As you may know first hand, after you have your first child, there is a lot of celebration and people sending you gifts and cards and notes of congratulations. Well, it was a long time ago but I remember being totally surprised that many of those cards came from art buyers. My 27 year old self had not expected that at all. As a photography agent just starting my career, I thought for sure everyone saw my calls as annoying and they only put up with me because they wanted to shoot with my photographers. Well, I was wrong. I was actually making friends; life long friends.
Last week, I co-hosted a lunch in Boston and a party in NYC with Marianne Campbell. Marianne is my best friend and we have been co-hosting events for years now and every time we do, people comment on how unique it is to have two competitors promoting together. She and I never saw it that way; in fact, for a the firs few years of our friendship we never even talked about work.
The lunch in Boston was wonderful. Two of the art buyers who attended were two of the very first art buyers I ever worked with when I started out in Boston almost 25 years ago. The years of friendship, sharing stories about our children and our lives were not lost on me and I know Marianne felt the same way. I couldn’t help but think that the art producers at the table who I was meeting for the first time could very well become new long time friends and that felt nice.
From Boston, we traveled to NY where we have been co-hosting a party for almost 10 years. I remember being nervous at the first one that I wouldn’t recognize everyone but seeing that a small group attended, it wasn’t a problem. Fast forward to last week when well over 50 art producers attended and we knew every one of them. It was a testament to our commitment to NY and our shared love of community.
This particular party felt like a career best. Not because it was so well attended but the energy in the room was about friendship not work. We know about each others babies that are born, children headed to college, heartaches, tragedies, new jobs, weddings and vacations. The reason we believe, is because like our own with each other, the friendships are very genuine and that makes all the difference.
Marianne and I left NY feeling proud of what we started, our friendship, our career and our long standing commitment to the amazing community of art producers that we call friends.
So, thank you Boston, NY and all the other great communities of art producers out there who take our calls, meet with our photographers and hire them for projects. Thank you Quinci and Lauranne for sharing our enthusiasm for photography and helping us manage all that is needed in this crazy industry. And, thank you Vanessa for allowing Marianne and I to both work with you in NY to showcase the great work our photographers when we can’t be there. Mostly though, thank you everyone for your genuine friendship.
To see the complete collection of images, you can link here. And, finally, thank you Jaci Berkopec for such great photos!
