How Marc Gagnon became an Accomplished Photographer

LOOKING BACK – THANK YOU TO MY MENTORS

No one in life is an island. Obviously, there are different mentors for different purposes. I have had mentors with regards to helping me to create a foundation as a person. Obviously, my parents, some specific teachers and particular friends have helped me with respect to this. I have been in the photography field for some 29 years. A girl I almost married, actually motivated me to buy my first camera. On the most part, I stayed within a small area from Nashua, NH. This girl was from England and was visiting the USA. We started making trips far outside my comfort zone, which is where I began my photography.

One year later, a prospective model who was working at the Manor IV in Nashua, NH asked me to take some pictures for her portfolio. I really had no idea what I was doing. I started reading books and started experimenting. She introduced me to 5 other people who believed that they had something to make it a career. Although they gave me a lot of credit in marketing them to NYC based agencies, I think it may have been a lot of luck. I contend that they did far more for me than what I did for them. They introduce me to the top fashion photographers of NYC (See Attached List) and most definitely the world. I met them through their forum which was usually at the RCA Building, The Cadillac Bar, and a number of other places. I began to sit in on sessions and observed. They began putting me on the spot and I would plug in my camera to take a couple of images at their shoots. I even took a couple of images for actually assignments that were published. They included me on their mailings and I was invited to industry events such as the invitation attached to Studio 54.  Some of events were fashion shows, premieres, and just parties. I actually accumulated a huge file of candid images of celebrities and people who were the operators of the business such as Ad Executes, Camera people, Producers, and Music People.

More important, I learned what I see so many photographers lacking in South Florida; which is the ability to take the right model, with the right clothes matching with the right environment. My main area of photography these days is the COLLAGES.  Although the COLLAGES are a series of images that make a story, still, the individual images making up the collages are critical to make it work. Some of these photographers are long since gone, but some of these people are also now educators and give presentations. I recently communicated with Jack Reznicki and expressed my appreciation to him. I now sell me artwork in some 26 stores, with a future one in William, AZ and negotiations with a large store chain that are in all of the commercial airports. Much of my work is tourist based and I sell in many merchandising forms (see attached pictures). I have begun also publishing my own Coffee Table Books.

I have attached a couple of pictures of an Indian shoot which I will be creating a Frontier Collage. In this collage will be images of the Old West (ghost towns), Little Bighorn, and re-enactments of the old west, stage coaches, OK Corral, Log Cabins, and some other historic sites.

Photographers that influenced me:

1. Francisco Scavullo
2. Richard Avedon
3. Jay Maesel
4. Steve Meisel
5. Jack Reznicki
6. Annie Leibowitz
7. Bruce Webber
8. Marco Glaviano
9. Gilles Bensimon
10. Greg Gorman
11. Toscani
12. Albert Mackenzie Watson
13. Jean Renard
14. Douglas Hopkins
15. Tom Hooper
16. Patrick DeMarchelier
17. Peggy Sirota
18. Harry Langdon
19. Joyce Tenneson
20. Lynn Goldsmith
21. Michel Comte
22. Andrea Alperts
23. Peter Lindbergh
24. Herb Ritts
25. Tom Lohman
26. Harry Benson
27. Bill King
28. Jennifer Baumann
29. Andrew Eccles
30. Robert Farber
31. Giacomo Giannini
32. Les Goldberg
33. Lee Page
34. Michael Pateman
35. John Pemberton
36. John McDonough
37. Paul Lange
38. Jacques Silberstein
39. Arthur Algort
40. Eric Bowman
41. Rudolf Von Domele






42. Marc Baptiste

Human Trafficking Collage

It was not long ago that I did a piece (collage) entitled What of Justice which focused on the rape and murder of three families and the cry that the public should have in protecting our children and strengthening our laws on those who would bring harm to children. I personally have contacted the Klaas family, Lunsford Family and the Walsh family.

Since that time, another issue has come up affecting children throughout the world. It has resulted in me creating another collage entitled Human Trafficking. This occurrence is essentially the abduction and the selling of children through slave trade. Imagine, SLAVERY in the 21^st Century. Has Mankind evolved? We as a society cannot deafen our ears and close our eyes to this horrendous problem afflicting the World. Some of the children are actually abducted from their parent’s home, through their friends, or may be runaways and are befriended by opportunists, or rather what I would call sheer evil. I have been introduced to some Federal Law Enforcement people and to a Coalition in Broward County who want to take the weight of the problem on their own shoulders.

The collage HUMAN TRAFFICKING is comprised of much symbolism. The focus is placed on the ugliness of slavery and the face of a child affected by it. The Ten Commandments is in the piece to symbolize God’s freeing the Jews from the Egyptians declaring that slavery has no place in humanity. Other symbols included are documents from the Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, Bill of Rights, etc. There is an image of newspapers stacked to show one way that children and adult women are lured into trafficking through deceptive advertisements. With the sophistication of the computer, these despicable people are now using the internet through such sites as Craig’s List, Back Page dot com, and other such sites. I personally have noticed that many models are also using these sites for castings which are not wise. Other alternatives of models and actresses for castings are The Call Sheets by Back Stage Magazine and the Hollywood Reporter.

