I live an hour plus North of Santa Fe, so I visit often. As such, I spend quite a bit of time at photo-eye, which has one of the world’s best inventories of photo books and ‘zines. We’re kicking off a new feature where I’ll be doing quick reviews of new releases, to give you a sense of what’s new and interesting on the market.
“Presences” is an over-sized, perfect bound soft cover exhibition catalogue of Richard Learoyd’s work recently released by Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco. Mr. Learoyd works with a room-sized camera obscura, and a very sharp lens, to create razor-sharp nude and clothed portraits of women, (primarily,) bathed in Dutch Master-style light. The ladies look like a cross between a Julia Margaret Cameron subject and the geek-chic type lovely twenty-something you might see in a record store circa 1979. (Or a café in the Mission District circa 2011.) They’re lovely, but not in a lascivious way. Just a fantastic collection of very well made photographs. Bottom Line: Seductive. Visit Photo-Eye to purchase Presences
Peter Granser, an Austrian photographer, recently released a new perfect-bound soft-cover book, published by Super Labo in Japan. In a bit of amusing, literal titling, it’s called “Sun City/Austria/Coney Island/Deutsche Cowboys/Elvis Tribute Artists/Signs. 2000-2007.” If you surmised that the lengthy name gives you a pretty good sense of what the pictures are about, you’d be right. The dry “German” style is evident, true, but the images also have a wickedly ironic sense of humor, poking fun at some of the absurd and optimistic elements of the American character. (A suite of retired ladies dressed up in their old cheerleading costumes. An stooped-over-old, ridiculous Elvis impersonator dancing symmetrically in dueling portraits.) This little narrative captures the real sense of humorous adventure inherent in a good road trip: you never know what’s coming when you turn each page. Bottom Line: Witty. Visit Photo-Eye to purchase Peter Granser…
OK, I promise I won’t write about this guy again for a while, but for those of you who couldn’t get to MOMA by September 5th, you can get your own copy of Boris Mikhailov’s genius insanity in “The Wedding.” From the looks of it, this time he hooked up with a couple of alcoholic street folks, and managed to photograph their makeshift wedding in a vacant lot. Highlights include the blushing (or at least red faced) bride holding a big dildo over her husband’s head; their smiles as wide as a Nebraska tornado storm. It’s a hardcover in white, edition of 1000 from Mörel Books in London, in case you’re wondering. Highly recommended, if you like that sort of thing. (Brilliant but disturbing. Nudity, but not the fun kind.) Bottom Line: Twisted.
Full Disclosure: Books and scans were provided by Photo-Eye in exchange for links back for purchase. Please support Photo-Eye if you find this new feature useful.
“It’s 105 degrees outside. [Baldwin] calls me over: ‘Sit down, sit down. Umm,’ he said, ‘I’m not going out on the boat. It’s too hot. It’s 20 f—ing minutes to get out, and you have to go 2 f—ing miles an hour. . . . I’m not doing it.’ It’s like, What do you mean? But you can’t argue with him — he’s not going to change his mind. So I’m thinking on my feet and I say, ‘Okay, what about we go to my friend’s pool?’ He looked me up and down — I’m pretty scruffy — and he said, ‘Your friend doesn’t have a f—ing pool.’ And I’m like, ‘Trust me, my friend has got a pool, and it’s about half a mile away from here.’ So he kind of looks at me and goes, ‘Yeah, all right.'”
Heidi: What made you want to create more of a browsing experience for your site?
Sam: First off, let me say I lament the loss of the independent bookstore, the takeover of the pawn shop by ebay, and the overall loss of the tactical experience of searching, discovering, and handling books, records, magazines, and the like. I am glad I grew up in an era when if you wanted to view the work of an author, photographer, or painter, you went browsing in a great bookstore. You may or may not have found exactly what you were searching for, but chances are you always stumbled on something accidentally that was equally inspiring. I wanted to re-create that idea a bit with my new website.
