We recently connected with Keri Pickett and have shared our conversation below.

Keri, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My career started in 1983 with an internship at New York City’s largest weekly newspaper, called the Village voice. Working under legendary photo journalist, Fred Mcdarrah I learned my niche within the full range of stories happening in New York’s 1980s. People who strive to right a wrong are central to my storytelling. At age 50 I transitioned to filmmaking. Reportage is at the center of storytelling since 1983 I’ve worked as a photographer and author, highlighting stories of family community and those who are making a difference in the world, then I decided to become a filmmaker.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I grew up wanting to either run around outside barefoot or be inside painting. I discovered still photography and art history in college and These things made me want to excel.

My career started at the Village Voice, New York’s largest weekly newspaper, where legendary Photography Director Fred W. McDarrah gave me a press pass offering me a front row seat to the cultural capital of the world and I learned how to be a photojournalist.

In my thirties I took those skills to People magazine, the nations largest weekly journal, and I was a frequent contributor to the “front-of-the-book” doing human interest feature stories and environmental portraits with a strong emotional base.

In my 40s I paired with Horizon Organic where I spent a lot of years traveling around American documenting the hard work of families with dairy farms. In many ways this work was so liberating because I was able to take all my skills to focus on organic agriculture and real work, an exciting combination for me.

In my fifties I had a story to tell that led me to start to become a filmmaker in my forties and by age 54 I had my first feature documentary completed and I haven’t looked back as I make features focusing on people who are working to right a wrong or make the world a better place. I am into movers and shakers.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The only class I ever dropped in college was my first film class. I made my first couple short films, and my teacher said I showed promise but the whole venture seemed very expensive and I dropped out in favor of pictures with 36 frames on a roll vs 24 frames per second.

My uncle’s life example showed me that it is possible to become a photographer and so when I moved to New York City in my 20s his life path continued to inspire me and his company made it more fun.

His life continued to inspire me when decades later we ended up sharing a studio storefront building in Minneapolis where my uncle continued with his hobby of collecting memorabilia from the history of the great American touring ice shows. After years of telling filmmakers that his collection could form the basis of a good documentary on the subject I finally bought a camera and some editing software and I set out to teach myself how to tell this very important story. After filming interviews for a couple years I decided I better learn how to edit so I hired a graduate student at the University of Minnesota to come and start teaching me the basics.

I made a few short films on the path to figuring out how to push the clips into an emotional arc and then after eight years I released my first feature, premiering at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival and the film was released in 2013 on Netflix in 10 languages and was on the platform for five years. It is still available on Amazon and Vimeo on demand.

Family fabulousness led me to take a risk on an old desire and to prove that I may drop out but I can still tune in.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Minnesota is a unique state as it really supports it’s artists. As my career grew I could see that the most important work I could do was work that centered on my personal vision and that builds unique creative capital which is one of the cornerstones to building wealth. As my professional career has grown I have always taken care to grow my personal artists vision and so over the years I have published three books of my photography. With every artistic accomplishment I have learned that it is very important to work with a professional publicist who has relationships with the news media so the hard work can be amplified and people can participate and become a true supporter or fan of my work. So hard work and a PR person is my path to building my reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.keripickett.com/
• Instagram: @keripickett
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PickettPictures/
• Linkedin: @keripickett
• Twitter: @keripickett
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCop-sIYu8uGg3w8Hc_b-OCw

Image Credits
all photos © Keri Pickett