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Kickstarter, A Place where people support creators of all kinds of projects. Heartstormer Thomas Lee, photographer and Alan Kesselheim, essayist have until December 22nd to meet their goal of $3500. They have about a thousand dollars to go. Kickstarter is an all or nothing at all proposition. I invite you all to see this video and to contribute whatever you can to help bring this venture into being. Click below f to see the video then click the link below the frame for more information and to make your pledge at Kickstarter.

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BETHLEHEM, PA—Presentations by some of the nation’s most esteemed photographers, dynamic photography exhibits and the Lehigh Valley’s only public photography portfolio review highlight the inaugural InVision Photo Festival Nov. 5-7 at ArtsQuest’s™ Banana Factory®, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem, PA.

InVision gets underway Nov. 5 with a free evening of presentations and exhibitions. Activities kick off at 5:30 p.m. with InVision Artist in Residence Larry Fink, who will give a presentation documenting his work from 1957-present. A professional photographer for more than 45 years, Fink has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Musee de la Photographie in Belgium and the Musee de l’Elysee in Switzerland, among others. His commercial work includes advertising campaigns for Smirnoff, Bacardi and Cunard Line, and his photographs have appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair, GQ, Detour, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker.

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InVision’s opening evening also includes the announcement of the winners of the “InVision Juried College Photography Contest Exhibit.” The exhibition, which will feature the work of students from colleges and universities from throughout the Northeastern United States, will be on display in the Hallway to the Arts through Jan. 9. Other exhibitions include “InVision MUSE,” featuring the work of up-and-coming photographers and the masters who inspired them, and the “Photo Design Project Exhibit,” highlighting the work of participants in the Photo Design Project, a unique job and life skills program presented by ArtsQuest and funded by the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board Inc.

InVision MUSE, which will be on display in the Banko Family Gallery through Nov. 21, includes veterans Fink, Sid Kaplan and Susan S. Bank, as well as emerging photographers such as Dani Bogenhagen, Timothy G. Piotrowski and Lisa Kessler. The Photo Design Project Exhibit, which highlights the positive impact the program is having on disadvantaged young adults, will be on display in the Olympus Digital Imaging Center through Nov. 30.

“The goal of the InVision Photo Festival is to offer to the community the very highest photographic experience. From exhibitions and parties, to workshops and presentations, this festival will celebrate all that is photography, igniting the public’s passion for exciting photographic work,” says ArtsQuest Director of Visual Arts and Education Janice Lipzin. “A special announcement will be made on Friday evening that will launch the InVision festival for the following year in a very dynamic way.”

On Nov. 6 at 2 p.m., photography enthusiasts are invited to “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” with National Geographic photographer Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols. Nichols, who was dubbed the Indiana Jones of photography by Paris Match, has worked for National Geographic since 1996, travelling the globe while photographing more than 25 stories for the magazine. Nichols is also the founder of the LOOK 3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Va., and his work has appeared in popular consumer and photography magazines including Life and Rolling Stone. Tickets for Nichols’ presentation are $25.

Saturday’s InVision activities also include an opportunity to enjoy locally made beverages while meeting Alex Webb and Peter van Agtmael, photographers from the prestigious Magnum Photos agency of New York City. The “Magnum and Microbrews” event, open to ages 21 and older, will get underway at 7 p.m. and conclude with presentations by Webb and van Agtmael. Webb’s presentation will focus on his three decades of working in color, beginning with his first book, Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds, and ending with his most recent book, Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba, a collaboration with photographer Rebecca Norris Webb. Van Agtmael’s presentation will focus on his documentation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, highlighted in his 2009 book, “2nd Tour Hope I Don’t Die.” Tickets for the event are $35 per person and beverages are included in the ticket price.

On Nov. 7, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., InVision continues with John Isaac’s “The Art of Seeing and Printing” workshop, during which the former United Nations Photo Unit Chief will share valuable tips and tricks for transforming images into spectacular prints. Cost is $35 per person; only 30 spots are available and advance registration is suggested.

