography, and the editors have tended to be photographers who have continued to allow and sometimes encourage the use of film. So budgets, space in the magazine and story ideas, have revolved around what would make for good pictures, and not necessarily, compelling copy.

Picture 31The medium-format thing is tied in with that and can be traced back to a photographer named Atiba Jefferson. Many photographers before Atiba had experimented with different kinds of cameras. But when everyone saw the crisp images that he shot on Provia with his Hasselblad 30mm lens, the new approach spread like wildfire. And was quickly adopted other action-sport photographers. As an added bonus, the magazines would often run the images un-cropped. So the large square image would take up one full page, and a 1/3 or so of the facing page. The negative space was filled with the copy for the story and a few incidental shots, and the equation seemed to work out about perfectly for the largely photo driven editorial, it didn’t hurt that partial spreads pay a little better than a full page image either.

As for the emphasis on lifestyle, I’m not sure, but I have a few ideas. I guess it’s partially that the photographers and the skateboarders spend a lot of time together both on and off the clock, so they have access that maybe someone who shoots baseball or something like that doesn’t really have. Photographers will go on tour with a group of skateboarders for weeks at a time,–like rock-and-roll photographers used to– and within this specific world, these guys are rock stars. Style and personality have always mattered in skateboarding, many analogies have been attempted, I don’t think any of them have really captured the essence, “skateboarding is an artform,”  “it’s like dance” or “it’s a lifestyle.” It’s not quite like any of those things, but it’s also not exactly a sport. It’s always attracted creative and interesting characters, and that’s always a good starting off point for photographs with some depth and some flair.

Shooting skateboarding is actually quite difficult. I tell people it’s photo boot camp. The bar is pretty high to get your work published, and you have to be able to deliver in any kind of situation. You’ve got a moving target, many times you have shoot a photo that explains the action–you’re shooting a stunt of some kind–so, you need to show exactly how dangerous it is, you need to get the timing just right, you’re shooting in un-permitted locations, so you’ve got security/police to worry about you don’t have much time to setup, sometimes you only have one shot at something. So, there can be a lot of pressure. But you learn how to think and work quickly and how to juggle all the factors that go into making a successful image. It’s a skill-set that translates very well to other kinds of photography.

APE: Cool. Keep going with the career. What happened next?

I got arrested for trespassing while shooting with Ed Templeton. My gear was confiscated and my car impounded. While I was awaiting my trial, I bought a motorcycle. Something I’d always wanted to do.

not-see-max-and-jasin-hug-light

On my first motorcycle trip I borrowed my brother’s fully manual Contax SLR with a 50mm lens, (because none of the cameras I shot with were light enough to strap over my shoulder) and realized how much you could do with a simple setup like that. I had been known for carrying around a lot of equipment, always trying to up the production value of my shots. It felt tremendous to be freed of all the concerns of what lens, what camera, what lighting I should use and to concentrate on making pictures in a much more spontaneous way. That ended being a real turning point.

Initially, I had thought that what I brought to the table as a photographer was the experience I had shooting dynamic action photos. Punchy, carefully composed shots; in short, drawing on my background in skate photography. But shooting the motorcycle stuff so transformed my whole way of working that the action photos I worked on for so many years, ended up being my education in the mechanics of photography and the more stripped-down approach that stemmed from the motorcycle shots is what really defined the way that I work now.

With skateboarding I learned how to create shots, when I started shooting motorcycles, I learned how to find shots.  In my commercial work, I feel like I draw on those two approaches equally. Anyways, so right around the time I was arrested, I lost my retainer with the skateboarding magazine I’d been working for, so I floundered for a year while I tried to figure out what I could shoot to pay the bills. I made a list of companies I wanted to shoot for, and the first name on the list was Harley-Davidson. I googled: Harley-Davidson+ad agency and came up with Carmichael Lynch, went to their website, got a phone number, called the front desk and asked to speak with an Art Buyer (I’m not sure where i’d picked the term up from, but i had very little idea of what an Art Buyer actually did.) They put me through to Andrea Mariash, I asked for her email address and sent her a link to my site, along with a little note about why i wanted to shoot for Harley-Davidson.

