I was at my favorite local restaurant the other night when the owner, Siam (Sam) Saeng, seated another patron next to me at the sushi bar. Sam is what Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point
refers to as a "connector"—a guy who knows far more people than most people do, and is adept at making connections between them. He introduced me to Madison Ford because he know we're both into photography.
Turns out Madison runs a studio in Detroit called Midcoast Studio, shooting mostly, but not exclusively, cars and motorcycles. He's away from his family now, living in a hotel, while he and his crew are doing three months of intensive shooting for Harley-Davidson, which is based in Milwaukee.
It was fun to talk to a big-time advertising guy. He told me he runs all medium-format digital backs, but that he'd just bought his first DSLR, a Nikon D3x purchased a few weeks back. He said he was looking forward to trying it, but hadn't had time yet to take it out of the box.
Another story he talked about was about a client he'd heard of in L.A. who felt they needed to hire a photographer all the way from England for a relatively simple job. Like there are no competent photographers in L.A.—or the United States!
I know all about that kind of thing, having worked in Washington, D.C.—our studio, like virtually every other studio in D.C., regularly lost work to New York guys. In fact, I knew one photographer who had two studios, one in the Carolinas and one in Grand Rapids, Michigan—his bread and butter was furniture—who kept an office at a major office building complex in New York City. The office was an empty room with a phone and an answering machine in it. He kept it for the Manhattan address and the 212 area code.
There's more than one way to be a "New York guy."
And I'll bet there's a photographer in England right now sitting at a sushi bar shaking his head and telling an acquaintance about some barmy client who had to hire a shooter all the way from L.A. "Like nobody in London can take a decent photograph!" It's all the same the world around—the guy from "away" always has a bit of an edge on the locals.
Mike
Send this post to a friend
Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
Impressive image!
Posted by: Suecae | Sunday, 28 March 2010 at 03:47 PM
Sushi; sashimi? Mike Johnston, who wouldah thunk it.
I sarcase, I apologize. You have excellent taste in restaurants; their menu made me hungry.
The sushi counter as the 21st c. publican house. Meet and connect over a tasty slice of tuna.
Glad to hear that someone is too busy to open an 8k camera box. Nice image, and though this is a Photo site, made me think of being on two wheeled machines ... soon.
I blather ...
Posted by: Bron | Sunday, 28 March 2010 at 06:45 PM
You're right in how you say, "the guy from away always has a bit of an edge on the locals." Common thing I see happening in my demographic. I guess you could look at in these terms, some times its easier to hire outside than company than it is to promote within.
Posted by: Jeffrey Byrnes | Sunday, 28 March 2010 at 08:16 PM
In academia, medicine : An expert was a guy with slides who came from 50 miles away. The updated version is a Powerpoint presentation.
The minimum distance is key.
NL
Posted by: Nature Lover | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 01:05 AM
There's more than one way to be a "New York guy."
oh clever! i may have to think about this.
I recently heard that one of my industrial clients (who often use more than one photographer) hired someone from Mumbai (the New York of India, in a way) for an assignment and paid her more for one assignment than they've paid me all my work with them - and the photos are frankly horrible!
Posted by: almostinfamous | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 01:44 AM
So you are saying photography is all the same, photographers mere competent - or not - technicians? What about style, personality [as expressed in photos]?
Posted by: Dierk | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 03:32 AM
Perhaps they had worked with the English photographer before and they understood each other.
We have large American corporations in Ireland who insist in importing their office furniture from America. Like there are no office furniture manufacturers in Europe ?
Nope. Its "The devil you know rather than the devil you don't " syndrome, probably.
Posted by: Paul Mc Cann | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 03:41 AM
That is a damn cool picture and an excellent embodiment of the HD image...
Best,
Adam
Posted by: amcananey | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 05:09 AM
Maybe the photographer all the way from England saved them money,and gave them a more stylish edge than the locals?
Posted by: benedict campbell | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 05:42 AM
Nature lover
We comedians (or, mechanical and electrical industrial maintenance men) used to say, "Expert; ex as in has-been, spurt as in a drip under pressure"
Roger Bradbury
Posted by: Roger Bradbury | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 06:11 AM
It's the 'expert from afar' syndrome. We've all run in to it. You see, if you are a stranger that our company had to pay a lot of money to, then you MUST know more than just about everyone else, and so we'll listen to you. Of course, there's always some guy at our company who's shaking his head, because he's told us the exact same thing... but no one listens to him because he's just the guy we work with. Not the expert from afar.
Posted by: ObiJohn | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 06:51 AM
It's a sign of power and status within an ad agency to get your client to send you to art direct a job half a world away, or even to work remotely with, say, Nadav Kander instead of Joe Schmoe. You can laugh, but working with international talent helps qualify you for international work.
Even if it's a stupid waste.
Posted by: Frank P | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 07:30 AM
In the early days of Vonage, I almost got me a New York phone number through them. I was doing contracts for a couple of New York financial clients and a Boston photographic client at the time, it might have been useful.
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 10:19 AM
I know what ObiJohn is talking about. It happens here at our company quite often. What's really funny though, is that our company has from time to time hired one of the "experts from afar" as a full time employee and lo and behold that expert loses his expert status almost immediately and I don't think any one of them ever saw it coming.
Rob Griffin
Posted by: Rob Griffin | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 10:56 AM
Way back in 1994 I was taking a photography class at the local community college in Royal Oak, Michaigan(OCC). The highlight of the class , for me, was taking a tour of the Midcoast studio.
Seeing the lighting set ups with the huge cycloramas, flying flats and the like,was awe inspiring to me as a student. The friendliness of the photographers was greatly appreciated as they explained the ways and techniques of their craft and answered our, sometimes, unprofound questions.
I hope they read this post. Just my way of saying thank you to Midcoast Studio.
.
Posted by: Rick K. | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 11:30 AM
That restaurant could easily become one of my favorites, if it wasn't a few thousand miles away.
Mind you - maybe you could scoop a few free meals there if you offer to fill in the 14 missing menu photos :)
Posted by: Ludovic | Monday, 29 March 2010 at 04:57 PM