As a UN photographer for more than 20 years, Isaac visited more than 100 countries, documenting world crises such as the Cambodian Killing Fields, the war in Lebanon, the invasion of Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq War, the famine in Ethiopia, the genocide in Rwanda and the war in Bosnia. Since 1998, he has concentrated on nature photography, capturing birds, mammals and landscapes from New Mexico and Wyoming to Iceland and Africa.

InVision culminates with the InVision Portfolio Review on Nov. 7 from 2-7 p.m. Designed for aspiring photographers and college photography majors, the portfolio review is a rare opportunity for participants to have their work reviewed by top photography professionals without having to travel to New York City or Philadelphia. Reviewers include American Photo magazine Executive Editor Russell Hart, Painter, photographer and career coach Ian Summers,  Lehigh University Art Galleries Director Ricardo Viera and Norris Webb, whose work has appeared in publications such as Time, New Letters and Orion. Registration fee for the portfolio review is $75; only 30 spots are available and advance registration is required.

Tickets for all InVision events are on sale now at www.artsquest.org/invision or 610-332-3378. A limited number of festival passes are available for $149 each, a $21 savings over the individual ticket price.
INVISION 2010 TICKET PRICES
“Take a Walk on the Wild Side” with Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols – $25
“Magnum and Microbrews” with Alex Webb and Peter van Agtmael – $35
“The Art of Seeing and Printing” with John Isaac – $35
InVision Premier Portfolio Review – $75
Festival Pass – $149

For more information on InVision, please visit www.artsquest.org/invision or call 610-332-1300.

ABOUT ARTSQUEST
ArtsQuest™ is a Bethlehem, PA-based nonprofit dedicated to presenting music, arts, cultural experiences and educational and outreach programs that aid in economic development, urban revitalization and community enrichment. Through festivals such as its flagship event, Musikfest®, and the Banana Factory® cultural arts and education center, ArtsQuest’s programming currently reaches more than 1.3 million people annually.

ArtsQuest is furthering its mission of celebrating arts and culture through the development of the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks. The 65,000-square-foot building, set to open in May 2011, will feature live music, independent and scientific films, new festivals and community celebrations year-round, reaching an additional 750,000 people each year.

For more information on ArtsQuest, visit www.artsquest.org or call 610-332-1300.*/1

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Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

Voltaire

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I invite you to visit my new group on Facebook called 1501 Quotes Questions & Pondering About the Creative Process and where I hope to engender some lively discussions about the creative process by readers sharing their experiences and beliefs. I have 500 new quotes in my collection that were not included in my EBook. Many of the quotes refer to the marketing of creativity. After all, marketing is part of the process, isn’t it?
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It’s All Good

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My days of whining and complaining about others have have come to an end.
Nothing is easier than fault finding. All it will do is discolor my personality
so that none will want to associate with me. That was my old life. No more…

…Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they are going to be dead by
midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can
muster. And do it with no thought of any reward. Your live will never be the
same again.

Og Mandino

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Give the newly re-popularised buzz phrase, ‘It’s all good!” the meaning it deserves. Believe it for just one more day. And another. And another. One day at a time. Be kind, caring, empathetic with everyone you meet without an attachment to any outcome. Build relationships without an analysis of what you are going to get. It is as simple as a smile, eye contact, and wishing another a good morning. Prepare to perform Random Acts of Kindness. The tools are simple: graciousness, a smile, and creativity.

I am writing this today because I was the recipient of an act of kindness two weeks ago and I am still smiling.

I was driving on the NY State Thruway, pulled off for gas, and continued another fifty miles or so. I stopped at the next rest stop for a cup of coffee. I could not find my wallet. I tracked back to the previous gas station. The wallet was not there. I started to panic. Sure I understood that it would be time consuming, frustrating and annoying to cancel all those credit cards. I thought, “It’s all good, whatever that means.”

Just then I received an email message from a woman named Rosemary who found my wallet and asked me to call her back so that she would know what I wanted her to do with it. Then I accidentally erased the call. The panic became overwhelming.

My friends and family were telling me to trust the universe. That is what I would have told them to do. However,I wasn’t believing it was all good. I got home five hours later. My wife and I had a late dinner. She helped me calm down.

The next morning, there was an email message from Rosemary telling me the wallet was in the mail. I wanted to call and thank her however there wasn’t a telephone number, last name or location. I returned her email with a note saying I wanted to send her a limited edition print as a thank you.

