Adam Long, Creative Director at Industry, (worked on Nike, Jordan, Facebook/Meta, Sony PlayStation, Yeti, The World Cup...).

Check out Adam’s sweet creative direction and filmmaking work on his portfolio site. It’s a great blend of clients and approaches.

I’m your host, Neil Binkley, Founder of The Personal Photography Project. We are a resource for art producers, photo editors and all creatives to discover photographers (and their licensable images) through their personal work.

A sampling of the different brands that he’s done work for, which can be seen on Adam’s portfolio site:

• Nike
• Jordan
• Facebook (now Meta)
• Sony PlayStation
• Yeti
• The World Cup
• Travel Portland

We discuss a bunch of talented photographers (click links to see their work):

• Peter Beard
• Kevin Fletcher’s photo book, Avenue of Roses (Lensculture article)
• Jeremy Cowart:
• Simone Lueck has a project about older ladies in Adidas
• Brian Hodges (soccer balls made of trash)
• Robert Atkinson (birds and AI generative art):
• Daniele Gasparini

Adam’s wonderful illustrations, that he posts to Instagram:

• Steadman-esque Illustration 
• Illustration that reminded me of a surreal Hitchcock

Not to mention, Adam’s award-winning, short films.

FYI: some podcast apps — I'm looking at you, Apple — cut off these show notes before the end. You can see all of the show notes on apps like Spotify or Overcast. OR, on our website: www.tppp.photo/podcast

In our discussion today, Adam and I talk about many things. If your podcast app shows chapters — well check ‘em out, because I added them! Otherwise, here’s a list of topics discussed, plus you can click on the timestamp to jump to that part of the interview (but OF COURSE, you’re listening all the way through the episode…):

[00:00:00] Adam Long: Bio

[00:04:18] Is Portland Still Weird?

[00:06:37] Faking it before you're making it

[00:07:19] Shooting 16mm vs Video vs DSLR Motion 

[00:08:58] Larger vs. Smaller Agencies

[00:10:08] Filmmaker to Art Director to Creative Director

[00:11:18] Mentored by former Wieden + Kennedy creatives

[00:12:19] Advertising that's fake

[00:14:39] Making travel ads for a "controversial" city

[00:17:12] How Adam works with photography and photographers

[00:23:47] He values a photographer's personal work

[00:26:18] The value of personal work, for any creative field

[00:30:03] Are printed things still valuable?

[00:32:11] Finding photographers on Instagram

[00:35:10] Is Photography being used more, less, or about the same as 5 years ago?

[00:36:30] Photographers who direct or DP as well?

[00:37:37] His Portfolio

[00:38:57] This interview is a little different than talking with Art producers

[00:42:36] Anything that he wishes photographers would do more of?

[00:43:50] Does he look at photographers' portfolios anymore?

[00:46:30] The variety of work he's done

[00:49:29] How often does his work end up on social?

[00:50:05] The power of video

[00:52:20] Memorable things on social media

[00:54:42] Does he like being contacted by photographers?

[00:55:18] How often is he in an office these days?

[00:56:49] Projects that stood out to him on The Personal Photography Project

[01:04:41] AI in photography

[01:08:19] Creatives are artists, too

[01:10:05] What he'd do, if not a Creative Director

[01:10:48] He's also a talented illustrator and filmmaker

Photopod is the official podcast of The Personal Photography Project. Check out our photographers’ personal projects!

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