harleybook2009_1I don’t know quite what I expected to happen, I think I really just called and emailed, so I could cross it off the list. like, “okay, tried that,” so I wouldn’t have to wonder what might have been. A week later I got a call from a different art buyer at Carmichael about a Motorclothes shoot (Harley-Davidson’s apparel line). I think she was trying to figure out if i was a just a kid, or if I had any real experience on a commercial shoot. I was pretty much just a kid, and I didn’t have any real experience on a commercial shoot, but I faked my way through the call as best I could, and talked about some work I had done for Vans in conjunction with a broadcast spot they’d done. I remember thinking I’d done really well on the call, but in hindsight I totally gave myself away. They had me bid on the job, so I made a frantic call to the one commercial photographer I knew and he put me in touch with a producer, so I could put an estimate together. I didn’t get the job, and I was crushed, but a year later, Andrea called me out of the blue, woke me up actually, and told me that they’d been following me, and that there were some really big projects coming up, that turned out to be brand ads for Harley-Davidson, which were part of a new line of bikes they were unveiling called ‘Dark Custom.’ And that included a catalog shoot and a book project. It just so happened that they’d been looking for someone who shot skateboarding and motorcycles, and when I’d first contacted Carmichael, this new project was just starting to take shape. That the very first call I made to an agency ended up with me being awarded three jobs with my dream client is something that I can really only fully appreciate now, three years later.

Picture 2APE: And if that wasn’t enough your motorcycle images were getting spread around the internet on blogs and your other big  jobs came from clients calling you. Come on, Really?

Yeah, one of the art directors at Goodby found some of my motorcycle photos on a blog and I ended up shooting the Dickies campaign then the same thing happened with Converse as well. For the most part it seems like even with all the re-posting of my images, the photo credits have stayed intact.

APE: Amazing. I feel like I should end this with some kind of “don’t try this at home” warning because this is definitely not the norm but still fascinating to hear about.

D17423_2b_C_Burnout sml

Thinner Time magazine still manages to stand out

Sidney Harman, the audio equipment magnate who is buying Newsweek from The Washington Post Co., told the Wall Street Journal last week that he’d be happy to break even in three years. Time, company sources say, is on track to earn a profit of more than $50 million this year.

Time adopted what Stengel calls “reported analysis,” stories with a clear point of view — often left of center — that were rooted in shoe-leather work. Newsweek, which moved more sharply left, bet the ranch last year on more opinionated essays and columns — and lost.

via WaPo.

Onerous New Tax Law Will Effect Photographers

Correction: The new reporting requirements under these amendments apply to payments made after December 31, 2011. ASMP has it wrong below:

One of the provisions of the new healthcare reform legislation will significantly impact the administrative burdens of your business unless the IRS changes it. As of now, starting next year, if you pay any person or corporation more than $600 in a year for goods or services, you must report that to both the IRS and the entity or person whom you paid.

Read how you can publicly comment (here).

VII Magazine – On The Line

According to a recent estimate by the C.D.C. an average of eighteen American veterans kill themselves every day. That number accounts for 1/5th of all of suicides in the United States.

Photographer Ashley Gilbertson goes inside the Department of Veteran Affairs in Canandaigua, NY where the Veteran Crisis Hotline is located (here).

ontheline

I am floored by the dedication Ashley has shown to this subject. Bravo man, bravo.

May I suggest this…. The “film look” is bullshit

Shallow focus and Rack-Focus is lazy. A ham-fisted and overtly slothful technique with little impetus other than to lead your viewer around by the nose, to force them to look exactly where you want them to look, when you want them to look there. As a tool, like all other cinematic tools at the filmmakers disposal, it can and may be very useful. But as a staple and default way to depict moving images it is as articulate as a house brick.

Shallow focus and Rack Focus is the cinema equivalent of spoon-feeding the audience one small digestible and banal visual morsel at a time. Handing to them a deliberately unsophisticated and unchallenging image platter. It is the camera equivalent of writing only in capital letters and short sentences for fear your reader/viewer may not understand precisely and exactly what you want them to understand.

via Mike Jones Digital Basin : Weblog. Thx, Grayson.