Rosemary wrote back promptly. She said, “All I ask is that you be kind to others.”

The wallet was returned via the post office three days later.

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It’s All Good may mean that nothing is bad. It may be used in a seemingly optimistic sense

Art Buyer:

Hey man. We gave the assignment to someone else. Sorry about that.

Photographer:

Oh, It’s all good.

It may also mean; despite any possible doubt, everything’s cool:

Photographer:

We agreed that the agency would send me a check for 50% of the production
budget, before tomorrow’s shoot.

Art Director:

Don’t worry. It’s all good.

It may be used when someone doesn’t wish to get into something difficult,
complex or just plan annoying. Whatever. Later for that. It’s all good.

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From Bob Dylan’s Song

It’s All Good

Big politician saying lies

Restaurant kitchen full of flies

Don’t make a big difference, don’t see why it should

But it’s alright ’cause it’s all good

All good, it’s all good

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I have never asked for a dime from my readers for anything. About three weeks ago, I received an email message from Stavit Allweis:

Hi Ian,

I’m writing to invite you to view early images from “ISNESS” my epic fotonovela currently in the works.

It is hybrid of cinema, the graphic novel form, and is deeply informed by cult masterpieces of past.

We are in the crucial mid-production phase and reaching out to create a fan base and raise finishing funds.

Naturally, I am hoping that you will find my efforts worthy of an article or link on Ian Summers’ Heartstorming.

It would be an honor to have you glance at the Kickstarter link: http://kck.st/bEKVTm

Sincerely,

Stavit Allweis

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Stevie found Heartstorming while searching for photo novella on the Internet. I am glad she did. She found a couple of my articles about sequential art and a challenge to photographers to create the next great photo novella. I am impressed with the fundraising campaign for a wonderful innovative project. She has been using Kickstarter as a means to raise money to complete her photo novela. She has less than one week to raise the remaining start up costs for ISNESS.  Kickstarter is an all or nothing at all deal. Won’t you take a few minutes to view the video below and donate five dollars or more? Everyone contributing $35 or more will receive a signed copy of the book upon publication.

Still photographers interested in multimedia should check this out. Photo novelas are great examples of sequential art. Learn more about the How Messing with Mr. In-Between May Make Gutter Talk more Interesting.

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THE STORY
ISNESS tells of the story of the last remaining family on earth. The story is set in the remains of the culture of the 1970′s, somewhere in North America.

Over the course of 24 downspiraling hours, one family member after another succumb to powerful forces of evolution run amok in their home. As in mythology, their characters are deeply archetypal and some posses supernatural qualities.
On one level the story is the disturbing tale of a dysfunctional suburban family gone post- apocalyptic. On a deeper level, the story lays out and examines increments along the carnality/spirituality spectrum in the human predicament.

THE NAME
ISNESS, the name of the novel pertains to survival: Either “you IS or you ISN’T”. It is the degree of one’s “isness” that nature trades in: that moment in nature’s cyclical regurgitation of matter that we experience as being alive and which we cling to so desperately.

THE FORM
The final product will be in the form of a graphic novel composed of many sequential photographic images. This genre, though rarely employed by comics artists nowadays, used to thrive in the form of pulp magazines in the 70′s and earlier. It never took off in the United States as it did in Europe and South America.

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Only $431 to go as of August 20th with only 7 days to go. Please help.

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As of this writing $6319 dollars has been raised. Stevie needs only $431 to reach her goal of $6,750. Remember, it’s all or nothing at all. Don’t let this great project get away.

Check out this interview with Stevie Allweis at Williamsburg-Greenpoint News+Arts.

There is even more background information at Stevie’s blog Countercomics.com

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Ways to Engage Your Prospects Without Becoming a Bore

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Bore: A person who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.
Gian Vincenzo Gravina

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A bore is a fellow who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.
Henry Ford

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One out of three hundred and twelve Americans is a bore…

and a healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people’s patience.

John Updike

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The worst thing about a bore is not that he won’t stop talking, but that he won’t let you stop listening.

Author Unknown

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Copyright © 2010 Thomas Lee

Heartstormer Thomas Lee lives in Bozeman MT.

