Published photo of Hunch in LaPresse by Jeffrey Holmes, corporate portrait photographer New York
The assignment from LaPresse, a french newspaper and web organization in Montreal, requested a corporate portrait in an environmental style for a feature article on the New York web development scene. The assignment was to photograph Chris Dixon and George Duverger of Hunch in their New York office. Upon arrival, I was first taken with the music playing throughout the space. For a moment I thought I had misplaced my Ipod because what I heard was classic rock. This was a bit out of place for a band of 20 and 30 something web techs! Chris remarked somethin of the effect of, “It all comes around sooner or later.”
I scouted the location for the best setups and then went to work assembling my lighting. Grids and Grid boxes are my favorite lighting modifier. As I toured their offices, the Hunch logo on the wall and the work area of the programmers struck my interest as the best setups.
Georges Duverger, designer/developer and Chis Dixon, co-founder of Hunch at theri offices in New York. Hunch helps web users make and discover great recommendations that are customized to their tastes.
Here is the final image selected for publication. Click on it and you can see the best of the entire portrait assignment from this corporate photographer in New York.
Translated and adapted from an article in LaPresse, Montreal, Canada.
Frenchman, Georges Duverger worked for a few years in Montreal then felt the call to find a new horizon. He contemplated Silicon Valley, Toronto… He finally decided finally upon New York, which accomodated with the beginning of the year. He now works for the Hunch.com web site.
It was a good web developer environment. It had access to an Internet site that helped it to be integrated into the technological scene of the city. Adoptahacker.com (literally: “adopt a pirate”) was created for people who come to work in the metropolis. “Impassioned members of the community open their house with the talented technophiles” which come “to taste” the technological scene of New York. Georges Duverger found a place there, where to live at the time of its first days in the city, then a friend to make known to him the various events intended for the community techno. It also unearthed a joint tenant there. “I like much of the city, says as he sat at the bar of the Ace Hotel. A place which gathers all that New York counts of technological workers. Culturally, I feel more close to New York than California.”
One can say that while settling in New York, he gained the first prize. He works today with a “band of engineers of MIT” sheparded by Chris Dixon, a contractor and well-known investor in his field. “The team around Hunch is extraordinary,” he says. I learn more quickly than I would learn in Montreal. For the first time of my life, I have an owner who is able to push to the maximum.” It’s owner, Chris Dixon, which he praises of young the 26 year old developer. He recruited as if he were still in Montreal.
“He is an excellent programmer who has a good sense of the design. It is rare to have both”, he says. He admits that he pains more and more to find developers of talent in New York. “We all are in competition for the best.” He is not the only one to complain about the shortage of manpower. Brooke Moreland, who launched her site, Fashism, two years ago has the same sentiment.