The site has nuances of the ibooks bookshelf. Was that so users would be somewhat familiar to this experience?
I wasn’t really going for that, exactly, but I was trying to create the experience of walking by a display window, and having book covers, magazine covers and other designed elements that catch the viewer’s eye. It has been an interesting experience trying to design these little icons in ways that make them feel like objects, and also entice the viewer to “pick them up” and browse for a while. It is an idea I have been playing with for a long time, and I finally realized that users want to have multiple ways to view content, so that they can pick the way that works best for them. So, the site is designed with traditional drop down menus, and a pretty sophisticated search function. With that safety net of knowing users could easily navigate the site, I was free to then try something a little different with the shelves.
I think it is important to realize that a website is not a portfolio. The Internet, whether you like it or not, is like a giant mall. There may be some non-profit booths set up on the streets, and lots of free performances and conversations, but let’s face it, there are a heck of a lot of storefronts. I figured, why not make the experience of going to my website more like popping into a gallery, a bookstore, a movie theater, etc.
All are the books on the shelf “books” with the exception of the images that have the grey layers, indicating multiple images?
The general layout is divided into three distinct groups of imagery. Books, which can be any length or size, and which open up and have page turn animation to be as close to the experience of reading a book as possible. Galleries, which are a series of large images in a white space that can be viewed right to left or left to right, like walking through a gallery. And Movies, which include commercials, music videos, short films, movie trailers, interactive pieces, and documentaries. I can also choose to put a single image on the shelf, if I feel it needs to stand alone.
The idea here was to be able to use the shelf in many different ways. I can change the display by moving the content of the shelves around. I can group content together (like placing a gallery of Tom Petty photographs on the shelf next to a Tom Petty music video). I can put the latest magazine cover I shot on the top shelf, indicating that it is something new. And I can use it like a blog: It is easy to see that there is something new just by seeing a new item on the shelf that wasn’t there on the last visit.
Because you do quite a bit of editorial, did that influence your embedded “book” style?
Really, the idea behind the books came from wanting a way to show people more pictures from a particular shoot. On any given shoot, I may try six or seven different set-ups. Invariably, only two or three get seen. That doesn’t always tell the whole story. I like having different options for showing the work. If you look at the book I made after I did my Elle Fanning shoot for Vanity Fair, you can see that I tried to make it just a little keepsake from the day, like a little journal. And with the Aaron Eckhart book, there are pictures from multiple shoots over several years. That book has a very different feel. And with the Tom Petty Mojo project, a gallery was the best way to show the work, because each image kind of needed to stand on it’s own.
The funny thing is that after creating the site, I realized it is already having an influence on the way I shoot. I am now thinking about how I will end up telling the story, and displaying the work. It makes me a better photographer, and it gives me an outlet to be my own designer, and to display the images in a way that brings out the character of the shoot.
Who created the site? Were the developers and the designers from the same group? Or separate?
I had a very talented designer named Ness Higson help me with the look of the site, the type, the layouts, etc. And his partner Josh Stearns, (who is a tech wizard, and also a photographer) had to figure out how to make all these ideas work. The three of us went back and forth, debating the merits of the shelf, the feasibility of having different book formats, etc.
How long did this site take to build?
Most of the time was spent on my end, trying to figure out what I wanted. I would say I mulled over the idea on my own for over a year before I even engaged designers and builders. Then, once we started I suppose it was about a four-month process before we had a working prototype. Only then did I realize the massive amount of time it was going to take to “populate” the site with content, entering information, tags, uploading and compressing video, and creating the books. And I am still a long way off from feeling like it is where I want it to be.
Are the images difficult load and change? how about for the small books
The beauty of this site is in it’s architecture. Josh and Ness made the uploading and designing of the elements so easy, and so flexible. This was crucial for this kind of site because I wanted to be able to easily experiment with different ideas and be able to quickly update the site. I couldn’t be happier with how it works.