The purpose of this piece is to bring heighten awareness for each of us to act by placing more pressure on our elected officials and to keep our eyes and ears open.

Modeling Industry

The Modeling Industry

by Marc Gagnon

Twenty Nine years ago, I got started in the photography area through an artist, Amanda Dobbs, who was from England. In fact, we almost married and at the time she was working for the Government of the United Kingdom, specifically at Balmoral Castle and Buckingham Palace. In fact, in 1981 she sent Wedding Invitations to my parents and me to the Royal Wedding which the invitation can be seen on my www.gagnonart.net site.

In 1982, I started working with models and helped them to gain access to top Model Management companies by mostly trial and error. I actually attained a greater understanding of the business after these six models started working in NYC for such agencies as Elite, Ford, Zoli, CED, Grace del Marco, and Wilhelmina.  Other agencies as William Morris, ICM, J Michael Bloom, Flick, APA, Reinhardt, Kim Dawson, David & Lee, Durkin, and Nina Blanchard, were introduced to me through these models and the photographers they worked with. I considered myself privileged to meet Richard Avedon, Francesco Scavullo, Jack Reznicki, Jay Maesel, Steven Meisel, Albert Mackenzie Watson, Patrick DeMarchelier, Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber, and many others. I also was privileged to meet Elysse Weisberg who was a photo rep who managed the top fashion photographers in the 80s and 90s as well as Ad Agency Execs through Saatchi and Saatchi and Grey Advertising. While in Boston, I worked briefly with Cabot Advertising and landed models with New England Telephone ad campaigns.

South Florida is a very interesting place. I have met some people who have a strong look for the business but there are numerous problems here. People seem to lack the common sense, business sense, and you may even say intelligence to become successful in the business. There are many Conmen/women down in South Florida who only has their mouths and very little substance to sway people to work with them. Con comes from the word “Confidence” and their only marketing tool is literally their mouth.

Recently, I have met two prospective models. One out of Wellington, Florida, was telling me that her videographer is preparing her for the field. I asked her, how do you know he has the sufficient knowledge of the industry?  She responded “because he knows.” Another one had a similar response, with of course no substance. It is true that South Florida people set themselves as virtual marks for deception. South Florida is dead last in the country for education. South Florida spends the least on education according to NBC Channel 6. With the migration of the elderly to Florida, the lack of community (transient people), the “Confidence people” find their way here. There is a large South American and Islander population here as well that further compounds the problem. People do not know nor do they have any idea how to discern whether a person knows the industry or not.

What a Person should have if they are claiming to know the industry-

First of all, if a person has never dealt with these modeling agencies directly, then they have no idea of the industry is about. They should have the Model Management Books (printed books of the model agencies themselves which are catalogs of their models), Head Sheets (larger posters of close ups of the models they represent) and the Composite Cards of the models that are with these specific agencies. They should have the following Directories of the Industry: 1.) Le Book for Fashion, 2.) Henderson for Casting, 3.) Call Sheets formerly Ross Reports for Commercial Print, Casting, and Film, 4.) Hollywood Reporter Directories for Music, Film, and Producers, 5.) Billboard Directory for Music, 6.) Ad-Week Directory for the Advertising Agencies which are the firms that actually hire the models, 7.) O’Dwyer’s Directory for Public Relations, 8.) Musician’s Atlas for the Music Industry, are among the basic directory information of the business.  

If a photographer is actually a professional, then they should have tear sheets themselves. They should have photo credits in magazines, newspapers, brochures, books, etc. Sometimes, the publisher will not actually give the photographer actual credit by the picture. In that case, the photographer’s original image is 99% bigger than the picture in the ad. In other words, the image is generally cropped to fit the spacing requirements of the newspaper, magazine, etc. A photographer who is featured in the news is the greatest honor a photographer can be bestowed. A photographer who does not have this is probably just a consumer photographer that does weddings, portraits, proms, sweet 16 parties, etc. It does not mean that they are not good for what they do; it means they are out of their realm with respect to modeling.

The industry is not easy to get into. Currently, I am working with Amy Vitale and I have begun marketing her to the larger industry. Obviously, I have produced two composite cards (a picture card with 3 or more images on it with body statistical as well as contact information on it) to market her. Packages are being mailed out to agencies I have worked with the past, which include tear sheets (copies of work she has done which can be magazine ads, articles, etc.)  including my vouching as to her professionalism. Some of the tear sheets include the For Our Troops collage which was featured on NBC News, the many tear sheets that was created from the piece itself, the Comic Books entitled Red Angel which bears her likeness, the Playboy article of Amy Vitale, the Wrestling articles showing her acting outside the ring as a manager of the wrestlers, and the local advertisers that have used her.