Editorial
It's been a while since I have blogged, unfortunately, but I have spent the last week, plus 1 day, upgrading my computer system. Oh the terabytes!!! Anyway, I have arrived and am back in business! Yay!
The week before, I was invited back to United Teen Equality Center (UTEC), in Lowell, to create more photographs of the Alternative Diploma Program, or ADP. Both the young people and their teachers are a dedicated bunch!
My thing is People Photography. I think I give that impression anyway. I'm not a marketing professional, but I read and can follow directions. So, since I love to photograph people, that's what I emphasize. Any good photographer though, can do many things. Not necessarily all things. I don't do weddings, sports, I really dislike grip-and-grin shoots... I could go on. I do enjoy making photographs that please me though. I have found that those are most often subjects that I am attracted to in the first place. Here are some. (Make sure you click on some of the captions. They have links)
I like to eat. Slowly. Small portions that taste. Heaping piles of stuff annoy me.
Here are some dishes that are decidedly not in that category.
This, and the previous shot are of some dishes by Chef Carolyn Grieco, of Haverhill, MA
Rainy days make great shots in the summer. So green. This organization and the fields owner deserve a lot of credit!
There's a rumor that I had some work published in a special Home edition of a local magazine...
The beautiful new interior of Lowell's Merrimack Rep (MRT)
Speaking of Lowell, Massachusetts...
Vendor preparing for Lowell's City of Lights parade
After more that 6 months, I am thrilled to finally unveil my personal project, United Teen Equality Center - Chipping Away. Since May of this year, I have had the privilege to work with Lowell, Massachusetts' United Teen Equality Center to create portraits of the young people and to document the invaluable work that is done there, in the form of a photographic body of work and a short film.
The work will be on display beginning with the center's Grand Opening event, and will remain on display in the common areas of the new building into the future.
Back in August, Masschusetts native, actor and musician Scott Grimes, of ER and Band of Brothers fame, came home to do a benefit concert at Lowell's Memorial Auditorium. Merrimack Valley Magazine loves a hometown success story, so Scott was a perfect fit for the cover. It was all arranged. We were to meet Scott back stage before his concert and do the cover shoot. Nothing highly produced, just a series of portraits of him sitting, singing, enacting a voiceover session in a theatrical setting. Dramatic lighting, minimalist background... you get the idea.
I had the lights all set up. Everything was ready to go. I did some test shots with the publisher sitting in for the star. He loves that (ha!). In walked someone in charge. 'Scott won't be able to come down. It's too close to showtime.' I looked at the publisher and the creative director as they went completely pale. I blurted out: 'can he just give us five minutes?' The guy paused and said, ok, I'll check. He walked away and the aforementioned magazine honchos shot me a look. A glare really... I said, 'I am all set up. If he comes down here for 5 he will be here for 15.' I may have even said 'trust me'... I really need a manager; someone to stop me before I say 'yes' again!
Scott came down to the set and was incredibly personable, helpful, ready for a photo shoot, and seemed to be in no rush to leave. Happy to accommodate. We shot the cover in a little less than 10 minutes and followed that up with several relaxed, informal posed shots of him, his band and our writer, Beth Daigle. It had turned out to be a good night all around. But someone really needs to stop me next time.
And please don't miss this issue to check out Creative Director Steve Pennimpede's great vision and Photoshop work on the cover concept!
Merrimack Valley Magazine - November/December 2012
A Happy Team - Merrimack Valley Magazine's owner, editor & publisher, Glenn Prezzano, writer for the Scott Grimes story, Beth Daigle, and creative director Stephen Pennimpede
Before the premier of the Home issue of the Merrimack Valley Magazine is gone from the shelves, I thought I would post of few of my images from the pages of the magazine. Among other things, it features an extreme makeover in Andover, decorating ideas ranging from antiques to framing, beautiful lofts in Lawrence and a really inspiring Habitat for Humanity project. Oh, did I mention that these shoots were mine?
I love summer. But summer can be a challenge if you are trying to keep the ball rolling on your business. Clients go on vacation. Projects are sometimes put on the slow track until autumn. So even though I love the long, warm days of summer, I do look forward to the fall when things start rolling again.
This fall I decided to take my online presence and branding up a notch. Beginning today, with this blog, I am featuring my newly designed web site and logo. For the techies out there, it utilizes HTML5 to customize itself to whatever browser it happens to be running on. It also features really large images that scale to the size of the browser window. So make sure you maximize the window!
Because I have been working on this project for a while I have quite a bit of photography work in the can to show you. I will be doing that over the next several months along with a couple of surprises, including one personal project that I will be rolling out in November. Please watch for that!
