We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Peter Acker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Peter, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The Heart Gallery is a nationwide project with regional, independent branches. It was started by a photographer in New Mexico who saw the failings of the foster care and adoption system, in part due to the mug shot style snapshots of children entering the system. Her idea was to recruit professional photographers to showcase the personalities of the kids and create a mobile gallery that could be placed in strategic areas like libraries and churches. I was recruited by the president of The Heart Gallery of Sarasota around 2006 and have been shooting for them ever since, attending dozens of adoptions that were the direct result of potential parents seeing those pictures, and for a few years taking the helm of the organization when we were between leaders. My role now is mostly in recruiting photographers on a case by case basis as well as photographing kids and adoptions when I’m able. As the song goes, children are our future, and I believe helping these kids find good homes sets them on the road to be great adults.
Peter, 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?
In January 1993, my father died at the age of 58, and it forced me to reevaluate my life. During a visit to my sister in Florida in March of that year, I made a few connections and the following Christmas I was able to stay in Florida for an extended period, during which time I met a studio owner whose main business was corporate travel photography. After seeing photo albums from trips, he had worked, like St. Bart’s, Hawaii, and Rome, Venice & Florence on the Orient Express, I thought, this is something that would fuel my passion!! For the next 2 years, I plugged away at a retail job whilst working on my portfolio and bugging the studio owner for a job at every opportunity, calling, stopping by, and mailing recent work to them. In 1996 that persistence paid off and I was offered my first assignment, an Incentive Award Trip to Silverado in Napa Valley. It was a fantastic experience, hot air balloon rides, horseback riding, mountain bike winery tours, and fancy dinners, plus gifts in the room each night. I was sold and I made it my mission to make this my full-time profession. The following year I was given 12 assignments including Rome with private Vatican tours and Hawaii for Pepsi’s 150th Anniversary of the brand, where I was assigned to one of the speakers for 2 days, Lady Margaret Thatcher, and where our headline entertainment was the Rolling Stones. During the financial crisis in 2008/9 travel work dried up and I started saying yes to everything that came my way, which is how today, about 30% of my work is food photography, for local and regional restaurants as well as editorial features. I also have a small studio and provide professional portraits there or on location. When it comes to event work, locally or worldwide, what I bring to the table is 26 years of experience facing pretty much every hurdle or challenge that can be thrown at you. This enables me to guide clients through all the potential pitfalls of an event and guide them through the best way to successfully execute the photography aspects of those events, from Step & Repeat placement to executing foursomes on the golf course, and everything in between.
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
Right now my only passive income related to my profession is Stock Images. I’ve built up a considerable stock library, mainly on Adobe Stock, consisting of a lot of food plus some travel and wildlife.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Aside from a degree of talent with the camera, a solid work ethic, and natural ability to problem solve, I’ve been made aware that my friendly, outgoing and caring nature is what made meeting planners remember me. I would always stop by hospitality desks to chat with the event staff, making small talk and offering to fetch them drinks or snacks if they were out. I have been told more than once by planners who reached out after the recession that I was the only one they really remembered, simply because of those interactions and small kindnesses.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.packerphoto.com – www.nomadwpg.com
- Instagram: @made.in.england.63 – @nomad.worldwide
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarasota.photographer – https://www.facebook.com/nomadeventphotography
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteracker/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nomadic941