A majority of my freelance time as of late has been at a catalog studio. This catalog studio has been in the West Loop of Chicago for 25 years, and is predominately run by a group of incredibly fashionable, style savvy, cultured gay men. The combination of people they have working there is incredible, and I love working with everyone. The catalogs the studio works on are JcPenney, Ulta, Sur La Table, and Carson's Prairie Scott, to name a few.
I work with one photographer, who has been there for 18 years. For 18 years this man has been taking pictures of beds, lamps, towels, year in and year out, without much change. Come on, we all grew up standing on the Penney's catalog to reach the candy on the counter, you know it doesn't change much. This photographer is an incredible photographer, the way he looks at the set, and the way he lights everything is insane. There are times where he will be looking at a set, and will not say a word to me for an hour, and create some of the most beautiful lighting I have ever seen. But today was a bit different.
Today we had a challenge. Today, we LITERALLY spent 8 hours working on one image. ONE image. Don't get me wrong, I have worked a long time on an image in my work, but I think the longest I lasted was 4 hours. Today, we reached 8. I am writing about this, because I want to let you all in on the secrets of the catalogs that we stand on. I watched an incredibly talented photographer struggle with the lighting of a set for 8 hours, for the simple thought that the art director was going to most likely hate it. By the end of the day, the photographer was exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally, just to find out the next day, the art director hated it, and wanted a completely different set.
So the next time you take a look at a catalog, remember the small people that take your pictures.
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