Mannie Drops AP Lawsuit

The photographer, Mannie Garcia, had sued arguing that he owned the copyright to the picture and should be entitled to any profits made from it. Mr. Garcia’s lawyer told the Associated Press that his client dropped the suit because it had “taken a toll on him personally and professionally.”

via  ArtsBeat Blog.

Domino’s – We Don’t Need All Those Silly Tricks They Use In Fancy Photoshoots

Domino’s pizza recently launched Show Us Your Pizza, a website where consumers can upload photos of Domino’s pizza for a chance to win $500 and “the possibility of getting your photo in an ad.” The pizza chain is in the midst of a heavy image remake and this new campaign is a along the lines of the previous one where they issued a mea culpa for years of selling cardboard tasting pizzas. Now they claim to uncover the secret tricks used to make food look good in fancy photoshoots.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is the agency behind the makeover that is surprisingly unoriginal and similar to the Dove Campaign For Real Beauty created by Ogilvy & Mather that claimed to reveal the hidden side of beauty shoots.

And, while I believe the rules for the contest and offer of $500 for an advertising photo are particularly heinous, nothing here strikes me as dangerous to the profession of advertising food photography. This is a gimmick plain and simple. Careful editing of the submissions allow only the most delicious looking shots to get in and the whole thing is slickly produced by CP+B to make it look like the consumer is now in control.

Because I tend to look on the bright side of things I chalk this up to the ebb and flow of styles in advertising photography and I see an opportunity for photographers who can shoot highly produced images that look off-the-cuff.

Unconventional Photo Books – Meier und Mueller

Meier und Mueller is a new photo book publisher founded by Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann and Jörg M. Colberg. They aim to publish high quality books that are a bit different than the norm. This book trailer gives you a good idea where their head is on this. I’m guessing the German electro music is not included like one of those new Hallmark cards.

Seems to be a new trend of people wanting more control over the book publishing process or wanting to publish books that the big publishers have not interest in (see: LBM). Either way it sounds like progress to me.

“Conditions”, Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann from Meier und Müller on Vimeo.

According to Jörg “Pre-sales start the week after Labor Day, the official sales start in early October.” The book is priced at $49 with special editions that include a print for $90 and a box edition with a large print and nice box to store it for $350. The book will be sold online only except for specialty shops like Dashwood.

The Secret Law of Page Harmony

This method existed long before the computer, the printing press and even a defined measuring unit. No picas or points, no inches or millimeters. It can be used with nothing more than a straight edge, a piece of paper and a pencil.

graaf

via Retinart.

Michael Bierut – I Don’t Consider Myself Creative

Michael Bierut is a graphic designer and partner at Pentagram. He worked on the redesign of The Atlantic.

Here’s a great video where he talks about his creative process that I found on The Design Observer. I thought this quote was particularly poignant:

“I don’t consider myself creative. I don’t have ideas that I want to express that I make up myself. I can’t think of any personal projects that I’ve done. I just don’t work that way. The reason I became a designer is I wanted people to come to me with problems I can solve. I know how to do that, I can be creative then. I feel like I’m a doctor and I can’t just practice medicine on myself, so I need patients who are sick, the sicker the better in fact.”

Have I Told You How HUGE This Opportunity Is?

This kind of thing is usually relegated to the lower realms of photography but it’s nice to see Advertising Agency Latcha and Associates would like to include car photographers by seeing if they will shoot samples on spec. From their “Shoot A Sample” brief:

selected photography samples will be presented to the client. upon approval, you will become a preferred shooter for our collateral work. Bottom line: there is a lot of photography that needs to be captured. and shooting needs to begin soon. since the look is very unique, it is imperative that we have the right talent in place to move forward. We will create a talent pool of those who hit-the-mark to then move forward in bidding projects, and in some cases, direct award. also, and most importantly. this is a HUGE opportunity to shoot a look that’s new and fresh. you get to be part of our team – and assist in collaborating and evolving the style of a major automotive brand!

and

We sincerely hope you join us in this sample project. this is a very exciting time to be creative and redefine an agency/photographer relationship. By participating in this exploratory project, you are agreeing to do so without reimbursement from latcha or lincoln.

Nice try Latcha, you didn’t think we’d notice, did you?

Picture 3

UPDATE:

—– Forwarded Message —-
From: David Latcha <dave@latcha.com>
Sent: Thu, August 19, 2010 1:30:52 PM
Subject: Re: FYI Shoot A Car Sample Brief

Thank you for your insights.

