I planned on continuing at NESOP and decided to sell my
beloved ’68 Firebird in order to pay for my second year’s
tuition. My best friend, however, had other ideas. She bor-
rowed my car, slammed back a pint of vodka, and totaled my
Firebird on an old oak tree. My dreams of returning to school
were dashed, but I decided I was not going to be deterred.
I decided to waitress to make money, knowing that photo
school was easily another year away.
While serving up chef salads and French dips, I ran into a
photographer I had known a few years back in the early seventies.
He had left the photo store where he had worked and was now
freelancing. He begged me to be his agent, reminding me that
I could learn the business during the day while representing
him and while still being able to work at night, building up my
photo hope chest with waitressing funds for my second year of
photo school.
I knew absolutely nothing about the business, but I was
eager to hang onto anything photographic and so I jumped at
the chance.
He gave me a list of five art directors and his print port-
folio and told me to take it to the people on the list. In those
days I wore purple tights and a black Capezio dance skirt, and
that’s how I set out to show my new photographer’s portfolio.
Rock-and-roll queen meets the ad agency market.
When I called the five art directors on the list I had been
given, none of them were there. They had all moved on to other
agencies. My first and very brief database of contacts was worth-
less. I raced to the nearest phone book and started to compile a
list of ad agencies. My career in the business of photography was
off and running. The rest, as they say, is history. With lots of
opportunity and much hard work, my repping career flour-
ished. Two years later, when I returned to NESOP, I presented
my first business lecture. I then went on to develop one of the
first business courses for photography students in the country.
I happily taught that course at NESOP for many years.
Shortly after I began my teaching gig, I helped establish
the Boston Graphic Artist Guild and began giving free infor-
mation to all artists about the (then) newly crafted 1978
copyright law. It wasn’t long before I decided to expand my
information bank and my consulting career begun. I haveINTRODUCTIONxPrelims.qxd 7/11/07 12:45 PM Page x