Editing with Amy Wolff

We are talking to a range of photographers, photo editors, professors of photography, book designers and others about the physical process of editing images. Selecting, sequencing and laying out photographs - be it for a magazine, book, online site or gallery presentation - seems something of a mysterious process for many photographers and a process that seems perhaps hard to give words to. I haven't found much written about the process and that's exactly why I'm excited to see what comes up in this series.

We started the conversation with Rob Haggart, Ashley Kauschinger, Jeff Rich, Miska Draskoczy, Kevin WY Lee, Aya Takada and Jessica Dean Camp and Cole Don Kelley.

Today we continue the series with Amy Wolff.

Amy is the photo editor for Photo District News (PDN) and co-founder of CoEdit Collection, an online photography gallery. Amy grew up in Easton, PA, and after receiving a BA in Communications and Art History from Goucher College in Baltimore, she moved to San Francisco. After a short stint in advertising, she switched gears to become an employee of the federal government, working in a national park as the staff photographer and producer of art exhibits and public programs, and in her spare time shooting bands in exchange for concert tickets or free beer, and weddings that actually paid. Leaving her cushy government benefits behind, she moved to New York City in 2007 to pursue a career in photo editing. She began as a photo assistant at Fortune magazine. 

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fototazo: Tell us a little about yourself and what area of photography you work in.

Amy Wolff: I'm the photo editor at Photo District News (PDN), and I also run an online print gallery, CoEdit Collection.

The best part of working at PDN is that we need to know what's going on in ALL areas of photography. I contribute ideas for stories, help identify trends and issues in the photo industry and suggest sources for articles and interviews. My contributions are based on what I know about what's going on in the photo industry as a whole: I am in constant contact with photographers and photo industry folks (emails, meetings, portfolio reviews, openings, events).

One of my biggest roles is providing content for our photo blog, PDN's Photo of the Day (POTD). POTD's audience is much broader than the magazine. Simply put, it’s a place to celebrate great imagery, without regard to specific usefulness or story themes. I have discretion over the selection.

I also use our Instagram account to post promos we receive, which engage people on Insta, but also serves as a gallery of inspiration for other photographers. It gives the promos a permanent place to "live."

f: How do you select images to work with from a larger group? What criteria do you use?

AW: It really depends on what I'm editing, but the process is generally the same. I drop the image files into Bridge, and make a wide edit, marking images that I'm immediately drawn to with a star. Then I'll go back, sometimes a few times, to look at everything again (if I'm in a rush, admittedly, sometimes I miss things), and then narrow down the selection again, adding and deleting stars. I look for a mix – like this Photo of the Day example.

Rob Hammer let me pick any of the photos from his 120-page book, Barbershops of America. I looked at geographical locations, tight shots, pulled back shots, details, single portraits, group portraits, action shots vs. posed, etc.

f: Talk with us about how you begin to organize and sequence the images that you have selected in relationship to each other - as well as to text if there's text.

AW: In PDN (the print magazine), the editing process is much more concrete. We usually show images specifically referenced in the text, but if there's extra room on the page or in the expanded galleries published online, I pick images that complement the story, show variation and show the range of the artist's series or portfolio.

f: How do you consider the balancing of formal qualities in the photographs with the content/narrative of the series as a whole as you select and sequence a series?

AW: For magazine editing, I consider everyone's roles, including my own: the photo editor is responsible to please his/her own personal taste, more-or-less, the art director's need for images that work with the text and page design and the editor's needs for the images to complement the story they wrote. It's a balancing act.

f: What are common issues, problems and questions that unfold for you during the process of laying images out?

AW: Oh man, well, there is never enough room for photos. Magazines seem to have fewer and fewer editorial pages these days. 

This is a common issue for us: if we run larger images, there's fewer room for them (and text). If we run a lot of photos, the photos run small. What works best? What tells the best visual story?

f: How do you know when a layout is done?

AW: Photography and art, in general, is subjective…so I think a layout is done when everyone involved, on both the edit and design side, is (at least relatively) happy with the layout for all of their various reasons.

f: What are common mistakes you see in editing?

AW: That photographers make? That editing is not always taken seriously. Editing makes or breaks a single image story or larger photo story.

I think photographers can get attached to certain images for personal reasons instead of what is best for their overall portfolio. Sometimes you need to let go of that image you love if it doesn't fit with the rest. It's always a good idea to have someone else help with editing – someone not personally connected to the work.

f: Finally, what is the best advice you’ve ever gotten about editing?

AW: To trust my instincts.

Publisher Q&A2: Conor Risch, Senior Editor of PDN

Last year we posted a "Publisher Q&A" series, featuring 12 short interviews with a range of publishers on their presses and sites and the state of the publishing market (see the site links page for links). It was a popular series, and we've decided to add another 12 entries to the series with more extended questions.

