When I was a little girl in the 1970's, my mom would take me into work with her to the iconic publishing house of Conde Nast on Madison Ave in NYC. She worked in the general art department which oversaw all the magazines corrections and proofing. In case you don't recognize the name Conde Nast, a few of their magazines are Vogue, Glamour and Architectural Digest. I absolutely loved being there especially since my passion at the earliest age was art and drawing. The best part was when the one artist would call me in to watch him work on his light box. There, he would edit photographs by painting & airbrushing. What we know today as retouching. I remember this one time he worked on a cover shot of Jacqueline Smith, whom I adored from Charlie's Angels. She had a few blemishes, which i was shocked cause i thought she was perfect, and he removed them for a flawless finish. I was amazed!
Many many years later after graduating from the Art Institute of Philadelphia and working retail and cosmetics, I became a free lance makeup artist. I worked with many photographers and after working with John Tannock in Cherry Hill, he asked me to be his in house stylist as well as work production at his studio. After a few weeks of training in sales and production, the manager Mary, asked me since I had an art background if I would want to help with photo editing. She brought out the Light Box! Just like my days at the art dept at Conde Nast as a child. There, I was painting on the photographs to conceal and/or enhance for flawless images. Soon after, the industry changed from film to digital photography and I then learned and excelled in Photoshop. After having my daughter, I went back to free lance work to create my own hours. I worked for 4 different photographers as a digital retouch artist for many years as well as the start of our own studio.
It's truly incredible how our lives are shaped by the impact of those we meet along the way!
* image shown of my daughter, one of my favorite artistic creations in photoshop is black & white with selective color.
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