Events

Guest Speaker: Rick Souders

Monday, May 13th
Denver-based food photographer Rick Souders returns to Hallmark to share the fascinating world of food photography. In addition to sharing his impeccable photography, Rick, along with a team of professionals, demonstrate a live shoot and show our students the art and magic of food photography. Mr. Souders is an honors graduate from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. His award-winning photography can be seen worldwide in food and beverage advertising campaigns, print, packaging and annual reports in over 60 different countries.
More information: http://soudersstudios.com/

Guest Speaker: Colin Finlay

Tuesday, May 7th
Colin Finlay is one of the foremost documentary photographers in the world. He has been awarded the prestigious Picture of the Year International (POYI) Honor six times. For Almost twenty-five years, Finlay has documented the human condition with compassion, empathy and dignity. He has covered war and conflict, disappearing traditions, the environment in both its glory and its devastation, genocide, famine, religious pilgrimage, and global cultures. In pursuit of passion, he has circled the globe twenty-seven times, in search of that one photo that will be a testament to the depth of human will and compassion, of hope and of an informed collective consciousness.
More information: http://colinfinlay.com

Open House for Careers in Photography

Saturday, May 4th

Guest Speaker: Andy Biggs

Thursday, May 2nd
Moab Master Andy Biggs is an avid adventurer, conservationist, teacher, and outdoor photographer whose photography celebrates the African landscape and its rich wildlife, people, and culture. With a deep respect and understanding for African wildlife, Andy unfolds the world of the Serengeti, the Okavango Detla and other wildlife-rich destinations onto our doorstep with striking emotional depth. His photographic safaris allow the traveler to not only enhance their understanding of photography, lighting, and wildlife, but to develop a life-long admiration for Africa 's beauty and culture.
More information: http://andybiggs.com

Guest Speaker: Parish Kohanim

Friday, April 12th
Parish Kohanim has been intimately involved with photography for over 25 years. A renowned commercial photographer, Parish is now devoting his efforts to his first love, fine art photography. Parish's passion for the subtle beauty of life is apparent in his photographs. Parish exposes the beauty in all things that surround us in our everyday lives—landscapes, florals, the human form—and challenges others to do so as well. He has focused on many exquisite subjects, and is able to bring them out of the frame and into the live imagination of the viewer.
More information: http://www.parishkohanim.com

Guest Speaker: Gary Land

Friday, April 5th
Hallmark is pleased to welcome Gary Land back to share his wonderful personality and stellar work with our students. Boston-based Land is a freelance commercial photographer whose modern, fresh signature environmental portrait style landed him iconic campaigns for clients such as Nike, Adidas, and Coca Cola, as well as many more. His award-winning work has been featured in PDN, Creativity, Communication Arts, Graphis, and Archive.
More information: http://garylandphotography.com

Guest Speaker: Sam Abell

Thursday, April 4th
Sam Abell has worked with the National Geographic Society since 1970 and is one of the more overtly artistic photographers among his magazine peers. He has lectured on photography and exhibited his images to audiences throughout the world. Sam is widely known as a speaker that will tell an involving story with a quiet, compelling demeanor. His philosophy regarding the meaning of photography in our lives will resonate with everyone who hears him.
More information: http://samabell-thephotographiclife.com

Guest Speaker: Claire Rosen

Monday, March 25th – Wednesday, March 27th
Claire Rosen is an photographer and video artist who blends a fine-art sensibility with commercial work to create whimsical imagery inspired by fairy tales, fables, and other children's stories. She brings her extraordinary talents to Hallmark with a 3-day intensive workshop called The Constructed Image. The workshop covers the elements involved in creating conceptual imagery with a focus on making images that are about something rather than of something.
More information: http://clairerosenphoto.com/

Guest Speaker: Ron Wyatt

Monday, March 11th
Ron Wyatt's first experience with photography was an unsuccessful photo documentation of his honeymoon. Armed with a borrowed instamatic camera, he learned that camera shake would not produce great photos.

