This is first part of a series about photographer couples, called “Two of a Kind.” Part one features Jenn Ackerman and Tim Gruber.
Go here to visit Ackerman Gruber Images.
VS: Please talk about your backgrounds.
“Jenn Ackerman started as a writer and quickly transitioned from the written word to photographic moment. She attended the Danish School of Journalism in 2006 and there discovered she wanted to make intimate and poignant images. Soon after returning to the states she attended graduate school at Ohio University. Her photographs have been recognized by Photojournalism Competition on Human Rights, Emerging Photographer Fund, the PGB Photo Award, the Honickman First Book Prize, Communication Arts Photography Annual, Photolucida’s 2009 Critical Mass Top 50 and others. Her most recent project, Trapped, was named Non-Traditional Photojournalism Publishing Project of the Year and the project’s short film won an Emmy.
Tim Gruber is a native of Minnesota where he grew up in a tiny town with a population of 554. Thanks to that small town in the famed Lake Wobegon region Tim had plenty of time to hone his childlike curiosity. Something he still carries with him everyday he’s out shooting. Tim attended the graduate program at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication. Tim’s photos and multimedia have been honored by the Communication Arts Photography Annual, The New York Photo Awards, Pictures of the Year International(POYi), The NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism(BOP), The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar and more.”
VS: Why did you decide to work together?
“Looking back it seems like a rather organic process and natural evolution of our relationship but at the time we did give it a lot of thought weighing the pros and cons. Clients started hiring us together so it became an easy transition for us from working as individuals to a team. Today we continue to do a mixture of team work and individual work, but really savor any opportunity to work together as a team.”
VS: Can you talk about your business plan?
“While we still consistently work for editorial clients, our business plan no longer relies on them. We’re tapping into markets that others (and even ourselves at one time) wouldn’t normally associate with documentary work. We recently completed a two-month project for a bakery that in the past we would of never thought would be a home for our work.
Everyone says it’s a hard time being a photographer, but being a creative has never been an easy task. It can be tough balancing what you love to do with the business of it. We believe there’s great value in what we do and are constantly seeking clients that understand and believe that.
This week we’re working on a proposal for a documentary that initially we were pursuing as a personal project, but in doing our research found an organization that recently received a $150,000 grant just for marketing purposes. So now we are talking with them about how we could both benefit from what we’re working to achieve. Not only does our work find a home, but we find a way to finance a personal project. Just a few years ago we would of never been proactive to pursue avenues beyond the newspaper world we knew. So now we spend a lot of our time reaching out to organizations we can collaborate with.”
VS: What kind of work takes of most of your time/resources?
“The commercial jobs we’ve been working on have been taking a lot of our time. Often when we land a client it is a one to two month long gig so we have to make sure we have to find a balance between their business and ours. Obviously, the pay beats anything the editorial market provides, but it also comes with a much bigger commitment. For example, this May we will be in Las Vegas for three weeks doing video and stills work for the Miss USA pageant. Again in the fall we will be out of the country doing the same work for the Miss Universe organization. The great thing is why are not shooting for those clients any different than we would shoot for ourselves.
Marketing and researching potential clients also takes a huge chunk of our time. We’re trying to make a valiant effort to personally connect with people rather than just being another postcard that ends up in the trash or an email blast that adds more clutter to their day. Obviously, we still do the bigger promo campaigns, but we’re also making a very concerted effort to develop realtionships. We’re strong believers in building relationships. We are also trying to find new clients (businesses and nonprofits) that can really benefit from our storytelling team approach.”
From “Behind The Crown: Chasing the Title of Miss.” (Tim Gruber)
From “Behind The Crown: Chasing the Title of Miss.” (Jenn Ackerman)
VS: Do you have time for personal projects?
“When you’re a freelancer, you quickly realize it’s not about if you have the time it’s about if and how you make the time. Personal projects are something near and dear to both of us so we have had to be proactive about making the time. In the next couple months, we have two personal projects we’re traveling to shoot so we’re pretty excited about that.
We are also launching a new magazine called Duet which will be the home for our personal projects and thoughts on photography. It basically going to be an analog platform for our blog and website but it is a much more leisure and relaxing experience. We can’t talk enough about how invigorating it has been to build our own home for our projects. It’s been so incredibly freeing and has us brainstorming ideas for future projects and issues of the magazine.”
VS: What were your expectations coming in? Were those met?
