Rich Pomerantz Photography
August 1, 2008
Welcome to my newly updated website, with more recent images from the books, magazines and stock photography assignments I work on in the garden, horticulture and lifestyle segment of the marketplace. Please look around; there are plenty of new images, including a bunch from my new book! I am REALLY excited about the forthcoming launch of Great Gardens of the Berkshires, which Virginia Small (formerly of Fine Gardening) & I worked on for two years. In June I drove up to Maine to review the final proofs and see it all laid out for the first time; that was a thrill! The book will be out in October, and at $35, will be the perfect gift for the gardener in your life, or for anyone who enjoys looking at beautiful imagery of landscapes and gardens. Virginia’s text is extraordinary; she has the ability not only to teach you how to really see the landscape in front of you in an engaging and easy style, but she also explains the visions and the execution of each gardener in such a way that you may as well be inside their heads. Her writing is that clear. You can order a book from me via email & I will sign it for you before it ships out or you can ask your local bookstore to be sure they carry it when it comes out in October.
You can see some of the images from the book here.
The other thing that had the studio totally jazzed this summer was the advertising/packaging assignment I did for Miracle Gro soils. I was hired after a national photographer search by the NYC agency who does the packaging design for their garden soils, to create images to go on the big bags of soil that you see being sold at the big box stores nationwide. Scott’s can be a target for many gardeners who decry their big-business approach to gardening, but almost every gardener I know, including myself, has gardened with houseplants using those odd little blue crystals.Yes, I am all organic now, but they make gardening easy for people, and that can’t be a bad thing. And besides, their current packaging is breathtakingly horrible!
The art director told me they hired me for two reasons: first was my garden photography portfolio. They wanted the new packaging to host images of real-looking people gardening in real-looking gardens, and my images conveyed the lush, beautiful look they wanted. Second was my knowledge of gardens and plants, since they had photographers in the past who did not know enough to dead-head flowers or who put plants together in images that just could not exist in the world at the same time (like a spring blooming peony next to black-eyed susans, which bloom later in the summer). The shoot took three days after several weeks of preparation, with one day to build the gardens & then two days to shoot. I had professional models, producers, wardrobe, hair, makeup, herds of assistants and lots of fun equipment to play with. There I was in the middle of all this swirling activity directing it all like a big-time director, and it all worked! The crew was amazing, the photos came out great, the client was happy and so was I. Here’s one of the images that made the final cut:
That’s it for this first installment. I hope you enjoyed reading it! I’ll be adding another installment in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
Rich