Alan Klehr

By Courtney in Photographers on Jun 30, 2009

Excellent Principal Photographer

Principal photographer Alan Klehr has been involved in the industry for over two decades, doing photography work for corporate clients and assignments for hundreds of magazines. Alan was kind of enough to answer some questions for us recently.

For more information on Alan and his photography, please visit his website

Having 25 years of photography experience, can you remember the one defining moment where you knew this was going to be your life career?

Sometimes choosing the wrong path can help you decide the right way to go. For me, I was just a few years out of college, and I was working as a writer. I was considering grad school in architecture and took the GRE and had filled out my application to Yale. Just as I was about to send it off, it dawned on me that I loved the visual arts and that was a better fit for me. I had been dabbling in photography for many years, but this was the first moment where I had ever really considered it as a career. From that point on, I set about to teach myself photography and never looked back.

Since you have been in the industry for such a long time have you, at any point, found yourself uninspired or perhaps bored with photography?

Sure there were times when my career stalled or work was hard to come by--but it was never because photography had become boring. Sometimes i just needed to refocus myself or try harder to be creative. To me every job offers a challenge, there is always something new--a new person, a new location, some difficult environment--so no matter what I was shooting, I always felt I learned something from the job. I think if a photographer takes the attitude that he/she knows it all and can do everything, then they will surely get bored with their work.

You have worked extensively with well known corporate clients such as; Coca Cola, American Express and Sprint, how did you first become involved with corporate photographic assignments?

Early in my career I lived in New Hampshire and was doing mostly weddings, portraits and small town work. Since there weren't too many corporations in my area, I made a point of contacting most of them directly. A few took the bait and gave me work, but this was the exception. For the first half of my career, the vast majority of my work was for editorial clients; it was exciting, challenging, and dependable work, but the pay was on the low end of the scale, even for the national magazines I was working with. The one big advantage, however, was that I would often meet a PR/Communications person with the company I was shooting at for the magazine. Invariably, they would ask if I was available for assignments, and they would take my card. I became involved with many of my best corporate clients this way.

What was it about corporate photography that attracted you in lieu of being a portrait or studio photographer?

I really enjoyed their professional attitude. They were accustomed to working with other professionals in all different fields, so I was treated just like any other professional vendor. There was a high level of respect, and this included their attitude of paying fairly for good photo work. Too often when working with the general public shooting portraits or weddings, these people rarely deal with professional photographers so are often shocked when you want to charge them a fair price for your services. Another big factor was their willingness to send me across the country or around the world to get the images they needed.

Your portfolio contains photographs over everything from architecture to portraits. Do you have a favorite subject to shoot? Why?

As I mentioned earlier, I find a creative challenge in everything I shoot, but if I had to pick one area that I enjoy the most it would be travel photography. Especially when the client is picking up the tab for my travel. First off, I love to travel and visit different cultures. Second, I really like not being burdened with lots of lighting equipment; when I travel it's just a few bodies, some lenses, and a tripod. Trying to capture the essence of a city or a culture photographically is something that really excites me. Somehow, when I am wandering with a camera it seems to force me to look more closely at my environment and this enhances my level of enjoyment of my journey.

Your portfolio has a vast collection of photographs from many genres, do you have a stand-out favorite?

While travel photography is a great love of mine, my other favorite type of photography would be environmental portraiture. I did this work almost exclusively for many years, mostly in conjunction with my editorial work. I would be sent out to some corporate headquarters with instructions from the photo editor get vivid, dynamic, heart-stopping images--unfortunately, it was often a situation with four white plasterboard walls and flourescent lighting. This is when my creative juices really needed to get into gear. I would tour the facility, then put on my thinking-cap for ten minutes, and come up with one or two strong images. At this point, the hard part was over. Setting up the lights and actually taking the photos was the easy part--coming up with the idea is why I was being paid the big bucks (I wish).

In the photography industry, portfolios are an important part of getting new work. In your opinion, how would one go about putting together an extraordinary portfolio?