In the years to follow, he perfected his game. Ron has covered the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball. He also photographed two summer Olympic Games. His photos have appeared in various publications such as: USA Today, Black Enterprise Magazine, Time Magazine, Newsweek, TV Guide, ESPN Magazine and others.

Ron also shoots corporate assignments for Six Flags, Eastman Kodak, Continental Airlines, CVS, Pepsico, Verizon and many others. His photography has allowed him to travel around the globe. His Olympic work was featured in the Nov. 2008 issue of Studio Photography and a 7-page spread in the July 2009 issue of RangeFinder Magazine.

For more information, please visit: ronwyattphotos.com

Guest Speaker: Zachary Stephens

Monday, March 11th
An alumnus of the Hallmark Institute of Photography, Zachary P. Stephens has been a professional photographer since 2004 working as staff and freelance for several newspapers and magazines. His work appears regularly in the Brattleboro Reformer and has been featured in The New York Times, Vermont Life Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, USA Today and more. His video work has appeared on news stations WMUR, WCAX, FOX News, TruTV's Most Shocking, and AMC's Hell on Wheels titles. Zachary is currently the Photo Editor and Multimedia Producer at the Brattleboro Reformer and co-owner of Studio Ten13. He has also taught photography and photojournalism at the In-Sight Photography Project and Landmark College. You can see his work at zpstephens.com.

Open House for Careers in Photography

Saturday, March 2nd

Guest Speakers: Justin and Mary Marantz

Thursday, February 14th
We are thrilled to welcome Justin and Mary Marantz back to Hallmark. This dynamic duo operates one of the fastest growing wedding and portrait studios on the East Coast. Justin is an award-winning photographer and graduate of RIT, and Mary is a graduate of Yale Law School. Because of their beautiful imagery, wonderful presence, and sharp business savvy, Justin and Mary make an amazing team, and have a very strong following. They will share their experiences and knowledge with Hallmark students, helping to guide them to successful careers. To learn more about Justin and Mary, please visit http://www.justinmarantz.com.

Guest Speaker: Jon Ortner

Monday, February 11th

Hallmark is pleased to welcome a very special guest who made time in his busy travel schedule for a trip to Turners Falls. For more than twenty-five years Jon Ortner, along with his wife Martha, has traveled to the far corners of the Himalaya and Southeast Asia to photograph the sacred monuments and ancient traditions of the Hindu and Buddhist world. They have trekked thousands of miles, many remote and dangerous through the mystical landscapes of Bhutan, Nepal, India, Kashmir, Ladakh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Java and Bali. Jon's book Where Every Breath Is A Prayer is the culmination of those pilgrimages in which he has rediscovered and reinterpreted architectural marvels and the people whose lives are dedicated to the quest for spiritual growth and enlightenment. He has sought to distill with images and words the essence of a sacred land and the wisdom that has evolved there over millennia. From the banks of the Ganges, India's holiest river, to the volcanic peaks of Bali, he has patiently and persistently sought out those special places of sanctity and reverence. To see some of Jon's work, please visit www.ortnerphoto.com.

Guest Speaker: Steve Sint

Monday, February 11th
Over a 35-year career, Steve Sint has photographed over 4000 weddings, taken over 2 million photographs, and shot over 1 million portraits for his own studio and others in the New York metropolitan area. As a commercial photographer, he has taken thousands of executive portraits, and his client list includes: ABC, Time Inc., Hearst Publications, Yves St. Laurent, AT&T, NCR, National Semiconductor, Miller Freeman Publishing, and Hachette-Filipacchi Magazines. He has written for many different magazines, and is the author of Digital Wedding Photography, Digital Portrait Photography, and the Bride's Guide to Wedding Photography. His most recent book, titled Digital Still Life Photography, was just released. Please visit stevesint.com for more information about this diverse and dynamic photographer.

