Zack DeZon
Who printed it?
Rolling Press in Brooklyn! In addition to being a green printer, they were great to work with, putting up with a number of annoying revisions from me.
Who designed it?
I did, though I heavily cribbed from a few of my favorite promos on this site…
Tell me about the images?
I made a lot of work this year I was super proud of, so I wanted to make a promo that celebrated that. After a long time trying to figure out what makes me tick as a photog, I’m finally crystallizing around portraits (my original love) and documentary, so I built this promo as a two-cover reversible booklet to emphasize that these are two complementary sides of my personality. The portraits are mostly of performers—I went to school for acting, so they’re my favorite—who are coming up in the scene but not quite yet household names. That’s something of an extension of a self-published book project I did back in 2013. I’m especially proud of the Ben Sinclair shots. This was the second time I photographed him—the first was back when I was making the book, and High Maintenance was just a little web series, and now it’s on HBO (and wonderful as ever). On the Documentary side, I think it reflects my loves of travel and unique, specialized situations (I especially like odd equipment, like you might find in a greenhouse or state fair). The Las Fallas story is my favorite there—I took the initiative to plan a trip to Spain to photograph it and Culture Trip picked it up and helped turn it into an award-winning story.
How many did you make?
50!
How many times a year do you send out promos?
I admittedly am not the most dedicated or successful marketer, but about once a year I make an attempt. This has probably been my most successful, though, and will definitely encourage me to make more going forward!
Do you think printed promos are effective for marketing your work?
I think so! I’ve tried the email-campaign thing and they just feel so spammy. Not helped by the fact that they’re frequently picked up by spam filters, and all the tips they give you on how to get around them just make your messages sound gimmicky. With a printed promo, I try to make something I’d be happy to have on my desk; I really want to feel like I’m giving a gift to these editors, or I’m just going to be too self-conscious to even try.