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Me Me Me ME ME ME! And then I…

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Are you a bore or a listener when you interface with prospects, clients, networkers, and others? Are you asking enough questions that allows the other person to share? Do you let them know that you heard them by paraphrasing what they share with you? For example, “What I heard you say is…” Or do you enter someone’s space and begin talking about yourself before you even sit down?

Here are some tips that will help you be liked in the process of building relationships with the people who can give you what you want.

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Show Up
Make the Meeting About the Other Person
Ask Questions
Be Caring
Be Fully Present
Listen
Get Information
Give Information
Laugh a Little
Dare to be Different
Develop Loyalty
Be a Little Mischievous
Remember Details

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Ask creative questions that are challenging, caring, interesting, informative, open-ended. Creative questions often begin with What if…? How may we…? In what ways…? Who are…? Why…? These kinds of questions are filled with a variety of answers that will help you get to know the other person. Each question leads to dialog. Do not ask questions that may be answered yes or no. Practice keeping control of the interview. Do not give your power away. Hold back from handing your portfolio to your prospect for as long as possible. Get them talking about themselves. Repeat what you heard your prospect say to confirm that you understand and to let them know you are listening. What I heard you say is… It is okay to take notes.

Make a list of ten creative questions that you may ask to learn more about your prospect and to get them sharing about themselves. Here is a starter list of advertising related questions (Please make up your own):

What if we were to collaborate on an assignment? What would you want me to know about you? What would you want to know about me?

What if you could change one thing about the agency business, what would it be?

What if you knew who the right photographer was to do a job even before you created the final concept? Have you ever worked with a photographer the initial concept phases of an ad.

Pretend that advertising has been banned by congress. What kind of work would you do? How would you go about doing it?

What if the next print ad you did demanded the highest level of innovation? In what ways would you want to collaborate with a photographer?

What if we were living in a Utopian world where each person could choose the kind of work they want to do? What kind of work would you do if money was not an object?

If you could make one improvement about how photographers try to get your attention, what would it be?

Let your prospects know that you know something about them and that you have chosen them as prospects. Let them know you are interested in them:

I want to work with art directors who are not only interested in great ideas but who can sell them through to their clients. I want to work with risk takers. Etc… (personalize this) I saw what you did when you were still at Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe. How in the world did the agency get the client to approve the idea?

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When you come to the fork in the road, take it. Yogi Berra was right. Well, sort of. If we keep walking, we will be faced with new forks in the road. It may be time to make new choices. We are unlikely to be presented with an opportunity to double back. Commit to your passions. Carry them in your backpack. Dare to take the next step on the ‘road-of-the-I-do-not-know.’ I believe that the expression, If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there is a distortion of the truth. It suggests that living without goals is aimless. I create a life of adventure, discovery and manifestation. I co-create a world where people are safe to bring what they love and what matters into being — by being a compassionate teacher and expressive painter. That is my mission; not a goal. When I chose a path and stay on mission, there is rarely any remorse. SIGH!

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The speaker stands in the woods, considering a fork in the road. Both ways are equally worn and equally overlaid with un-trodden leaves. The speaker chooses one, telling himself that he will take the other another day. Yet he knows it is unlikely that he will have the opportunity to do so. And he admits that someday in the future he will recreate the scene with a slight twist: He will claim that he took the less-traveled road…

…Ironic as it is, this is also a poem infused with the anticipation of remorse. Its title is not “The Road Less Traveled” but “The Road Not Taken.” Even as he makes a choice (a choice he is forced to make if does not want to stand forever in the woods, one for which he has no real guide or definitive basis for decision-making), the speaker knows that he will second-guess himself somewhere down the line—or at the very least he will wonder at what is irrevocably lost: the impossible, unknowable Other Path. But the nature of the decision is such that there is no Right Path—just the chosen path and the other path. What are sighed for ages and ages hence are not so much the wrong decisions as the moments of decision themselves—moments that, one atop the other, mark the passing of a life. This is the more primal strain of remorse.

Thus, to add a further level of irony, the theme of the poem may, after all, be “seize the day.” But a more nuanced carpe diem, if you please.