The first four posts of this second series were with Éanna de Fréine of The Velvet Cell, David Schoerner of Hassla Books, Luca Desienna of Gomma Magazine Ltd., Hannah Watson of Trolley Books, Curt Holtz, Photography Editor of Prestel Publishing, Aline Smithson of Lenscratch, Harsha Vadlamani of Galli Magazine and Heidi Romano of Unless you will.

Today we continue with Conor Risch, Senior Editor of Photo District News.

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Publication: Photo District News
Location: New York City
Format: online and print

fototazo: What is the back-story on how PDN formed?

Conor Risch: PDN is an acronym for Photo District News. The publication was founded 33 years ago as a local photo industry broadsheet covering the latest news in New York's "Photography District," which was located in Manhattan's Flatiron District. The publication’s founder, Carl Pugh, sold PDN to AdWeek in 1984, and it eventually grew into what it is today: an award-winning monthly trade magazine and website with both national and international subscribers.

f: What are the particular strengths of what PDN publishes and how the magazine approaches publishing? What separates it from other publishers?

CR: Our focus is one of our strengths, and one of the things that separates us from other publishers. PDN has a very specific mission—giving professional photographers, working in all photographic genres, information that will help them grow their businesses and flourish in a highly competitive photo market. This specificity means we can approach our work with a clear sense of what our readers want and value. The technology, methods, tools and creative languages that define photography can and do evolve, but our goal of being an indispensable resource for professional photographers hasn't changed.

Another thing that I'd like to think separates PDN from other magazine publishers is that our readers seem to really value having the magazine in print. Print magazines have been such an integral part of the history of photography, and I think, personally, that photographers will continue to value print for the foreseeable future.

f: What is your process for deciding what to publish at PDN?

CR: Through research and conversations with photographers, clients, editors, agents, gallerists, curators and other members of the photography community, the editorial staff looks to identify the current opportunities, challenges, ideas and innovations that are shaping the way photographers create their work and run their businesses. It's a collaborative process, and the final decision on whether or not we go ahead with a story rests with our editor, Holly Stuart Hughes. Then we go out and speak with photographers and other sources whose experiences can help us shape narratives that our readers will find useful and applicable to their own businesses. Beyond that we look for creative, innovative and inspiring work being done by photographers all over the world, and we try to highlight that work.

Each of the editors has departments or columns they edit or write regularly. I work on "Exposures," the section in the back of the book in which we cover photographers' long-term projects. I also often edit or write for the "Create" section, in which we focus on the advertising business. For "Create" we profile clients and write about trends within the advertising market that are influencing, or being influenced by, photographers.

f: How would you describe the contemporary edition of PDN - both in print and online - compared with its own past as well as with the general current context?

CR: As I mentioned above, the core mission of PDN and PDNOnline remains consistent with its past. Early on, PDN was focused primarily on commercial photography, but as photographers diversified their businesses, PDN diversified its content to meet their needs, and now regularly covers fine-art print sales, the gallery world, and photo book publishing. In recent years we've evolved our coverage as the industry has changed, addressing topics like video, multi-platform advertising campaigns, social media marketing and other trends as they apply to photographers.

f: How do you view the contemporary landscape of photography magazine - on and offline - as a product and as a market in relation to its history? How have they responded to evolutions in the market to reach their current forms?

CR: The ranks of people who have a serious interest in making photographs and communicating visually are obviously growing exponentially and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The potential audience for photography publications and photography related content is expanding in turn, which is positive. We see this reflected in the proliferation of photography websites, blogs, forums and the like, which make the market for photography content both stronger and more competitive. People like to look at work and read about photography in different ways. Some prefer print, some prefer the web; others prefer tablets or rely on social networks. Publications are responding by communicating and promoting their work via all of these channels.

And while the increase in the number of people making photographs and interested in photography is great in many ways, it has put a lot of pressure on professional photographers, who have to deal with this ludicrous "everyone is a photographer" notion, which has led a lot of people to think of photographs as highly expendable, free, etcetera. I think our challenge and opportunity is to recognize and promote the idea that in a market inundated with imagery, the work of professionals has more value, not less, because theirs are the images that stand out and engage this growing audience for photography.

f: What has been your highlight in working with PDN?

CR: It's always a great pleasure to work on the PDN’s 30 issue each year. In that issue, which comes out every May, we profile 30 emerging photographers, whom we select from 300-plus applicants nominated by PDN editors and people throughout the photography industry. It's great to connect with people in the industry and find out who they’re working with and watching; to see the work of so many photographers during our weeks-long evaluation process; and to have a chance to interview and write about a few photographers for the issue. I have been at PDN for five years and worked on five of these issues, and hearing about the influences, hard work and aspirations of emerging photographers remains inspiring.

f: What are the next steps for the magazine?

CR: To press on. We’ll continue to evolve our coverage in step with the professional photography market. We'll advocate for and celebrate the work of professional photographers. And we'll continue to improve how we distribute our work in print and digitally.