All images Michael Potthast. the

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "All images Michael Potthast. the"

Justina Lawson
8 years ago
Views:

1 All images Michael Potthast the

2 Michael Potthast builds on a family legacy BY WILL POLLOCK PORTRAIT OF A BUSINESS

4 arrying on a family tradition can be a heavy lift for one person, especially when it entails a business. Michael Potthast, CPP, owner of Potthast Studios in Winter Haven, Fla., is channeling four generations of Potthast photographers, furniture makers, and artists into his successful and adaptive portrait photography business. CPotthast s forefathers, German immigrants, founded the renowned Potthast Brothers Furniture Co. in There are antique pieces of the company s furniture in the White House today. Part of what my great grandfather did before that furniture business came around was photography, says Potthast. I ve got 8x10 glass negatives he d taken of the Great Baltimore fire in And he d also spent some time in the shipyards. He would photograph the immigrants as they arrived by ship. They must have been commissioned. Some of those glass negatives, as well as modern prints made from them, are in the providence of the Maryland Historical Society. Potthast s grandfather, George Potthast, was a military photographer, and the late American impressionist painter Edward Henry Potthast was a cousin. CLIENT RELATIONS, BUSINESS SENSE An illustrious family tradition of artisanship does not guarantee success in business, which is why, after studying commercial photography at the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies in Daytona Beach, Fla., Potthast went on to earn a B.A. in business management at Warner Southern University. The business side is critical in any type of operation, he says. What s most helpful with a business degree is being able to communicate well on a professional level, February 2013 Professional Photographer 73

CPotthast s forefathers, German immigrants, founded the renowned Potthast Brothers Furniture Co. in 1892. There are antique pieces of the company s furniture in the White House today.

5 understanding a little bit more about how a corporate culture works beyond what I know as an artist and photographer. Communication is important in a field where success is in the eye of the beholder, Potthast notes. One of the things about our industry is that photography, the product itself, what we re selling to our clients, is very subjective. That s where the communication part of it is so critical, because we re not selling nuts and bolts. Right or wrong is up to the client. That s the tricky part, he says, being able to handle that kind of situation on a professional level. The business degree has helped me understand a little bit more about how to problem-solve. MAJESTY OF DIVERSIFICATION Potthast s business experience includes some years in advertising production for Time Warner, where he managed large budgets for shooting video and motion film. It s smart for business to be able to do a little bit of commercial work in addition to portraits, he says. I love the fact that I can be in the studio one week and then have some good commercial jobs come up. I don t know what I would do if I was always at one or the other. I think I d lose my mind if I was out in the field all the time, and I think I d probably lose my mind if I was in the studio all the time, too. I d feel like I m just driving a computer for a living. Potthast is now working toward earning a PPA master of photography degree. Out of that effort was born Her Majesty, a project inspired by a book from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., that his father had kept close at hand in his studio. (See Her Majesty: An Ode to Dad, right.) The HER MAJESTY: AN ODE TO DAD When you looked at Michael Potthast s image on the cover of this issue, you might have imagined there s a story behind it. There is. Potthast is the fourth generation in a dynasty of photographers and artists in numerous mediums. His late father, William Bill Potthast, was stirred by the classic compositions of the old masters. Potthast remembers an art book his father kept in the lobby of his studio to illustrate classic portraiture. He was quite the artist himself, but he always referred back to pieces of art, not necessarily for photography but portrait art and the sense of paintings, says Potthast. That book, from the National Gallery of Art, was an inspiration to young Michael. The reproduction of Portrait of a Lady by Rogier van der Weyden on its cover became the artistic seed of Potthast s series, Her Majesty, fulfilling a long-brewing desire to honor his father. I always told myself I wanted to create a really good classical portrait, not exactly matching that shot but in the same flavor of what I did with Her Majesty, he says. I created it with that book cover in mind. That particular book was one that he always used when he was talking to students, other photographers, or even his clients, he says. He d bring them in and show how composition works. It s one of those images that s always been in front of me growing up, and it was one that I thought would be a neat way to remember him by.

One of the things about our industry is that photography, the product itself, what we re selling to our clients, is very subjective.

6 THE PORTRAIT PRINCIPLES A successful approach to portrait photography, says Michael Potthast, must focus they want to do with it from there. I think client and then letting them decide what down to the granular level. Here are some that s been important for how we ve been tenets on which he relies: successful in our portrait business. KNOW YOUR GEAR. You absolutely READ SUBJECTS ASTUTELY. We have to know the equipment, lighting, everything, 100 percent. You ve got to be comfort - and the next time we have a lineman. You can be working with a doctor at one point, able with the technology so you re at ease to handle them differently. Being able to pick work with a client, and you can start focusing on the people. When you go on the shoot, is important if you re going after a look that up on certain things and their comfort level the last thing you want to worry about is feels natural to them. I remember going to your gear. That should all be second nature. seminars and the speaker would say, We TAKE A DIVERSE TACK. It s never say the word smile in the studio. become a motto around here that we do It s a bad word. I think that s silly. Most something different on each shoot, trying to people naturally want to smile. Smile in capture a little bit of everything for the my studio is not a bad word. book s cover features a portrait by Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden. My father got me in the business, and I grew up on his coattails, he says. There was a piece of me that was still missing him. Potthast continues to build on his stateof-the-art still- and motion-photography studio, which has 7,000 square feet of shooting rooms and a 3,000-square-foot photo lab and production house. When asked if his two daughters, Olivia, 11, and Isabelle, 8, will follow in his footsteps, he intimated that a fifth generation of photographers is not out of the question. Why stop now? he says. I m working with Olivia on a science fair project. We re comparing film to digital, and we re using the 4x5 camera to shoot some sheet film. She has her own camera, and she shows a lot of natural ability.

KNOW YOUR GEAR. You absolutely READ SUBJECTS ASTUTELY. We have to know the equipment, lighting, everything, 100 percent. You ve got to be comfort - and the next time we have a lineman.

7 One of the things about ourindustry is that photography, the product itself, what we re selling to our clients, is very subjective. That s where the communicationpart of it is so critical, because we re not selling nuts and bolts. I want her to be able to make that decision without a lot of influence from me, but I definitely see where she s got a knack for doing it, he says. I don t remember my father ever pushing photography on me. It was something that I always just looked up to him for and loved what he was doing. Michael Potthast s work can be found online at potthaststudios.com. Will Pollock of Stone Four Media is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Atlanta.

I want her to be able to make that decision without a lot of influence from me, but I definitely see where she s got a knack for doing it, he says.

City of San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society P.O. Box 875, San Bernardino, CA 92402

City of San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society P.O. Box 875, San Bernardino, CA 92402 LIBRARY NEWS JULY 2012 By Richard D. Thompson, Librarian For the July newsletter, we have another article by