Alumni Roundtable

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

We are so lucky to have some of our highly successful graduates back to speak to the Class of 2013. An annual event, the Alumni Roundtable is a chance for current students to follow the photographic journeys of graduates learning about the challenges they faced after Hallmark and how they built their own businesses or escalated their career by working for an established photographic entity.

1999 graduate Scott Zuehlke was a 19 year old kid when he graduated from Hallmark, but he didn't let his young age work against him. He's been working in the industry since graduation, shooting for a New York City advertising agency, freelancing as a sports photographer, shooting products for in-house studios at companies like Hasbro and becoming one of the most sought after wedding photographers in the Greater Boston area, selected for the knot - best of weddings for several years in a row now.

2001 graduate Melissa Mullen graduated from Hallmark on a Friday, and was interning for one of the most highly regarded celebrity photographers in New York City the following Monday. After learning the ins and outs of a fast paced studio, Melissa headed west to Southern California where she shot for several high-end wedding photographers including famed photographer, Gary Fong. Missing her roots, Melissa headed back East in 2008 where she established Melissa Mullen Photography based in Portland, Maine. Regarded as one of the premier wedding and portrait photographers in New England, Melissa doesn't only shoot in our region, but has traveled to such places as Utah, Hawaii, Mexico and Trinidad to capture a couple's special day.

2006 graduate Chris Saunders , when asked to describe himself in a single word, said "FUN." Chris finds joy and happiness in his work and knows that he has the "best job in the world". Since graduating from Hallmark Chris has photographed for a number of e-commerce companies and, like his co-panel member, has shot products for the in-house studio at famous toy making manufacturer, Hasbro. The lessons he learned working with a well-known portrait and celebrity photographer in Boston stick with him today, as he grows his own portrait and wedding business, based in New Hampshire. And if that's not enough, Chris has photographed bands and had these images published nationally.

2010 graduate Michael Cali could be considered an "old soul" in a young man's body. For his personal work, as well as portraits and weddings that he shoots for clients, "Cali" as he is known to his friends and Hallmark family, prefers to shoot film, feeling that not being able to see the result of an image immediately on a digital LCD screen, actually makes him a better photographer. You only get so many shots to get it right when you're shooting film, and ever since his year at Hallmark, Cali has been someone that constantly challenges himself. In addition to his own work, Cali works as an assistant for world-renowned photographer, Joe McNally, best known for his contributions as a National Geographic Photographer for the last 25 years. Cali's work with Joe takes him all over the world, most recently on a shoot to St. Lucia.

2011 graduate Kristen Rodgers spent much of her year at school in Hallmark's Commercial Studio. It's no surprise then that she immediately landed a job at New York City based Quirky, Inc. after graduation. Quirky, established in 2009, is an inventor's haven and as stated in their company profile, "has rapidly changed the way the world thinks about product development." Kristen has quickly become an integral part of the company, using her skills in photographing tabletop items, to meet the goals of Quirky, which include bringing new consumer products to the market each and every week.

2011 graduate Rikki Snyder doesn't seem like someone you'd associate heavy lifting and manual labor, with. However, slight of stature and quietly charming, Rikki was almost always seen climbing up and down ladders and carrying loads of props into Hallmark's Commercial Studio. Rikki has a visual sense unlike many and her classic, yet contemporary still-lifes are the product of both her vision and her hard work. Since graduation, Rikki has translated her love of color, design, food and architecture into a full time job as a freelance editorial photographer. Currently she is photographer and writer for Houzz , the leading online platform for interior design, and a contributing food columnist for FOLK Magazine .

Open House for Careers in Photography

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

Hallmark's Class of 2013 Going to PhotoPlus Expo

Friday, October 26th, 2012

An exciting annual event for all of us at Hallmark Institute of Photography. The entire class and staff will travel to NYC to attend and participate in the world's most important trade show and conference for commercial photographers: PhotoPlus Expo. With our current students coming from all over the world, this will be the first time that many of them will have had the opportunity to visit NYC. Be prepared for a fun-filled day to, from, and in NYC with the whole gang!

