MY FAVORITE PORTRAIT OF 2022 — KATIE KRAWCZYK OF 19IDEAS
MY FAVORITE PORTRAIT OF 2022 — KATIE KRAWCZYK OF 19IDEAS
Serendipitously, it turned out that my very last portrait of 2022 would turn out to be my favorite portrait of the year. I had been invited to create portraits of the partners behind 19Ideas, a marketing agency in Buffalo NY. This was a special treat because while I had been able to photograph Chief Technology Officer Dan Gigante before, I had wanted to create a portrait of founder and CEO Katie Krawczyk for a very long time. Her personality is so charming and creative; I knew it would be a lot of fun to spend a day photographing her!
Unlike a sterile cubical farm, 19Ideas' offices are gorgeous. Hanging ivy, modernist chessboards, private reading/work nooks, calm pods, and a drinks fridge that looks like a London phone booth characterize the downstairs reception area, which is inspired by English gardens. You'll find more open work areas upstairs that feel like a combo of a library, an art space, and your best friend's kitchen.
After spending some time exploring this amazing space during my initial location scout and sharing a nice cup of tea with Katie, I found out that the interior had been designed by another former subject of mine — Michael Poczkalski of Room. It's always so interesting to hear about the creative process behind the spaces I photograph, and Katie was more than happy to tell me about her and Michael's vision for the space that came from their shared love of English culture and aesthetics. Knowing that we would be photographing primarily indoors that day, I wanted to be sure to capture the beautiful elements of the office and show off the incredible architecture and design of the place in a way that felt authentic and natural. But I also wanted to create one or two options that felt more fantastical and creativity forward — which I felt matched the agency's vibe really well.
During the scout, I came across this really beautiful plant wall on the upper floor. I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted to do with it yet, but I knew that I wanted to work it into the portraits in some way since its size and texture were just so interesting and I thought that it would be a good backdrop for a portrait that focused more on Katie's personality and had less of an environmental feel than the other images I had planned out.
The production day came just a few days before shutting the studio down for a few weeks for our annual winter break (and just before a massive blizzard shut the city of Buffalo down for the better part of a week). As I met with Kate and other production team members to review the wardrobe that Kate and Dan would wear that day, I was still conceptualizing what I wanted to do with this plant wall. The first thing Katie pulled out of her wardrobe bag was an emerald green dress with sparkles that lit up like a star. It all came together in a flash.
In my mind, I felt like this dress had been made just for that shot. The final image of the day was Katie wearing this incredible dress in front of the equally incredible background that I had found — which resulted in the image above and let me finish off the year with a portrait I'm truly proud of.