We were lucky to catch up with Michael Grecco recently and have shared our conversation below.
Michael, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
I guess everything we do has some sort of level of risk to it. Without “jumping off the cliff at times,” you will never get the reward of breaking new ground. It might be trite to say it, but with no risk there is no reward. But it’s totally true – I am a big risk taker, and doing that means I have failed just as often as I’ve succeeded. I am sometime mired in regret over those failures, But the path forward is always picking yourself up and trying again. If you take the Buddhist approach to all of it, each failure was necessary to give you the lesson. I can tell you that I have learned a great deal of lessons.
Michael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
So, I have been a professional photographer since 1978, and yes, I started as a baby. LOL.
The first 13 years of my career were spent as a photojournalist, working initially as a “stringer” for the Associated Press. Then, in 1983 I got a staff position at the Boston Herald, the only newspaper at the time with five Pulitzer Prizes in photography. While at the paper, my work was picked up several times by People Magazine. From that, People then offered me a “staff” position and I decided to move to Los Angeles to work for them. Portraiture was always my passion, and I wanted to shoot celebrities. I went on to spend the remainder of my career shooting magazine covers and doing major advertising and editorial shoots.
Currently, I am focused on my own projects. The latest is my Punk music body of work that I shot at nights in clubs while living in Boston and working for the A.P. and the Herald by day. My latest showing for the “Days of Punk” project and traveling exhibition will be a two- person show with my wife and her project, “MONEYGAME.” I had always dreamed of having a partner I can share my life with in every way, and I now have that. I am a blessed man. We have our first show as husband and wife at the Leica Gallery in Los Angeles opening on Thursday September 14th.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
To begin with, you must have something that someone wants. Otherwise, it is always an uphill battle. But you also need to have something unique. The last thing you want to do is have a product or service that cannot be differentiated from the pack. Then, it’s a matter of doing all of the things that expose your audience to your product or service. Advertising and advertising photography is a good start. If you work with a good advertising photographer, they can help a client communicate their vision. You also must have a budget for photography, the ads, and to grow the business in general.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Every day is an adventure, and as we all know, nothing is just given to you. You have to create the business, and the life you would like to live. So, the most important thing is perseverance, perseverance, and perseverance. Everything else will come from there if you are determined to figure it out. As I mentioned above, I have failed many times and been told no, repeatedly. But you cannot quit, there is always someone out there that will understand your vision and help support you.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://Grecco.com http://DaysofPunk.com
Image Credits
All Punk Images by Michael Grecco/DaysofPunk.com Portrait of Grecco from 1978 by Michael Grecco/Grecco.com Portraits of Michael and Elizabeth by Heather Koepp/Rival Magazine