GRAVY

Periodically, I stumble upon published work I have created that has been sold either through stock agencies that I was associated with, or on my own. I started shooting for stock in the early 1980’s. After having built up a moderately sized collection of personal images, I was determined to find representation. After a couple of meetings, I was accepted by a small but aggressive agency called Index Stock. This was a great bunch of young entrepreneurs that had several various coals in their fire. I was thrilled to be a part of their budding travel collection and the sales started. Several of my pix resold often, illustrating many different concepts and appearing in a diverse assortment of publications. Through several mergers and acquisitions, I now find myself associated with Getty Images. The long journey led me to arguably the best place to be as a Stock Photographer. It was always important to me, as a photographer, to be somewhat of a creative entity apart from the studio work I created in my rewarding career as a staff employee. This career gave my family a great life, sent both my boys to good colleges and allowed me to create many memorable and commercially successful images for a long list of prestigious clients at the studio. Anything that I created outside this environment was gravy.

Sometimes there is an interesting story connected to these finds, sometimes it’s just work…

Hari Kunzru is a successful novelist born in England. His fourth novel, “Gods Without Men,” was released in 2011 and is a story about multiple characters, set across time. Taking place in the American Southwest, the book has been described as an exploration and a search for order and meaning in a chaotic universe. It has been compared to Cloud Atlas.

One of my photographs of the Mojave Desert’s Trona Pinnacles was featured on the cover of the French translation, “Dieu Sans Les Hommes.”  Interestingly, another photographer’s shot of the moon and clouds was added above the mountains of my original shot. I doubt Hari cares.

One day I opened my email to find a post from Huckberry. It contained a Conde Nast Traveler article with various locations to see autumn leaves that were outside of New England. One of their suggested destinations was New Mexico. Having spent several Fall months in the Land of Enchantment, I was curious as to their recommendation. Upon examination I discovered this shot taken up Hyde Park road towards the Santa Fe Ski Basin. It was mine…

I have spent most of my life as a minor player in the New York Rock scene. Many nights I spent socializing in the patchwork of clubs and venues. Whether I was on the stage, or in front of it, I was comfortable among my peers. Rarely would I go out and not see a familiar face. Never a great self-promoter, I am usually interested in the goings on and gossip in this world. One day I saw an article on social media written by another participant in this great community that appeared in the Huffington Post. After reading the post, I realized that the headline photo looked a little familiar. The credit said it all…
Since 1905, Maclean’s has been Canada’s weekly news magazine for news and current affairs. With more than 2.3 million readers, it has been characterized as provocative, challenging, engaging and entertaining. With a reputation for showcasing fine photography, it is published in Toronto and is Canada’s leading magazine.

I was fortunate to land the opener in their business section illustrating an article about a fund that was offering refunds to it’s customers because corporations were sitting on their cash and limiting opportunities for growth. A thank you to my northern neighbor.

Continuing the international theme, Auto Moto is a French monthly magazine devoted to cars and motorcycles. It was founded in 1982 but after a series of name changes, Auto Moto was adopted in 2008.

A photo of a London bus that I took many years ago turned up as a visual cue that supported the fact that Roger Moore was a British citizen.