Interview: Annemiek ter Linden of Art + Commerce pt.1

Annemiek ter Linden_portrait

Photographer’s agent Annemiek ter Linden was born and raised in the Netherlands. After completing a degree in communications, she came to NYC in January 2000 and began her career in the world of photography with the Dutch photographers’ agency NEL. Base NYC had opened one year prior, and its Flemish-speaking Belgian designers gravitated toward the lovely and good-natured agent. Today, Annemiek works with powerhouse agency Art + Commerce, and represents Norwegian photographer Sølve Sundsbø.

B: How did you become interested in photography and being a photographer’s agent?
AtL: While I was studying in Amsterdam, I modeled and had a part-time job at a photographers’ agency called Solar. So I know quite a bit of photographers and had seen several aspects of the field. I finished my studies and moved to NYC to start working in advertising. After that I wanted to do something more creative, like working in set design for photo shoots. However, after 9/11 I had not worked for three months, and when NEL offered me a job in her NY office to represent photographers, I took it. I moved on to Walter Schupfer and then to Art + Commerce, where I worked with Taryn Simon and assisted Jimmy Moffat with Annie Leibovitz. A year later Sølve Sundsbø joined, and I now focus on him.

B: What is your typical day like?
AtL: It can be quite office-y. Lots of emails, phone calls, putting estimates together, negotiating budgets and contracts, overseeing some productions, putting together portfolios, keeping up with models, hair, makeup styling, assisting the photographer, coming up with the right team for each shoot. Sometimes I attend shoots, but then I basically do the same thing, just not from behind my desk.

B: Is it necessary for a photographer’s agent to have an affinity for photography? Why or why not?
AtL: Of course, you have to be able to map out a market for the work. It’s a lot easier if you actually respect the work of the photographer you take care of as well. It’s even better if you respect the person on top of that.

Solve Sundsbø_Smoking Woman

B: Sølve Sundsbø is highly accomplished. Has negotiating with clients therefore gotten easier due to his being in such demand?
AtL: No, it actually has not since there is more money involved and more “important” people with opinions. Young photographers are happy with anything, and so there is not as much back and forth. They don’t necessarily travel first class, the budgets do not need to be stretched every single time, and they can deal with one or two elements not being exactly they way they had imagined them to be. With more established photographers every detail matters, as it should. But it does make negotiating more complicated, and you need to really monitor what you can be lenient about and what is a deal-breaker.

B: Did you ever suggest to Solve to shoot something blindfolded?
AtL: I lbelieve his wife should ask him that!

B: How does a photographer’s agent help to guide a photographer’s career? Targeting clients? Laying out the portfolio to appeal to certain sectors?
AtL: Yes. Thinking of who your ideal clients would be, and figuring out how to get them. Exposing the right people to the work of your photographer. Producing the right editorial to appeal to the clients you are after, as editorial gets used for inspiration boards for commercial projects. Strategizing on who to work with, introducing them to interesting people to work with.

Solve Sundsbø_Graphic Woman

B: Does Art + Commerce get involved in all aspects of a photographer’s career?
AtL: That’s different for each photographer. Sølve just had his first solo show, and I was involved in that and will be in future shows. We are organizing a new show now at Gun gallery in Sweden and Colette in Paris. There will also be a catalog to accompany this. I deal with the business side of things. Being involved in every aspect is the overall objective, since they all influence each other. Ideally these different disciplines a photographer moves around in all connect.

Stay tuned to part two of BaseNow’s interview with Annemiek next Monday.