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Robert Frost (C. 1910)
b. 1874 – d. 1963

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Two roads diverged in the woods, and I

I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

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The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Frost’s Early Poems.” SparkNotes LLC. 2002. http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/ (accessed June 21, 2010).

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Many photographers (substitute illustrator, designer, art director, copywriter, and other creative services) are off their paths. Some were never on their paths at all. They saw what appeared to work and followed in the footsteps of their heroes hoping they would reach their goals. We must reset our own goals clearly based upon our heart’s desires. It is only then that we own them..

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Blame Leads to Victimization

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Others are easy to blame for current conditions in the industry. There are many factors contributing to the overall malaise: crowdsourcing, recession, technology, 70,000 out of work advertising people, threatening changes in copyright law, devaluation of photography, etc. Threads on professional forums are filled with complaints that villainize the people with whom we want to do business. Why would you want to do business with villains? When we have villains, we often become victims and we make everyone and everything wrong. These projections are shadowy behaviors.

We do not feel safe. The level of safety that many search for is an illusion. Creating demands change. Change entails risk. Risk requires a temporary suspension of security. Creators know they are on the wrong path when they resist change, growth and innovation.

Some wait for something to happen to them rather than making something happen.

It is no longer effective to do the same thing, or even the same thing differently. We must redirect our passions to bring something new into being.

We must take a long hard look at the road we are walking on right now.

The photography industry is grieving the road familiar. Some feel lost. Others are wandering in new woods on unbeaten paths.

The answers are inside. Yet we were taught to search for them outside of ourselves. Creators who do not approach their work wholeheartedly become heartbroken, suffer heart attacks, heartache or heart failure, face angst, despair, desolation, heartsickness, lose heart, and more.

What may be done to help manage change? Apply the same creative energy and spirit used to make images. Embrace change. For me, it has often been about redirection of my passions. Passions do not change all that much. However, it is possible to redirect them. Our industry has changed so rapidly, many have not had a chance to catch their breath. Rather than gather in places where people spend time supporting negativity, accentuate the positive.

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Redirect.

Fan the Embers.

Set Yourself on Fire!

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Notice I have used the word redirection rather than reinvention. Reinvention means that your career is wrong and that you may need to invent it all over again. Redirection is finding new places, actions and methods to place your passions.

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Calling and Talent

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Vision is a calling. A calling is an inner urge or a strong impulse, a passion, some believe a calling may be divinely inspired. How will the world be a different place as a result of your visit on the planet? What is your calling? What is it that you feel the urge and passion to bring into being no matter what?

Do you have a natural marked innate ability, for artistic accomplishment? That is a definition of talent. Talent and calling must be present to sustain a career as a professional artist.

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The Heartstorming Career Redirection Workshop

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Discover new ways to manifest and redirect your dreams.
Articulate your calling.
Explore alternative markets.
Learn how to set goals based upon your passions that
don’t end up in the back of a drawer.
Find ways to stay on your path.
Identify what you want and set priorities.
Create an action plan to do what you want
and overcome the obstacles.

I am planning a series of career redirection workshops beginning in the Fall. I know money is tight. However I believe many would benefit from redirecting their careers. So, I have come up with a plan.

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What if?

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What if we present a two day workshop? What if we charged a fee of $500 a person? What if we offered it at half price, if you were to bring one of your business friends who may wish to redirect their passions too? What if we offered the workshop for free, if you bring two others?

This will allow you to become a linchpin by linking yourself to a wide range of people from other disciplines and to make a difference in their careers and your own.

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Feedback Requested

I am searching for sponsors for these events. I would like to let them know what you think about this idea. Please respond by commenting on this post or email me at iansummers@heartstorming.com or call me at 610-393-6816. I will be happy to answer your questions and to discuss the possibillities. I am creating this workshop to meet your needs and desires.

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Superfad is a brand-driven design and live action production company. We are a collective of designers, directors, animators, and artists. Our mission is to see brands in unexpected ways and to express a brand’s voice in an undeniably original fashion.

Superfad’s work runs counter to the trend of design studios who present a singular house style. With offices in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and London, our work is informed by a wide array of cultural and intellectual influences. Fine art, science, math, and literature are fused with illustration, photography, and technology to produce stunningly original imagery.

