There is no halitosis in the world Nancy Brown creates every day. Guys and girls are glad, grinning up close to each other, exuding health as they puff cigarettes. Women are eternally wrinkle-free and svelte. Even babies look clean, controllable and quiet.
”I`m interested in pretty. Prettier than real life,” said Brown who left the modeling world 11 years ago for the other side of the camera and a successful career as a commercial photographer in New York City. ”Some people do it to the far extreme of real. I`ll get things a little nicer, I hope, than what life really is.”
Brown`s photographs appear in ad campaigns for a long list of products that includes Maidenform, Coty Cosmetics, Kodak, L`Eggs pantyhose and Strawberry Shortcake dolls.
Brown, 48, who was in Chicago recently to speak to the local chapter of the American Socety of Magazine Photographers on how to break into commercial photography, has a soft but authoritative southern accent which reflects her Florida upbringing where New York clients noticed her skiing and swimming on the Miami beaches.
As a model, she was used in cigarette, liquor and Avon ads in the 1960s and early 1970s, and appeared in television ads and in such publications as Life, Look and Brides Magazine. But as she approached her late 30s, she started thinking about a new career.
”I had been modeling for 15 years, and that`s a long time for models to last.
”So I remember thinking, geez, what can I do? I had another five years in which to make money in the business. That`s when I decided on
photography.”
Brown studied herself long and hard before plunging into her field. She took aptitude tests at a New York college, and took courses to see if she had interests and abilities outside advertising.
”But every course I took and every test I took and everyone I talked to steered me right back into the advertising business.”
It took Brown five years from the time of her decision to become a photographer before she felt ready to show her portfolio to the ad agencies and art directors who knew her as a model.
”It took six or seven months before some of them would even try me out. They were skeptical.”
Brown credits having been a model in New York with helping her get her foot into the door. Beyond that first step, however, there has been hard work and talent.
”A lot of photographers can`t make that picture that can stand alone, that can be framed without any copy and still convey a feeling with a good, strong image. It`s an eye. You see things a little differently than everybody else.”
Brown said she often spends more time preparing for the shoot, than in actually shooting.
In addition to props and preparation, the photographer has to know how to manipulate light, an immensely technical skill.
Brown`s aversion to fashion makes her unusual in one way-most women commercial photographers in New York shoot fashion.
”I photograph people for advertising,” Brown said. ”And I am probably one of the few women around who do that. Most of them gear themselves for fashion, but I don`t like shooting clothes. I love shooting couples, men, kids.”
Being a woman in the generally male-dominated Madison Avenue world has been both an advantage and a disadvantage.
For example, women seldom shoot cigarette or liquor ads, and they are often called upon to take pictures of children, she said. ”I do a lot of kids, but I don`t push that because women get stuck in that.”
”I`m sure there are times when they (art directors and ad agencies)
think a woman doesn`t have the brains or the organization to get all the staff together to do a shoot,” Brown said. She usually organizes 15 people in her studio for a shoot, including stylists, hairdressers, cosmeticians, prop people, clients and art directors.
Brown`s Chicago representative, Doug Brooks, said that he has found that women in the business have to be twice as good as their male counterparts to be considered average. Brown agreed.
”If I thought about it a lot, I`d go crazy,” said Brown of the discrimination.
However, there are times when being a woman has been an advantage.
For example, she believes she was hired to do the Maidenform account because of her sex. The prior Maidenform ad campaign featuring a scantily clad woman showing up at sports events with the logo: ”The Maidenform Woman: You never know where she`ll turn up,” had been designed and shot by men. It had drawn objections from women`s groups.
