How to get into the American Photography Annual...

...or at least how it worked out for me.  

Apparently American Photography liked the pic I did for Esquire.  And apparently I missed the notification email that they sent back in March.  I'm fortunate that they followed up.

This is a bit of a milestone for me, since I've had stuff appear on the AP Chosen website, but never in the printed book.

I've always loved the work that appears in the AP annual, and remember looking at it for the first time at the SFMOMA bookstore back when I was just starting as an assistant.  The work was always inspirational, but seemed so intangibly good -- so rich and impossible for me to ever attain, that I never really expected to get in.


Enter luck and circumstance.  Mike Norseng from Esquire called needing a last second image.  I had been to visit him in NY several times.  He liked my follow-up promos.  To his credit, I can say that he matched me to the assignment almost perfectly -- the shoot felt natural to me, and I was really excited about it from beginning to end.  Although it was a bit stressful.  


In addition, the finished article is beautifully written, and was nominated for a National Magazine Award for best feature of 2009.


So, had I not gone to NY, and had Mr. Norseng not received my follow-up promo at the time that he needed someone for this job, and had I not been available to shoot it, and had Dr. Hern not wanted to have his picture taken in the front window, my guess is that I wouldn't be writing this post.


So while it is actually possible to make your own luck, having everything else line up can be tricky.