To get things started I thought I would share some shots from a photo session that I had with the excellent guitarist, Alex Prezzano. He rented the world-famous Methuen Memorial Music Hall for the shoot, which features an amazing pipe organ that occupies the entire front of the hall. I hope you enjoy the shots and check Alex out! Please feel free to leave a comment too!
David Shulman of The Environmental Tech Center - CP Pro Magazine - July 2012
This shoot was a blast. The Environmental Tech Center, in East Boston, which is featured in this month's CE Pro Magazine cover story, is in an unassuming building, but houses some really cool gadgets and an amazing home. David Shulman, who owns the Environmental Tech Center shares the stage in this article with his beautiful home and workplace.
Well, I really dropped the ball. I haven't blogged since May 8th! In my defense, I have been working on many things, but several of them are long term projects or editorial photography, the latter requiring me to hold off showing until publication. So there will be several magazine cover stories to come, as well as a couple of personal projects, to which I can at least give you a sneak preview now.
I am really excited to be working with the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC), in Lowell, Massachusetts, on a summer-long project to document the great work they are doing, and have been doing since 1999. I am really looking forward to creating a significant body of work that will tell UTEC's story. My photographing and learning process has already begun and the plans are for the work to culminate with the Grand Opening of their new, green building, on November 13th. Stay tuned!
And yes, my project called After Hours Passions, with creative genius Suzzanne Cromwell continues!
And if you "Like" the Merrimack Valley Magazine on Facebook, you may have seen this shot. I had the pleasure of covering a two family home construction project in Lawrence that happened in an insane 6 days. I also found This Old House' Steve Thomas to be an inspiring and eloquent speaker on the subject of helping others to succeed.
Atrion Networking senior VP Paul Cronin, Warwick, R.I.
For the May, 2012 issue of Commercial Integrator Magazine, with its distinctive cover style, I was chosen to photograph Atrion Networking senior VP Paul Cronin, of Warwick, R.I., for the cover story. EH Publishing is a great group to work with.
For more information about editorial photography, corporate photography and location portraits, send me a quick email! http://www.adrienbisson.com/contact/
There is an abundance of misinformation and misplaced ill-will out there concerning the teaching profession. Sadly, most everyone can site an instance in their childhood in which a bad teacher may have affected their lives. I know that such was the case for me. More sadly though, there are people who make it their mission, for whatever reason, to bash teachers, the overwhelming majority of whom are dedicated professionals. While some of the criticism comes from frustrated or resentful individuals who have a right to their opinions, some also comes from more influential individuals and institutions who are using the demeaning of teachers and public education as a means to further their political careers or agendas, or to profit from what they perceive as a potential privatization cash cow.
In the sewer that is the world of web site commentary, a place that desperate traditional media outlets allow to fester, one finds a non-stop diatribe of the bravely anonymous commentators voicing their frustration and resentment of educators. 'Those teachers! They have the summer off! They only work half days! They are paid so much! They have such "lavish" benefits!' You may have heard or read such things if you choose to waste time reading such enlightened prose. As a "teaching widower", let me share with you, as old Larry Glick used to say, "The story behind the story".
So lets talk about the school year. Yes, teachers get the summer off. (The first week after school is over, my wife sleeps; day and night.) Did I mention that they have the summer off WITHOUT PAY? Many people are under the mistaken impression that the summer is a paid vacation. Um...no. Did I mention that I worked for a long time in the private sector? I have a Bachelor of Music degree. In the corporate world I was a software engineer with a few software engineering courses under my belt and was paid almost exactly twice what my wife was paid at the time, and she has a Masters of Education. And what about those other vacations? Yes, in Massachusetts, teachers get the Christmas break, a February and an April vacation. Most professional people do get paid vacation, albeit far less than is reasonable in this country, IMHO. The big difference is that most professional people can choose when they go on those vacations. I cannot. Did I say "I"? Why yes I did! My wife and I cannot go anywhere when we choose. I would also challenge you to check out airfares during these very popular vacation weeks. Such a perk!
And finally, I am going to throw in only one comment about benefits. When I was in the corporate world, my wife and I always used my health care coverage for both of us because it was much less expensive than hers. I am sure that this is not unusual and that not having to cover a certain percentage of employees is a huge win for the city.
Public education is one of the things that makes this country one worth living in. Public servants, like teachers, do exactly what the name implies; they serve the public. Whether that is you and me specifically or not is irrelevant. We are in this together. The founding fathers knew that. Those who created this "commonwealth" knew that. We can either support the education of children when they are children, making them into citizens who are part of the commonwealth, or we can pay even more to keep them alive in prison as adults. We already have the world's highest incarceration rate [1].
[Now try to visualize me stepping off my soap box please.]
(1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate)
