New Digs

Set


Office


Shelves

October 5th was my first day at the Goldstein Museum of Design as their senior photographer.
This job has been challenging for me on many levels.

Over past 7 years I have been working at the General Mills photography studios. In that time I became accustomed to working with a large crew of people, the newest equipment and all the resources I could ever need. The crew at the Goldstein is just me and the bare bones equipment I inherited from the last photographer. This week I learned to adapt to photographing in small spaces and to make due with the equipment I have. The first day was very hard for me; hauling all my own gear and setting-up without help or a cart to transport my stuff. Since we do not have a dedicated shoot space, everyday I must set-up and breakdown which can be tiring. I think a cart to move equipment with and weight lifting may be required in the future.

I was given the goal of photographing 15% of their collection in one year. That is 4,350 pieces to shoot in 96 days (it's a part-time job). It works out to be 45 pieces a day. Wow. My first day I did 12 pieces. Each piece is photographed at 4 views plus details shots. The image count at the end of the day totaled to 112 final shots. Yes I have a lot of Photoshop in my future.

I have my own office but unfortunately it is on a different floor away from the rest of my department. I do like having my own office though. I have one of the only windows that opens too. No one is in on Fridays so it's just me and Pandora working on files. It's kind of nice.

The Goldstein is trying to raise it's visibility within the school and community which will hopefully bring more money to the department. My job was made possible by a grant to help digitize their collection. The museum exists as a tool for design students so they can inspect and reference how certain objects are constructed. It is a also a good archive of the history of manufactured design.

ps Please forgive the camera photo images. They are trying their best.