I have to admit, I probably show a "physical" portfolio no more than once a year--everything is web site and digitally delivered. Nevertheless, I guess all the same rules apply. First, show the work YOU want to do and you do well. Don't put in food photos (even if they are nice) if it's something you really don't enjoy or care to shoot. Show work that you are passionate about, it will be ten times easier to sell yourself and your work if you really, really care about it. Try to limit the portfolio to one or two types of photos, you don't want to confuse the viewer or water-down the impact with five different types of images. Also, there is an old saying that a portfolio is judged by the weakest image. With this in mind, don't put any "maybe" or "almost good enough" images in there, it will show the viewer that you dont have enough great images to fill out even a basic portfolio. It's better to show fewer images, all of them winners, and leave them eager to see more.

Many of your photos focus on the City of Chicago. What was it about this City that attracted you so strongly and are there other locations that you love to photograph?

Like most large cities, it's always changing. Regardless of how many thousands of images I have shot, there is always something. Case in point--many of my skyline images are now out of date with the addition of the enormous Trump Tower that was just completed. I have a deep appreciation for great architecture, and there is no city in America that embodies the history of architecture like Chicago. From the early days of the skyscraper to world's tallest building (ooops, not any more) Chicago has it all, and is an incredible place to photograph. It's also known as a city of neighborhoods, dozens and dozens of them, each totally unique in ethnic persuasion, culture, and architecture--what a gold mine for photograph. And then there's the lakefront; about 20 miles of parks, beaches, people, and photographic possibilities.

You have a book coming out in August, "America the Beautiful: Chicago" which features your photography. Can you tell us what this book will feature and besides contributing your work, were you involved with the book in any other way?

The book is a tourist-focused coffee table book covering many of the popular themes of the city: architecture, neighborhoods, ethnic diversity, history, leisure activities, museums, famous buildings, etc. I think they did a good job of show a nice cross-section of the city in one book. I also helped them with the captions. They are based in Canada, and sometimes to difficult to get all the captions right when you are so far away, especially with things changing so quickly. So I did my best to get the facts correct.

You have handled assignments for over two hundred magazines. Are there any magazines or publications that you would like to work with that you have not yet had the opportunity?

I've sold stock to Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, and National Geographic Traveler, but never sent on assignment for them; I would love to do this, especially because they all have such a high caliber of images. I would also love to shoot for some of the top notch food/life style magazines like Gourmet, Saveur, and Food & Wine.

You have stated that you prefer to sell your work via the internet instead of through exhibitions. Why do you have such a preference?

I'm not really sure, but I never put any effort into arranging an exhibition. If a gallery approached me with interest in showing my work, I would jump at the chance, but it has never been a high priority for me. Over the last eight years, I started selling my work online and this was new for me, having never sold my work as "fine art" before. The Internet is so convenient to publicize my work, so I just wait for people to contact me. I often think about having a show, and maybe one day I will actually start working on it.

What do you feel are the two most important technical elements involved in shooting a good photograph?

I would have to say composition and lighting, be it natural or artificial. And I think those two elements are often closely related--a strong composition is greatly enhanced by dramatic lighting, or in some cases, very flat lighting.

What would you say is the biggest piece of advice to help one improve their photography?

I am self-taught and most of my instruction came from looking at the best photographs I could find and then try to duplicate the look, usually in terms of lighting. Always aim high, never try to duplicate mediocrity. And when I say "duplicate", I don't mean to copy someone's exact image, merely to learn from it, either by the lighting, composition, subject matter, overall feel, etc.

As our country is currently going through hard economic times, do you feel that the photography industry is taking as much of a hit as other industries? Is this an industry that aspiring photographers should be pursuing at the moment?

Yes, photography is definitely suffering right now...I feel it, and most other photographers I know are feeling it. We are so closely interelated with advertising, magazines, and corporate success, it would be foolish to think we aren't noticing a pinch in business. If someone is passionately involved with photography, then yes, they definitely should be pursuing this profession. Work might be hard to come by for a while, but when the economy turns around, you will be in position to take advantage in the wealth of assignments. If you can't get paying jobs now, stay busy...shoot stock, personal projects, donate your work for non-profits...when the economy improves you will have a large body of new work to show, plus many new skills with which to compete in the marketplace.