Superfad was founded in 2001 and has produced award-winning work for many of the most respected brands worldwide. Honda, Sony, Target, Adidas, and AT&T are just a few of the companies who have turned to Superfad for inspired branding.

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The World at 1000 Frames per Second

Created for SONY Make.Believe by Superfad

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What’s next in the exciting turbulent world of marketing and creating commercial art?

Not a month goes by where there aren’t at least a few seminars presented on multi-media by our professional organizations. There is an article in the current edition of PDN presenting interviews with art buyers and others regarding the need for professional photographers to create and offer multi-media. There are lots of caveats and expectations associated with this. This can be exciting and lucrative for those who function towards the top of the Scale of Innovation. However, if you are not growing creatively, your business may atrophy.

I believe it is imperative to explore and develop alternative markets and to learn how to be less dependent upon old marketing models. It is vital to apply all you have learned about creating to develop new places and ways to sell your work. Not instead of what you are doing, but rather in addition to traditional markets such as advertising and publishing.

In Art is Work, Milton Glaser identifies four categories of work. Work that goes beyond its function and moves us in deep and mysterious ways, Glaser calls great work. Work that is conceived and executed with elegance and rigor, he calls good work. Work that meets its intended need honestly and without pretense, he calls work. And finally there is everything else, the sad and shoddy stuff of daily life, comes under the heading of bad work. If that is the case, most of the work we produce is either just work or even bad work. The last two categories will disappear for the professional and will be replaced by crowdsourcing.

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We must become mountain climbers. And we must stop using the word ‘great’ for everything we create unless it moves us in deep and mysterious ways.

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Rejoice! It is National Poetry Month

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When was the last time you created art that was filled with poetry — with metaphors? When was the last time you read a poem aloud to yourself or someone else? Did you know that April is National Poetry Month and that Knopf offers a complementary poem a day? Read a poem each day and discover how it may effect your work.

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The Second Coming

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Steve Heller, wrote that there is hope and opportunity associated with the I-Pad. I know half a dozen photographers writing original and useful apps. If you do not subscribe to The Daily Heller, I highly recommend it. Editions of The Daily Heller are available for free at Print Magazine’s website. For $29.95, you can receive on-line access to 21,000 winners of their Regional Design Annual..

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Easter was just yesterday, yet the second coming for magazines is still on the way.

The new savior, you may surmise, is the iPad or iPadius (in Latin).

Spreading the iPad gospel are the media pundits (puditus mediasus) including David Pogue and Edward C. Baig.

They don’t just love it, as Woody Allen once said, they “lurve” it for all sorts of reasons.

But the most significant concern for the design field, and specifically the editorial design field, is the magazine Resurrection.

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The subject line in a recent missive from Seth Godin was: I’m Mad at Everyone. It got my attention immediately. And it resonated with some notes I have been making about pronouns. So using Seth’s cue, I expanded, adapted, paraphrased. Godin’s latest book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? may be the most important and readable book about marketing you will read this year. Yep. I am a Seth Godin fan.
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Who are Everyone Anyhow?

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Using pronouns such as these can get one in trouble, be misunderstood, connote arrogance, lack specificity, are vague, and often incongruent. I cringe when I hear people make statements that presume that everyone is alike.

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Everyone
They
Them
Those
Someone
Whatever
Whomever
Everywhere
No one

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True or False?
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Everyone who is anyone uses Twitter.
No one responds to creative promotions.
Everyone is too busy to answer their telephone.
There are so many of them, I do not know whom to target.
Everyone already has a favorite photographer.
No one ever returns telephone calls from photographers or reps.
They say that sending an email every six weeks is all one needs to do to be successful in this business.
Everyone says you need to specialize.
Everything you create is great.
I show my work everywhere.
Nobody’s doing anything right now.
Every photographer needs to create multi-media in order to survive.

