Advisory board members
Cathy Aron
Cathy Aron is the Executive Director of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA). She has been actively involved in the stock photo industry for over 30 years and was formerly the president of Photo Network Stock, a very successful general stock photo rights managed archive, which is now owned by Grant Heilman Photography. Cathy has been a speaker/panelist for numerous industry meetings and events and has presented classes on copyright protection at several colleges in California. Cathy was also a founding leader of the Imagery Alliance, a coalition of professional visual arts trade associations formed to advocated and educate for the protection of copyright and related interests.
Lynn Brantley
Biography to follow shortly.
Patrick Donehue
Patrick Donehue has specialized in the production, marketing and management of stock photography since 1982. Well known as an industry expert, Patrick is a frequent lecturer on the creative and business aspects of stock imagery. He is the former president of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) and sits on the executive board of the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS). He’s also a member of the President’s Council at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and is on the Advisory Board of Microsoft’s Icons of Imaging. Patrick serves on the faculty of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and has been an instructor at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops since 1998. He has most recently served as the VP/Chief Photographer of Bill Gates’ Corbis Corporation. Prior to joining Corbis, Patrick was a VP/Director of Photography at Allstock, Tony Stone Images and Getty One (now Getty Images).
A professional photographer since 1977, Patrick has photographed in over 20 countries and his images have been used worldwide by clients such as General Electric, Motorola, Nissan and Jim Beam. He has taught workshops and seminars in major markets throughout the world including Japan, China, France, Germany, Italy, U.K. and Singapore. As a consultant, Patrick specializes in business plan development, portfolio creation, and establishing image distribution networks for photographers and photo agencies.
Shannon Fagan
Shannon Fagan, first became interested in photography during days spent in high school in Memphis, Tennessee. After pursuing photography and fine arts studies at The University of Memphis, he moved to New York City in 2000, and has worked in lifestyle and portrait imagery since. In 2002, Photo District News recognized his work in PDN’s 30 photographers to watch, for a personal series of photographs that he completed on Doormen at work on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Shannon’s work has been published in the Communication Arts, Photo District News, Print’s Regional Design, and American Photography Annuals. Awards include a Gold Addy in the NY Addy Awards, a Shortlist Clio Award, and an NEA Creative Grant together with the Houston Center for Photography. Clients include The New Yorker, Newsweek, The New York Times, Discover, and Business week. He has also completed commissioned ad work for BMW, The United Way, Verizon, Nikon, and Intel. He is President of the Stock Artists Alliance.
Sarah Fix
Sarah Fix, Creative Director of leading multicultural stock photo agency Blend Images (Seattle), began her image library career in 1993 as an Account Executive and eventually as Managing Photo Editor at Westlight (Los Angeles). In 1998, she joined Corbis (Los Angeles) in a senior editing and art direction position, while also serving as Manager of Artist Relations, and ultimately Manager of Content Development Pan-Asia. In 2001, Sarah moved to BrandX Pictures (South Pasadena) as Director of Photography and was later promoted to Associate Creative Director at BrandX’s parent company, PictureArts. Sarah joined Blend Images in 2004, where she remains as a contributing photographer, Creative Director, and agency owner.
Ellen Herbert
Ellen Herbert, co-founder of Neat Production, is a visual professional with a career in photography: with senior positions held in Creative, International Relations and Management with stock agencies; as Digital Stills Editor with the 2000 DNC; Art Buyer for IgnitedLA; and Archivist/Producer for Academy Award winning Documentary The Childrens’ March.
She is active in the industry, holding the position of Program Director for the West Coast Chapter of the ASPP, past PACA board member and active in the IDA (International Documentary Association) and as a producer for CEF. A guest lecturer at Art Center Pasadena, she speaks on Production and Stock Photography. Ellen is an advocate of practical business education for artists, regardless of the medium in which they practice.
Ellen has commissioned, produced, edited and licensed both still and moving image shoots, internationally, her entire career and continues to be inspired and informed by image-makers of all types.
Eugene Mopsik
Eugene Mopsik, who took up his appointment as executive director of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) six years ago, has a long and distinguished record with the trade association. A successful Philadelphia corporate/industrial photographer Mr. Mopsik served on ASMPs board for many years, including a term as president, 2000-2001.
As ASMP executive director, he has been involved in discussions with the Nielsen Corp., Getty Images, the New York Times regarding their freelance contracts, and worked to create new agreements between photographers and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) regarding the rights to images submitted for various AIA competitions. Recently he has also been very involved with the creation of strategy for the congressional discussions related to Orphan Works legislation along with overseeing educational programming for ASMP. Beyond the day-to-day management of ASMPs operations, Mr. Mopsik develops long-range strategy to maintain ASMPs position as the premier trade association for publication photographers.