More information: http://www.photoplusexpo.com/

October 2012 Graduation

Thursday, October 25th, 2012
After 10 months of hard work and determination, the October graduating Class of 2012 is about to step out into the professional world of photography with loads of knowledge and talent! To recognize and honor the accomplishments of this class, staff and faculty of Hallmark will gather at a private and intimate celebration for the students and their families. We're sorry, but this event is not open to the general public.

We are honored to have World Renown Photographer, Monte Isom join us to present the Keynote Address.

Being based in New York advertising photographer Monte Isom has seen no limit to where he takes pictures and how far they can go. With clients in 8 countries he keeps busy flying around the globe to meet with and photograph international superstar athletes and movie stars. "The subject has to feel comfortable in front of the camera," says Monte. "The most important thing is allowing the photo shoot to be their time...while still getting exactly what the client needs." Isom is able to put nearly any subject at ease with his charismatic personality and infectious laughter. Often heroic and dramatically lit Isom's images evoke a response from his subjects that tells a story or gives insight into their persona. Repeatedly advertising clients such as Ford, Nike, Adidas, Sprite, Citibank, EA Sports and HBO have trusted Monte to capture their voice in photos. His work appears regularly in Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, Men's Journal and Ski Magazine.

Jack Reznicki and Edward Greenberg

Friday, October 19th, 2012
Hallmark welcomes guest speakers Jack Reznicki and Edward Greenberg, co-authors of the book Photographer's Survival Manual: A Legal Guide for Artists in the Digital Age. Jack, the former president of Professional Photographers of America and Ed, a leading New York copyright attorney, will help guide students through the legal jungle of copyright law and arm them with the legal and business knowledge that professional photographers and visual artists need.
More information: http://thecopyrightzone.com/

October Graduating Class of 2012 Final Portfolio Review

Thursday, October 18th, 2012
The Year-end Portfolio Review process is the culmination of a student's 10-month professional photography training at Hallmark. During the Portfolio Review process, a review panel made up of working professional photographers will critically analyze each individual student portfolio to determine whether or not it possesses the necessary technical and artistic skills to qualify the student for employment in the field of professional photography and imaging. Each student will receive in-depth commentary from the panelists as to the areas of strength and weakness represented in his or her portfolio. Upon successful completion of the year-end portfolio process, the student qualifies for a Certificate of Completion from Hallmark.

The October Graduating Class of 2012 is honored to have three powerful industry leaders reviewing and critiquing their final year-end portfolio. Each panelist specializes in a different area of professional photography, and their collected experiences and knowledge are unrivaled.

Sam Abell has been shooting for the National Geographic Society since 1970. His sage guidance, worldwide experience and notoriety has earned him a place in the top visual story tellers of the world. Sam has been a mentor for many up and coming image makers, helping one and all to achieve their personal and professional goals. His images from the National Geographic Society Magazine are a national treasure, as are his one of a kind experiences from his travels around the world. He is one of those artists who is always willing to share his amazing insights with his imaging contemporaries.

Barbara Bordnick began her illustrious career in Copenhagen and Paris creating fashion imagery for the pages of Harpers Bazaar. In 1968, she returned to NYC to open her own studio and begin her forty-year career as one of the first and foremost women photographers in the nation. Barbara is an inspiration to all, having laid the groundwork for females in the fashion industry once dominated only by males. barbarabordnick.com

Grant Peterson is a commercial still life photographer who, in three decades of work, left his mark on virtually every aspect of photography. Peterson's uses of light, color, design and printing has influenced a generation of photographers, filmmakers and artists, and was pivotal to the development of advertising's use of a personal vision to sell a brand. In 1989, Photo District News crowned him "The Sun King". In January 2002, "WTC," a show on the design, build, and destruction of the World Trade Center was held at the New York Historical Society. Paul Goldberger of The New York Times called Peterson's images "epic." Peterson currently works and lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

This event is open only to family members and supporters of the October Graduating Class of 2012, the Class of 2013, alumni, members of the photographic profession, and applicants and enrollees of the Class of 2013.