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Them Shirts

My first job at an advertising agency was with Waring & Larosa which was one of the hottest shops in post Madmen NYC during the early 1970s. Our client, Gant Shirts, known for popularizing button-down shirts, wanted to reach a younger market with hip colors and stripes. We named the shirts Them and a line of ties Those. Them and Those were introduced via radio which the creative and account team believed could be a very visual medium. We had some fun with pronouns. The commercial went something like this:
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SFX: department store bells and background noises.
Customer: Whistling nervously trying to get attention of salesman.
Salesman: “How may I help you today sir?”
Customer: “Do you carry Them?”
Salesman: “Yes Sir. We have a full line of Them.
SFX: sounds of footsteps and opening display cases
Salesmen: These are Them. Any particular Them.
Customer: I don’t know.
Salesman: Which do you like better? This Them or that Them?
Customer: That Them.
Salesman: Good choice Sir. May I show you Those ties. This Those go best with that Them.

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Tunnel Vision: Tear Down The Walls
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Harry Beckwith wrote a great book called Selling the Invisible. Think about it. Isn’t that exactly what we do when selling commercial photography? We are selling something that cannot be seen because it does not exist.

Beckwith tells an anecdote about tunnel vision and how it is prevalent in the world. Especially the corporate world.

He says, I cannot walk into most companies without being aware of their walls. The walls do more than keep the weather out. They block a clear vision of the world. When companies discuss their problems they talk about themselves. People tend to talk about what they know. And one of the things they know is their company. But what you really need to know is what is out there. For example, you need to know your prospects and customers. So get out of here. Get out of yourself. See the world. Climb the highest mountain. Astral travel. Whatever it takes.

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Pithy Quotes
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Character

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.
Faith Baldwin, 1893-1978, Author of over one hundred novels
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Infinite Possibilities

There are many tunes still to be written in the Key of C.
Arnold Schöenberg, 1874-1951, Composer

Schöenberg was speaking about synthesis.
There are an infinite number of ways to manifest creations.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Breaking the Rules

The young know the rules, but the old know the exceptions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894, Author, Professor, Poet, Physician
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Certainties

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
Erich Fromm, 1900-1980, Psychoanalyst, Social Theorist
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Photographers Must Make Photographs

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write,
if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.
Abraham Maslow, 1908-1970, Psychologist

This is a good case for photo walks
which I wrote about in the March Newsletter.
Photographers must make photographs.
Photo walks are a way to make photographs
without an attachment to an outcome.
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Jim Marshall

.Too much bullshit is written about photographs and music.

Let the music move you, whether to a frenzy or a peaceful place.
Let it be what you want to hear—not what others say is popular.
Let the photograph be one you remember,
not for its technique, but for its soul.
Let it become a part of your life—
a part of your past to help shape your future.
But most of all, let the music and the photograph be
something you love and will always enjoy.
Jim Marshall. 1936-2010, Photographer

A Tribute to Jim Marshall
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Branding

Clothes don’t make the man, the man makes the man.
Clothes (and the brand) just amplify that.
Seth Godin, b.1960.

Godin is so right. Your brand can’t be fixed.
It is not about your logo, the design of your website, or even your work,
which we may refer to as clothes.
It is about what you stand for.
What makes you different?

Branding is about choosing the clothes that fit.

Vision

Is there any doubt what Robert Motherwell stood for?
Try reading Motherwell’s words aloud.
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My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven,
my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few,
my guide is reliable, my mission is clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away,
turned back, diluted, or delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice,
hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate …
at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity,
or meander in a maze of mediocrity.
I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or slow up.
Robert Motherwell, 1915-1991, Abstract Expressionist, Writer

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Ian Summers

Copyright © 2009 Tom Kosa

Call today.
I can help you grow your career; to do what you love.
My coaching includes creative strategies, vision, portfolio enhancement, market development, sales promotion and advertising,
sales training, identifying developing alternative markets and much more.
I will tell you about one-on-one coaching and group teleconferences.

The first telephone coaching session is free.
At the conclusion of the first meeting, I will discuss a customized
approach based on your desires.
There are no obligations.

Call or email me with some alternative dates and times to meet.
I will confirm via email and will tell you how to prepare for the free session.

Tel 610-438-5707
Cel 610-393-6816

The Heartstorming Philosophy

Ian Summers
145 South Eleventh Street
Loft #4
Easton PA 18042

iansummers@heartstorming.com

www.heartstorming.com
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