Is this your response to the development of rich media? This interactive site and you being being involved in still and motion?
I think it is a natural evolution. With first generation photography and film websites, I think everyone was trying to establish a visual identity with varying degrees of success. Now we all want to find ways not only to reach an audience, but also to keep them coming back. For me, being somewhat of a schizophrenic in terms of careers (I was making films long before the 5D was in existence), I wanted to find a format where my photography and film could live side by side in a very natural setting. With the shelf concept, I think I have solved that problem. When a viewer finishes looking at my site, I don’t want them necessarily to remember whether a particular visual they saw was in a film or in a photograph. I just hope the whole experience can meld together, and what they are taking away is an understanding of the way my eye works.
I also like the idea that the site is deep, and expandable. There is no end to the amount of shelves I can have, and that also goes for menu items in the dropdown section. Additionally, I can use the site as a bit of an archive, by having pictures and films in there that may not show up in the menus or shelves, but if you search by name or keyword, you can find them.
I also plan on adding things as time goes on, such as limited edition printed books that you can get from the site, maybe a music element, and some other interesting sections.
The addition of type on your site is very editorial-minded with captions and chapters. Was that to allow viewers to be more informed and add to the browsing experience?
I have been a big reader my whole life. I was always as interested in the captions as I was the images when looking at books. When I first talked to Ness and Josh, I told them I wanted the ability to write as much or as little about an image as I saw necessary. So, we created opportunities in each format to write about the visuals. At the very least, I can give each image and film a title. And if I want to, I can write a whole book and just slap it up on the shelf. But the idea is, maybe there is an interesting story that goes along with a photograph, and now I have a way to tell that story. We tried to be as unobtrusive as possible with the text, and I am pleased with the way it turned out.
Are your printed books just as unique?
I feel like I am still in the infancy of the book design aspect. I have to say, I absolutely love the art and science of graphic design, and this site gives me an excuse to play with type and experiment in ways that I never had an outlet for in the past. I used to get funny comments from magazine editors because I would sometimes draw up a layout for a cover or inside spread and send it along with my edit. But the truth is, design and images are inseparable, and more often than not, I am imagining where the type goes and how the image lays out even when I am shooting it.
Right now, I have two printed books, “The Here And Now,” and “Non-Fiction,” which are both on the shelves, albeit in excerpted form. As time goes on I will ideally have more printed books and that maybe they will grow out of this website experience. Or maybe the two formats will merge (I am still trying to wrap my head around a digital version of a photography book—is it the next logical step or the end of our industry?).
Are you disappointed your site doesn’t work on the iPad
We had a big debate about Flash versus HTML 5, but in the end, we decided to go with Flash for a lot of boring reasons I won’t get into here. But I think an iPad version of my site should be different anyway, because the iPad is a different experience than a computer. I am trying to wrap my head around how to make something unique to the iPad, and hopefully that turns into another interesting experiment.
You mention this site has great range for your images because it can accommodate any photo you take.
On my old website, there wasn’t a lot of room for variation. There was a series of pictures that felt like a portfolio. I found that I couldn’t include too many pictures of one subject, because it kind of ruined the flow of the images. And I found, for example, with one-off images like the shot of the birds over the ocean in the Rob Lowe book, that there was no place for that image to live. On this new site I have the ability to create individual, stand alone experiences, and each one has their own identity, and their own flow. And perhaps most exciting, the site is now searchable, which makes finding an image so easy. I can now accommodate the client who just wants to quickly find one image or film, and also satisfy the person with way too much time on their hands.
Most portfolios / sites are very vertical in the way they are categorized, why did you want yours to be different?
