Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Cherie Steinberg & Hedley Jones: Synergy
The creative partnership struck up by Cherie Steinberg and Hedley Jones has proven to be a match that makes for stunning photography and a thriving business
Early in her photography career, Cherie Steinberg was honored with a Canadian Council for the Arts award, which allowed her to travel the world. She was so enthralled by the sights and sounds of the road that she stayed on it for seven years. Then one day she says she had a “Forrest Gump experience” and decided it was simply time to go home. But she did so with an impressive portfolio of travel images and a clearer vision of how she wanted to proceed with her photography career. Steinberg first met her photographic partner Hedley Jones in Toronto where he was a multimedia artist and DJ at station CFNY-FM. “Deadly Hedley” became one of the city’s most loved radio personalities.
In 1996, recognizing the convergence of music and the Internet, Jones co-founded Canada’s first Internet broadcast station, the Virtually Canadian Broadcast Network. Throughout this time, Jones was shooting for several publications and an architectural firm.
Jones moved to Los Angeles in 2003 and partnered with Cherie who had preceded him to the City of Angels the previous year. Working under the nomenclature Cheriefoto, the transplanted Canadians have a client list ranging from Nikon to Disney to Random House, in addition to running a high-end portrait and wedding photography business. This dynamic duo proves that not only are two heads better than one, but in certain photography situations, two cameras are better than one.
Raised with film, Steinberg and Jones are now avid Nikon digital shooters. Steinberg began her career as a photojournalist at the Toronto Sun and received Canada’s equivalent of a National Endowment for the Arts award. She has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles magazine, Town & Country and other publications. Jones also got his start working for the Toronto Sun. After reinventing himself as a digital photographer, he joined Cheriefoto in 2003 and now is a partner. DPP: How do you work together?
Cherie Steinberg: I do the art directing, Hedley does the lighting, and then we both shoot pictures. We make it happen together.
DPP: How would you describe your combined style?
Hedley Jones: We’re both former film shooters from the old school. I’ve been a Nikon shooter since 1966, and Cherie went Nikon when she switched to digital. I have lenses from back then that I’m still using, like the 55mm macro on the D3. My photography background is in editorial magazine shooting and architecture. I did that in Toronto. Cherie’s background is world travel and working at the Toronto Sun. We knew each other up there, but didn’t start working together until we ended up here in Los Angeles. We just finished a huge job shooting a brochure for Nikon’s D700.
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