Working Inside the Box

There is no better feeling than being employed directly out of school, especially at that slightly “out of reach” studio on the top of your list. Four years at SCAD just to be thrown out into the world to fend for my needy self, and boy could it have been any better of an experience. My collegiate excommunication brought me smack dab in the middle of the New York City photo hub, working for the esteemed Pascal Dangin. For those unfamiliar with him, he is the owner of Box Studios, a “high-end digital photography and retouching studio that services the fashion and fine art industries.” Since 1996 the studio has accrued over 250 clients out of their NYC’s West Village location (not too shabby, huh?)

While they focus primarily on the photographic finishing and printing aspects, they have recently entered the video realm with top of the line Red cameras. The film department is actually finishing up the studio’s first feature length film to be showing in national theaters in the all-to-near future.

My job, as luck would have it, consists of retouching (and lots of it). Every day dozens upon dozens of projects flow in and out of the studio from the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel, Patrick Demarchelier, Terry Richardson, Steven Kline, Mario Sorrenti, Mark Seliger, Tom Munro, Craig McDean, Mario Testino, and the list goes on (you can clearly see my excitement). These campaigns are compiled, worked on, reworked, marked up, then reworked again and sent out to some of the biggest fashion clients in the industry. Also a long list — Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, iD, V, Allure, Interview, Elle, Self Service, Harper’s Bazaar, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Yurman, Prada… etcetera. While I’ve only worked at Box for a little over a month, I can already see myself developing as both a photographer and retoucher. They have an extremely well trained and well experienced staff who dedicate time throughout the day to train my eye and thought process. Otherwise there would be a lot of slip ups sent out undetected, and in the fashion world that is highly frowned upon (Think W’s cover of Demi Moore’s hip). Being here and working within multiple teams I’m able to realize why they are the best out there at what they do. It is because they start with extremely talented and accessible individuals who use a series of checks and balances so that no one person is taking on sole responsibility of one project. Rather each image can be looked at fresh from several different vantages that adhere to the same high level of perfection.

Check out the space in the pictures below, and you will quickly realize it’s modern charm and why I love working here…

My Lair

All images Copyright Deborah Berke and Partners