Well, the drop-down menus at the top of the site are designed with the classic vertical categorization style. I wanted versatility, but I also didn’t want to exclude someone who wanted a normal photography website experience, so I made the dropdown menus in that spirit. I guess you can think of the dropdown menus as the table of contents, or the catalog of the site. The search function is for those who like to google everything, and the shelves are for those who want to browse, discover, and be surprised. Another way I thought of it was, the viewer can organize the viewing of the site the way they want to. The shelves are my personal space to curate the site the way I want to. That way we can all get along!
I know you just won VMA for the Foo Fighters, have you been having some bad days here in LA?
Ha ha, no…there is no personal message in that video. But I will tell you, ideas come from strange places. When I am trying to get an idea together for a video, I do all sorts of things. I examine the lyrics, I look at the band’s history, I watch films for inspiration, etc. In this case, I just looked at the title of the song, which is “Walk” and the movie “Falling Down” flashed across my mind, because in that film, Michael Douglas walks across Los Angeles. That was all it took to start an idea brewing, and I started writing an homage version that would have Dave Grohl just trying to get to band practice.
Do you think it has such great appeal because we’ve all had those days?
Interestingly enough, that film is not as widely known as I thought it was, and yet the comments about the video seem to lean towards a shared unity over bad day fantasies. I thought when I made it that everyone would get that it was an homage to “Falling Down,” and therefore would understand all the references, but it seems to work fine as a story, even if you have never seen the film.
How many days did it take to shoot this? How is was this different from your previous motion music pieces? Was this more story telling?
The hardest thing about making this video is that it is essentially a trailer for a whole movie, and where Joel Schumacher (the director of “Falling Down”) had two or three months to make this film, we only had two days. I wanted to have representative scenes from the whole film, so we were running around Los Angeles in a panic trying to get to all of our locations. Luckily for me the whole band is so good and so experienced at making music videos that we were able to nail most every scene in two or three takes.
I think every project, whether still or motion, is unique, and should be approached as it’s own animal. With the Foo Fighters, I had a real blueprint with the movie, and I spent a lot of time storyboarding and figuring out how to integrate all of the band members in the different roles of the film. Again, the biggest challenge was time. Most videos, if you notice, repeat set-ups multiple times in the course of a four-minute song. This video is six minutes long, and not one scene or shot repeats, so it was a lot of footage to shoot in a short amount of time, complete with effects and choreography. Preparation was really key to making our days work.
How much did you edit out? Was the Dave Grohl easy to direct?
We managed to squeeze most of what we shot into the video, but there were a few things that we just didn’t have time for, including a funny little bit at the end of the convenience store scene where Dave comes back in for a bite of the Slim Jim.
Dave Grohl was so easy to direct because of all of his experience, and also because he has directed some videos himself, so he knows how hard it can be. Having someone with experience on the other side of the camera is such a great luxury. Dave is also naturally funny, so he would find the humor in each scene. That was important because I never wanted the violence to seem at all real. I always wanted to play it for laughs, and there is no one better than Dave at doing that.
Music has always been a part of your life, I would image that plays a big role in your motion work?
I have played music since I was very young, and have played in many bands, and it is one of the most enjoyable things I do. One of the best parts about shooting motion is finding the right music to marry with the visuals, and I have been very fortunate to work on a lot of projects where I get to be really involved in that process.
One of the most satisfying musical projects I have ever worked on is the interactive video for the Cold War Kids. I have always loved multi-track recording, and I wanted to see if I could make an interactive, visual version of a multi-track recorder. The end result was that the user could make over 500 versions of the song, by combining different parts played by each musician (go check it out on the site, it makes much more sense to see it than for me to try to explain it). The fun part for me, besides figuring it all out, was collaborating with the band on the different versions of the song, and coming up with arrangements. That day was truly a melding of all of my interests, and I just love projects like that.
What is your best advice to any emerging editorial photographer in today’s market?
Don’t do it! No, I am kidding. But it sure is a different editorial world than when I started out. If you can find something that overwhelms you, consumes you, and excites you, then I guarantee good things will come of that. Find subject matter that really speaks to you, and immerse yourself in it, and the platforms for showing that work will appear. (And if they don’t, we now live in a world where you can create your own platform). I think it is important to spend as much time developing your interests as you do developing your craft (which is just a fancy way to talk about the philosophy of substance over style).