“A couple of years ago our expectations of being a freelance photographer were not being met, financially and personally. So we stepped back and decided we needed to define how we were going to make a living doing what we love to do and create a business model that allows us to continue to love it. We’re still building on our expectations of this new model, as we didn’t know what to except since we were embarking on something completely new to us. But so far so good. We are enjoying working together and are finding that we are building something that is hopefully sustainable for the future.”
VS: How has being married affected your business?
“It allows us to be brutally honest with one another which sometimes we have to be careful with. We have more long-term goals now and more accountability on holding each other to those goals. Those things in life that extend well beyond a photograph are now part of those goals like having a family.”
VS: What advice do you have for other people wanting to try the same thing?
“Just do it. For every person that tells you to do it there will be at least two that warn you of its dangers. In the end, we have found so much joy and success in working together so we are glad we didn’t listen to those people. You need to follow what feels right to you as a couple. Sure there are days where it’s hard, but we couldn’t do it any other way now. You must also truly respect each other’s vision and work. We really love each others work and are inspired by one another so we don’t feel like one person outshines the other. We both can hold our own but as a couple we spur each other on to be even more.”
The continuous withdrawal of mental health funding has turned jails and prisons across the U.S. into the default mental health facilities. The system designed for security is now trapped with treating mental illness and the mentally ill are often trapped inside the system with nowhere else to go. Here, Anthony Rosario stares out of the cell he remains in for 23 hours a day. “They are rejects of society and warehousing them in prison isnt the way to go. Most of them dont have life sentences – they will get out some day.” says psychologist Dr. Tanya Young. “What do they do when they get out? There needs to be something else to absorb them or take them in,” she adds. (Jenn Ackerman)
VS: What would you do differently in the process?
“Early on we took on work out of the need to work rather than a long-term approach to our work. We quickly realized that we didn’t want to continue down the path where we were devaluing our talents and we made a definite shift in our approach. We wish we would have written our business plan a little earlier too. It was the best thing we did. Now, in order to keep ourselves on track, we hold bi-monthly mini workshops just for the two of us. We also moved slowly in the beginning because of fears and not sure how people would respond to us as a couple. So we wish now we would have jumped right in and started marketing ourselves as a team.”
VS: What is the biggest challenge of working together?
“Being together all the time and making an effort to separate work and our personal lives has to be the hardest part. When we were working on our prison project, we quickly realized our boundaries when working together. Meaning, both of us need space during the day so we have figured out how to make that happen. We maintain separate work spaces which is a huge help.
We also can’t be as selfish about our own ideas and careers. This is not necessarily a challenge but something you definitely have to be aware of when teaming up with someone (especially someone that you know you are going to be working with for a long time). We now think about things in terms of a team instead of what benefits us as individual photographers. This requires a shift in your thinking because so often our work is our name and visa versa. We have found that some decisions can be a little more complicated but definitely more fruitful.”
VS: How do your separate personal visions work together?
“Tim’s work is based on curiosity and personal exploration and Jenn’s work is based on documenting social issues and seeking justice. This balances us out. Tim reminds us to be in the moment and Jenn reminds us to have purpose in our work. When we work on project together we take a bit from the other’s book and create a body of work that is we think is seamless.”
Buck Carrio tees off at the free public course in Quartzsite, AZ. Golfers use only one club to play the desert course. (Tim Gruber)
VS: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
“Once we realized we didn’t need a publication defining who we were as photographers, our ideas of what we could do expanded. At the end of the day we just love being creative. Whether that’s through still photos, producing a film, or even designing a website, we found we just love to create.
Last year, we were feeling the need to reinspire and reevaluate where we were in our lives both professionally and personally. That spurred for us one of the best things we could have done as a couple – holding mini workshops for the two of us.
The workshops started as a two day exercise focusing fully on our creative, personal, marital, business, and spiritual growth. It may seem a little strange to throw a workshop for yourself, but for us it made a lot of sense and made for a great retreat. We loved it and we would recommend it for all creatives.
During these workshops, we listen to podcasts, read articles, watch short films, scribble out ideas, laugh, become frustrated and fill out marketing plans. We dig at what makes us tick, question ourselves and believe more than ever before in what we love. Basically we did things we’ve been meaning to do for awhile now, but never made it a priority. Now that we are married we decided to make it a priority for the health of both our personal and business relationship. At the same time, it gives us a chance to hash out what we truly want from our lives both in photography and outside of it. We love it so much, the workshops have become a part of our routine with each workshop having a different theme.
For the new year, we have decided to hold our first workshop in March for others free of charge to create a supportive and creative environment for those around us. Longing for our days in grad school where we had film nights and late-night critiques, this will hopefully give others a chance to reconnect with dear friends and hopefully in the process reinspire everyone involved.”
