about:face submission highlight

I've been there...

Thanks Indira.

about:face submission

(Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

Thanks Jason!

See more here.

Twitterpated

Click image to be magically transported to my Twitter page. © William Anthony

Yup. William Anthony Photography, Inc. is now on Twitter. A "Feed" if you will. I will feed you with Tweets. Then I can say I "Tweeted" you and I can begin "Retweeting." Or you can say, "Hey, I got Twittered by wm_a!" Or is it "Tweeted"?

I will now butcher centuries of human language by condensing my most complex thoughts and musings into 140 characters or less. (Note: That last sentence was 126 characters.)

Truth be told, I was convinced (converted actually) by this short 8 minute TED talk I watched as a podcast on my flight to NYC:

about:face submission highlights

Submissions are starting to come in from the promo mailer. The above came from You Kyung Jung in Astoria, NY. Apparently, it reads, "You liar! It's a squirrel!" Okaaaaayyy...

Next, Hollywood producer Dana Brunetti used all the images to make a statement about his industry.



And somehow I just knew dogs and cats would get involved.





Thanks to Amanda Buchan in Seattle (cat) and Lisa Wood in Portland, OR for the dog... er... hydrant.

See more submissions or request a promo for yourself here.

about:face promo mailer launch

Coming soon to a mailbox near you. (Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

After months of planning and production, we're finally launching the about:face project.

This is my newest promo mailer. Only with a twist.

A while back I photographed clown Peter Pitofsky in the studio. Not your typical clown, he rarely wears face paint but instead contorts his face and body to comedic extremes. (Think Curly from the Three Stooges on a bottle of 5-Hour Energy drink.) I asked Peter to make as many faces as he could and from the resulting 300+ frames, I narrowed it down to the 12 on the mailer.

Above Peter's head is a blank thought or speech "bubble." Each page is perforated and tears into individual 4x6 cards. Instructions direct recipients to write in their own comment, creatively use the card somewhere (the office, local bar, etc) then take a photo of it in use and upload it to an online gallery.


Online gallery of submissions. (Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

The idea here is shared creativity and community. I want people to have as much fun using/seeing these as I had photographing them. I can't wait to see what this leads to.

I'll also highlight particularly creative ones here on the blog.

For now, the upload page and gallery are only accessible from the landing page: wmanthony.com/aboutface

If you'd like to participate, send me a request by clicking here.

Credits
Concept: William Anthony
Production Manager: Pamela Sunnarborg
Talent: Peter Pitofsky
Database programming: Carl Collins
Production Art: Julie Wessel
Printing: Clear Image Printing

PDN Photo of the Day

(Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

My image of the Cirque du Soleil tent in Santa Monica was chosen by the editors of Photo District News (PDN) for their Photo of the Day feature.

The image below was another frame taken that evening, but on Ilford 400 black and white film.


(Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

Upcoming Promo: Press Check

Press sheet © William Anthony

As previously mentioned, a new promo mailer is in the works. Last Tuesday we went down to the printer for the press check. It's been a while since I had done one. Oh how I miss the smell of four color press inks!

I am trying something different with this promo. The photography industry seems to be changing day by day. What worked before isn't always a guarantee now. Simple displays of your work aren't enough anymore. Nowadays, it's all about conveying your personal voice and perspective, not just skill sets. I hope this mailer will satisfy all that. Plus, it's fun.

But I don't want to give away too much.

Upcoming Promo: Peter

(Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

I am working on a new promo mailer that will be much more than just a mailer. It'll be interactive.

It involves me, a clown and your imagination and humor. The clown is Peter Pitofsky. We met in Seattle and he wears no clown face makeup. Instead, he does it all with just his malleable face. One day, in the studio, I asked him to make as many faces as he could and we ended up with over 350 of 'em.

I don't want to give too much away at this point other than I think it's going to be very, very fun to see what happens.

Stay tuned.

Web site re-launch

(Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

Not only is today the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, I re-launched my web site! Though, admittedly not as exciting as stepping foot on another planet, I'm pretty thrilled with all the new work. Have a look!

Just click HOME above.

PDN - City Guide: L.A.

(Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

I was recently interviewed by PDN Magazine about my new home, Los Angeles, for their City Guide series. Upon getting my issue in the mail today, it was nice to see that some of my comments were included.

As I've been doing a lot lately, I talked up my new neighborhood, the Arts District. But this isn't just blind evangelization. I was proud to share what's going on down here in our little dusty corner of downtown.

In addition to the sub headline lead-in on the first page, my recommendations of Church & State and Café Metropol made it into the "Where to Eat" inset. (For the record, I also recommended the Royal Clayton's.)

Homepage Slideshow

(Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

I've implemented a slideshow on the homepage. I'll update it regularly with fresh work, but on no set schedule. To all my animal trainer friends, thats an " intermittent, variable ratio schedule of reinforcement."

Yes, I am training you.

Science!

A Photo Editor (APE) Promo

Rob Haggart, the formerly anonymous, former Director of Photography at Men's Journal and Outside magazine tried a little experiment in photographer promotion. He put out a call for entries on his very popular blog asking photographers to submit their freshest images to be considered for inclusion in a free online slideshow he'd make available to art directors, photo editors and art buyers. A monumental task when you consider over 1,300 photographers participated. From this, a pool of 297 images/photographers was chosen for the final slideshow.

I made the cut.

See the slideshow post here. Or see the full screen version at ilikethesephotos.com

Below are my submissions.


(L) UrbanLab founders Sarah Dunn & Martin Felsen with their daughter Aubrey, for Architect Magazine.
(R) Erin with gnome on Polaroid with bbq sauce. Personal Work.
© William Anthony


Untitled. Personal Work. © William Anthony

Rob posted that if no one included in his slideshow got any new work as a result of this promotion, he'd consider the experiment a failure. So if you are an art buyer, photo editor or art director—do it for Rob. Call me.