Throwback Thursday - Back to 1999

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by Skip Cohen
 
One spin-off benefit of the pandemic downtime has been cleaning out closets and opening mystery boxes. Each box has been the adult version of the free toy in a cereal box when I was a kid. Well, the matted print above is a definite treasure.

It was a surprise party for my 50th birthday at a restaurant just outside NYC. There were a whole bunch of my friends there, and these are two of my most favorite knuckleheads, who were in on the surprise, Tony Corbell and Terry Deglau. I shared a post last year when Terry passed away.

Here's the part that's brilliant and appropriate for many of you to start doing in your business. Bambi Cantrell was the photographer. She brought mattes to the party and had people sign them. She added their photographs and put them together in an image box later on, which at the time was an Art Leather product. The concept is stronger than just an album, because it adds another dimension to the photograph. Although, I don't know how this print got separated from the box, or even why. 

The industry lost Terry last year, but so many of you know and have worked with Tony. In fact, next week, he and I are having some fun on John Corniciello's podcast, and Terry will probably come up in a few of the stories we're going to share. 

Here's the point I hope I'm making this ThrowbackThursday - Don't let the pandemic and all the challenges in your life get in the way of remembering the magician you are as a photographer and artist. You turn intangible memories into tangible products people can cherish for a lifetime. That portrait of Tony and Terry is a perfect example of a priceless moment I can hold in my hands right now. While it isn't new, the product concept itself is an ideal way for you to exceed expectations with your clients.

I cropped out what Terry wrote, but the short version is that he referred to me as the "brother he never had." Over the years, we shared one adventure after another, and there are no words to describe how much a photograph like this means to me, or the memories it brings back. 

Happy Throwback Thursday!

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