Hallmark to Host Red Cross Blood Drive

Tuesday, October 9th, 2012

Did you know?

• Blood cannot be manufactured, it can only come from healthy volunteer donors.
• Only 5% of the eligible population donates blood, supporting the other 95%.
• The biggest users of blood are cancer patients.
• The #1 reason why most people don’t give blood is because they’ve never been asked. Consider yourself asked!

The Red Cross Blood Drive takes place at Hallmark's Educational Center on Tuesday, October 9th 10am - 3pm. Many staff, faculty and students have already signed up to donate. This blood drive is open to the public and appointments can be set by contacting the Red Cross directly at 800-922-4376. For more information about donating, please visit redcrossblood.org.

When you give blood, you give another birthday, another date, another dance, another laugh, another hug, another chance.

Guest Speaker: Damian Strohmeyer

Friday, October 5th, 2012
Damian Strohmeyer is a Boston-based photographer who will take students on a trip through two decades of photographing people and sports. After stints at newspapers in Topeka, Kansas and Denver, Colorado he has been affiliated with Sports Illustrated magazine for twenty years, and spent eleven of them as a staff photographer. He has covered virtually every major sporting event in the United States as well as several Olympic Games and twenty-three Super Bowls.
More information: http://www.damianstrohmeyer.com/

Special Event: Stillmotion

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012
Hallmark is honored to be one of the stops on Stillmotion's KNOW tour; a filmmaking seminar put on by a group of extremely talented storytellers. Stillmotion is a band of filmmakers who produce exceptional films, from gorgeous weddings to Emmy-nominated full-length documentaries. Students won't know what hit them in this full-day immersion into the world of filmmaking.

Special thanks to LensProToGo for helping to squeeze Hallmark into a busy tour schedule.
More information: http://www.knowbystillmotion.com/

Class of 2013 Welcome

Wednesday, September 5th – Friday, September 7th, 2012

Wednesday, September 5th
Our Orientation program commences with registration, followed by a formal presentation introducing our facilities, faculty, and staff. Then come some fun surprises to break the ice, help the students get to know each other, and make everyone feel at home. We'll also introduce our new class to some of the highlights we have planned for them during their 10-month journey. Our afternoon session will undoubtedly be filled with inspiration as Hallmark's very own Artist-in-Residence, Gregory Heisler, arrives at Hallmark to kick off our prominent Guest Lecturer Series. He will share his iconic imagery and passion from his illustrious career. gregoryheisler.com

Thursday, September 6th
Thursday's morning session focuses on fostering an educational environment with a spirit of mutual respect, cooperation, and integrity, throughout our 10-month training program. The afternoon session features a presentation by renowned portrait and fashion photographer Barbara Bordnick. Barbara began her illustrious career in Copenhagen and Paris creating fashion imagery for the pages of Harpers Bazaar. In 1968, she returned to NYC to open her own studio and begin her forty-year career as one of the first and foremost women photographers in the nation. Barbara is an inspiration to all, having laid the groundwork for females in the fashion industry once dominated only by males. barbarabordnick.com

Friday, September 7th
Our final day of Orientation begins with an introduction into the unique educational training process that leads our students to success in the still and motion photography and imaging arts fields. Our Orientation Week comes to a close with what promises to be an action-packed presentation by unconventional and extremely talented photographer Clay Patrick McBride. He is one of the young stars in the NYC commercial photography scene. For over 15 years, Clay, a cutting edge entertainment photographer, has been documenting the elite stars of sports, hip-hop, and rock and roll. His unforgettable style will inspire all who want to have fun and make a mark in the high-energy commercial imaging world. claypatrickmcbride.com