What is it about the traditional site that bores you and propelled you to do something unique?
I guess if there was one thing that bothers or bores me it is the traditional, antiseptic, linear site that makes me feel like I am doing research in the basement of the ICP. I’ve said this earlier in this interview, but the overriding motivation for me doing a new site was to create an experience where the viewer can browse the work like they are walking through a bookstore, or a gallery, and finding things in an organic way. I don’t want it to feel like work. Photography should be a breath of fresh air in our busy days, and now that we see the majority of pictures online, it is important to remember that looking at pictures can fun, inspiring, and really motivating.
You have away of opening your subjects up and allowing an unguarded moment to shine, is there a secret?
The secret is I tell them that if they will open up to me in an unguarded moment, and really shine, I will let them go home two hours early! Ha, no… there is no secret, but thank you for that nice compliment. I do believe that you have to create the right environment for the pictures you are looking to make. I try to make things fun, and easy, and have some good food around, and hopefully I make a connection with the person I am shooting.
You must have something to say. You must be brutally honest with yourself about this. Think about history, politics, science, literature, music, film, and anthropology. What effect does one discipline have over another? What makes “man” tick? Today, with everyone being able to easily make technically perfect photographs with a cell phone, you need to be an “author”. It is all about authorship, authorship and authorship.
I read an interesting excerpt from a book called “How Companies Win” where the authors (Rick Kash and David Calhoun) argue that we are in a state of oversupply and the companies that win are those who seek demand. They go on to say that “constant innovation–the ability to find and fulfill new demand opportunities–is essential.” We’ve gone from a supply and demand economy to a demand then supply economy. The old way of thinking was you supplied a product and built demand around it.
I’ve gotten a barrage of comments lately from people saying “nobody pays for photography anymore” and “photography is all but dead” and “technology killed photography.” And, I have to agree. “Photography” is in oversupply. If your job is simply delivering a photograph then all you are doing is adding to the oversupply. You don’t have to look further than the discussion boards on Sports Shooter where it was revealed in a deal for Gannett to buy US Presswire that photographers were happily shooting games for $100 (or on spec). How’s that for oversupply.
So, how does this new demand economy work: “the damand-and-supply world requires innovation, adaptation and flexibility.” The easiest examples of photographers innovating and reacting to demand are the those who shoot video and stills together and those who are using social media to reach their clients or their clients customers. Photographers who are creative problem solvers have always been in demand. The top tier of photography is mostly comprised of people who can solve problems.
I believe the job of photographer has always evolved (from chemist to technical guru to creative problem solver) and while this may be the most radical evolution we’ve seen, it doesn’t mean there are not opportunities for those willing to innovate. I met someone recently who started an advertising agency so he could give himself photography jobs. Sounds crazy, but really he’s just filling a demand he discovered.
Forget about the profession of being a photographer. First be a photographer and maybe the profession will come after. Don’t be in a rush to pay your rent with your camera. Jimi Hendrix didn’t decide on the career of professional musician before he learned to play guitar. No, he loved music and created something beautiful and that THEN became a profession. Larry Towell, for instance, was not a “professional” photographer until he was already a “famous” photographer. Make the pictures you feel compelled to make and perhaps that will lead to a career. But if you try to make the career first, you will just make shitty pictures that you don’t care about.
Most magazine assignments don’t have big budgets on the front end, but if you play your cards right, you can help make up for it on the back end. One way to do that is to be savvy about article reprint licensing.