1. This information was shared, under confidentiality, to a select group of photographers. When we find out who shared this information with you, that photograper/rep will be banned from ever working with this agency and I’ll make sure that all of the other art buyers in Detroit are aware of their indiscretion.
2. We have no idea who you are or if you even are what you claim. No website? That doesn’t seem professional.
3. You have no idea what is being asked. That is obvious. Professional car photographers are asked by all reputable agencies to produce samples to help define strategic goals. If the photographer has produced a style and a look that works for the strategic creative, and the agency and client agree, then that photographer is then chosen to shoot and produce all, if not a majority, of all of the photographic needs for the campaign.
4. We are not “stealing” shots, these are samples that we are asking for. The brief describes that we are not paying for the exploration, but at the same time, we ARE NOT USING ANY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHY being shot AS SAMPLES for any purpose other than to determine the creativity and artistry that a photographer may bring.
5. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

David Latcha
Owner
Latcha+Associates
248-482-4505



Interesting because spamming photographers with your proposal does not infer any kind of confidentiality what-so-ever. Also, I doubt this claim that “Professional car photographers are asked by all reputable agencies to produce samples” because I’ve spoken with professional car photographers who thought this was a horrible proposal.

Scion/VIce Magazine Photo Annual opening for 2010

Photographer John Eder files this report from the field:

Scion, the car company, sponsors a gallery space here in L.A. They are slavishly trendy in their curating, and there is nothing trendier than Vice Magazine. The magazine is actually very well written and very funny, and I look forward to each issue, for real – for the writing. Their photography aesthetic, though, is squarely in the Terry Richardson/Ryan McGinley camp.

The show was curated by Jonnie Craig, a 20 something UK skateboard guy who has become majorly successful by more or less aping Ryan McGinley. In fact, Ryan McGinley is a champion of his work. So, this whole show was very homogeneous in the look, even tho it was 20 or so photographers, it ALL looked like it could have been shot by Ryan McGinley. It’s kind of like a math equation, where Johnnie Craig=Ryan McGlinley=Wolfgang Tillmans+Terry Richardson minus sex plus skateboards, kittens, cats, horses, tourist attractions, cigars and scabs (from skateboarding – there were two or three gnarly closeups of abscessed wounds, from different photographers), all of whose root number is Wm. Eggleston. More math in this equation is if you take 1000 pictures with your point and shoot of your friends or your cat, eventually you will get a few compelling frames.livingproofmag

It was good for people watching – loads of 19 year old girls tottering around in stripper shoes and the androgynous L.A. man-children who love them. The guys were actually far more the fashion show here, with a weird, femmy hipster vibe in full, uh, flower – lots of eyeliner, formal shoes with knee-socks and culottes or capri pants, old man glasses and silly mustaches, ironic t-shirts, wallet chains and plaid jackets that are two sizes too small.

Despite all this fashion rebellion on the part of the youth, virtually every conversation I blundered into was about branding and marketing. What was really funny was having this conversation in a group where one kid was so lit on acid and his pupils so dilated that I thought they were going to blow right out of his head. He said he was “tripping balls.” And yet, still, we were talking about branding and how genius Scion is at trend monitoring and appealing to the youth.

Anyway, that’s the report from the front lines of culture and photography here in Los Angeles.

Ask Anything – Live

Going to the PDN Photoplus Expo? You may want to come see Amanda, Suzanne and I put the toughest questions you can muster to an all-star panel that includes an AB, PE, Rep, Photog and AD. The Seminar is Thursday, Oct 28, 2010 – 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM.

If you’ve got a tough question, e-promo example, mailer example, website example or portfolio conundrum it would be awesome if you submitted it to Amanda (amanda(at)sosastone.com) or Suzanne (suzanne.sease(at)verizon.net) before that date, so we can bring it up with the panel. I would be extra stoked if someone made a video question we could present. Actually that might be a good way to show us your promo materials or portfolio.

Not going to the expo? No problem. I’m going to setup some type of live streaming/transcript/audio that will allow you to see/read/hear the questions and answers. Also, you will be able to participate in the discussion on twitter.