After a CEO or hedge fund manager lands on the cover of a publication or in a feature spread, they will usually hear from the reprint department of the magazine offering to license them reprints of the article. Reprints are a repackaged version of an article without the heft or distraction of the rest of the magazine, and they’re typically used by the subject of an article to promote their company. Eprints are like reprints, but rather than being printed, they’re packaged as a PDF that can be sent out by email (to a specified number of recipients) or posted online (for a specified period). Reprints and eprints can be valuable promotional tools because they carry what amounts to an endorsement from a trusted publication or news source.
When a photograph is used in the original publication, it’s considered editorial use. But repackaging and distribution by a third party constitutes advertising use which is often worth a lot more than the original job. The first thing photographers have to do to insure that they get their fare share of this value is make sure they reserve those rights. When a client sends you a contract, look at the fee and look at the rights you’re conveying in exchange for that fee. Do they match up? Decide what’s a fair price for one-time editorial use (per day and per page). Then add on additional fees for each additional use.
Some publishing companies are big enough to have their own in-house reprint departments. But most magazines will farm that work out to reprint companies like Foster, Pars, Reprint Outsource, Scoop, Wright’s or YGS. The sheer size and number of these companies should give you an indication of the value of reprints.
Some clients will want to secure reprint rights upfront, bundling it with the shoot fee. Others will want an option to purchase reprint rights (at predetermined prices) as the need arises. Still others prefer to negotiate reprint rights on a case-by-case basis. All of those are reasonable positions to take provided the compensation is fair. Here’s one magazine’s reprint terms:
For a period commencing on the first date you shoot or create the Photographs (or any of them) and ending three (3) months after Publisher’s first publication of any one or more of the Photographs in the Magazine (the “Exclusivity Period”), the exclusive right and license, throughout the universe, to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, display, prepare derivative works based on, and exercise any and all other rights of copyright in and to, any one or more of the Photographs, in any and all media and methods of transmission now known or hereafter developed:
(ii) in a stand-alone reprint format, for the benefit of or on behalf of a third party, whereby any one or more of the Photographs is reproduced along with other material from the applicable issue of the Magazine, with or without additional material supplied by the applicable third party (each a “Reprint” and the rights referred to in this sub-paragraph 3(b)(ii) shall be referred to herein as the “Reprint Rights”).
(c) Commencing upon expiration of the Exclusivity Period, the perpetual, nonexclusive right and license, throughout the universe, in all media and methods of transmission now known or hereafter developed, to exercise, promote, and market, any Reprint Rights.
Cutting through the legal jargon, it basically says that the publication has the right to license the photographer’s image(s) to any third party for reprint use, in perpetuity, without any additional compensation the photographer. If you spot similar language in a contract without sufficient compensation for that additional use, you might consider crossing it out.
And of course, if a magazine doesn’t have their own contract, you’ll want to have them sign yours. Here’s a template you can use, as well as an explanation of it.
Once you’ve come to terms with your client, you can wait for the magazine or a reprint management service to drum up reprint interest with the subject/organization. Or even better, you can follow up with the subject yourself. Here’s a template we use:
Jane,
Thanks again for being such a good subject on the XYZ Magazine photo shoot. You can view a web gallery of all the pictures at the following link:
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like to get article reprints, have prints made, license any of the pictures, or if there’s any photography I can help you with in the future.
All the best,
Joe
When formulating a price quote, consider the following:
Get a PDF of the original article. Often a reprint quote will be requested before you’ve seen the magazine yourself.
Determine the size and number of images and their significance to the overall package. The greater the number and size of the image(s), the more valuable they are. Multiple images of the same subject (that they could easily cut) might not be worth as much as multiple images of different subjects.
Who is the end user? It may be that multiple subjects from different companies were photographed for one article. If the main subject is ordering the reprints and your shot features some distant business associate twice removed, the photo is not going to be worth very much to the main subject. That will create downward pressure on the value because the client could easily eliminate your image from the reprint all together.
How important is your subject? Is it the CEO (which would have a higher value) or a middle-manager (which could have lower value.)
How big is the company? A bigger company may stand more to gain by using your pictures than a smaller company.
How many reprints do they want to send out? The greater the number of reprints, the greater the value.
Do they want eprints too? If so, how many (if they’re emailing them out) or for what duration (if they’re posting it on their website)?
As size, quantity and duration increases, the value increases, but not in direct proportion. (For example, we figure that doubling the number of reprints increases the value about 25%.)
Armed with that information, you can calculate the value. While it can certainly vary, we’ve found that reprint pricing is relatively consistent from client to client. After some years of experience pricing reprints, we’ve created a pricing matrixthat we use to put us in the right ballpark.
Here are a few recent successful reprint quotes:
You can find additional reprint pricing guidance on fotoQuote. And photographer Jason Grow also has a pricing guide as well:
At the Art Institute of Pittsburgh campus alone, there were reportedly about 600 photography students pursuing a bachelor of arts or associates degree as of last summer, says Kathleen A. Bittel, the whistleblower whose testimony before a US Senate committee last fall helped trigger the federal lawsuit against EDMC.
[…] “Where are 600 photography graduates going to go? You cannot absorb that many in one city. How are they going to make money?” she says.
Good advice for people making the jump to pro and trying to figure out what to charge for photography.
My best advice for finding a licensing fee is to use photoquote and then price out a similar license on Corbis or Getty. There’s also blink bid which I hear works really well when you get into a bidding situation.
Also, many of the photography consultants will help you price out jobs (list of consultants here), some even specialize in this. Finally, there’s Wonderful Machine, our Real World Estimates columnist who has an estimating service.
Heidi: How long did the project take?
I was given access to their entire work day for 5 days (almost consecutively) in July. They were in the process of beginning construction on the 73rd and 74th floors.
How were you protected to take those shots?
In order to have access to the site I had to go through the OSHA 10 hour safety training which is a general work place safety course. I did that for two days. Then to be up with the steel workers, I had to do another 5 hour fall safety training course where I was qualified to use a harness to be able to tie off while working up there. I always wore protective gear, heavy boots, hard hat, glasses, hearing protection and of course the full body safety harness with a shock absorbing lanyard that I could clip onto the beams to protect me from a fall.
What was the most challenging or difficult aspect of working in that environment besides the height?
It is always tough when you work on stories like this with really restrictive access because you always have minders beside you watching you the whole time. It was hard the first few days because I had Port Authority public relations people watching me and safety enforcers watching me, but over the course of those 5 days they got used to me and figured out that I knew what I was doing and wasn’t a real risk or threat to them or their jobs and they really relaxed and let me go about my work more freely. The floor boss for the ironworkers was another story. His job is to supervise the whole operation up on the derrick floor and he is tough. I didn’t speak to him the whole time, just tried to stay out of his way and attract as little attention as possible. I’m used to building up good working relationships with people I photograph but anytime I talked to an ironworker or they talked to me while they were working I would get yelled at. The smallest misstep, if you were in someone’s way or standing under someone who was working would get you yelled at and at first I was under constant fear of getting thrown off the site.
Beside the view, what was the most impressive thing about being up so high?
Well the view was amazing but it was really watching these guys put together this amazing structure, seeing how every piece just fits together like a puzzle, down to the millimeter, was really the incredible part. They are so nimble and confident when they work. They shimmy up the columns and run across the beams without a second though….I suppose it really is second nature for them. When I was up there it was another story as I watched every footstep and walked slowly and deliberately. The way they move up there is a sight to behold….something that still photos can’t do justice.
Did the iron workers help you at all or were they concerned for you?
I wasn’t really allowed to interact while they were working so I really just tried to be the “fly on the wall”. Of course it wouldn’t work and the guys came and talked to me all the time. They were great with me, really nice and welcoming. Not too many people pay that kind of attention to those guys and they aren’t used to having someone up there with them for that amount of time. Most people come up there for a few hours, never to be seen again. I was there day after day and they appreciated it.