Erin Moroney
Having graduated from university with degrees in Photography and Literature, Erin Moroney moved to London where she started running Axiom Photographic Agency. Erin was initially hired to represent the work of two photographers, but she quickly developed the Axiom brand, expanding both the collection and client base. Over the past 13 years, Axiom has become one of the top travel reportage picture libraries and commissioning agencies in the country, supplying images to leading editorial, corporate, advertising, and design clients worldwide.
For the last several years, Erin has been on the judging panel of Travel Photographer of the Year. Next year, she will be teaching Insider's Africa Photo Safari Course in Kenya.
Virginia Morrison
Virginia Morrison is Executive Director of the Society for Photographic Education (SPE), a non-profit membership organization that seeks to promote a broader understanding of the photography in all its forms, and to foster the development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism.
Virginia’s career choices reflect her passion for art and her talent for management. Some highlights include teaching photography and art at Hawken School, Director of Career Services at Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), and several transformative positions at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She has always been involved with student advocacy in educational contexts and has enjoyed accomplishments that include a successful NIH Training grant for CWRU’s department of pharmacology, the Ohio Governor’s Award for Excellence in Art Education, and CWRU’s MPH Program accreditation by the Council on Education in Public Health.
Richard Rabinowitz
More than 25 years of experience in special promotion and marketing for major clients such as Adobe, Canon, Dodge, eBay, Ford, Fujifilm, Kodak, Microsoft, Nikon, SanDisk, Seagram’s, Sony, and dozens more prominent manufacturers. Most recently, Rabinowitz was the VP / Group Publisher of noted photography publications Popular Photography and American Photo. In that capacity for 15 years, Rabinowitz established and produced a number of new programs including the American Photo MentorSeries (8 years running), the Popular Photography Photo Trek series (8 years running), the Digital Days classroom and how-to DVD series (2 years running), American Photo OnCampus College Quarterly (9 years running), the Popular Photography award-winning Freeze-Frame Travel Channel series, and the American Photo Magazine Safari Shoot, an ESPN 26-part Saturday morning series. While maintaining these programs, Richard also wrote and produced television commercials, designed and executed integrated marketing strategies that were comprised of product launches, live events around the world, retail tie-in promotions, and various programs featuring noted professional photographers and other prominent luminaries. Says Rabinowitz, “The programs were great challenges and great fun, and never would have come off without the help of talented teammates and visionary clients as partners.”
In 2000, with the inspiration and collective efforts of the PMDA board members Rabinowitz spearheaded the widely-recognized non-profit educational site TakeGreatPictures.com. The site’s aim is to inspire photo enthusiasts around the country and has been featured in hundreds of local and national broadcast and print media throughout the country.
Cathy Sachs
Cathy Sachs has been the Executive Director of the American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP) since 1995. Her 30 years of experience in the industry has included photo research and editing, stock agency manager, speaker, portfolio reviewer, panelist and moderator. She works closely with many associations to foster communication and common best practices across the photography industry.
Nancy Wolff
Nancy E. Wolff is a member of the entertainment law firm of Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard, LLC, located in New York and California. Ms. Wolff specializes in intellectual property law and digital media law. Clients include the Picture Archive Counsel of America, Inc. (PACA), the PLUS Coalition, stock photo libraries, individual photographers, authors, illustrators, designers, publishers and digital media companies. Ms. Wolff counsels clients in copyright, trademarks, licensing and contract law, rights of publicity and privacy and libel.
Ms. Wolff is a frequent speaker throughout the United States and Europe on copyright, new technology and licensing. In 2007 she published her book entitled “The Professional Photographer’s Legal Handbook” with Allworth Press and PACA. She was awarded the 2007 ASPP Picture Professional of the Year.
Ms. Wolff is a Trustee and Assistant Secretary of the Copyright Society of U.S.A., and is the current Chair of the American Bar Association IP Section 303 on Copyright Office Affairs and a member of the ABA Copyright Reform Task Force. She was a member of Section 108 Study Group convened by the Library of Congress and charged with updating the Copyright Act.
Lanny Ziering
Lanny Ziering is CEO of RGB Ventures LLC / Superstock, one of the oldest names in stock photography and known for its unique collection of fine art, vintage, travel, and contemporary imagery. Lanny is also a founding partner of Blend Images LLC, the leading stock photography brand for ethnically diverse lifestyle and business imagery. Prior to helping start Blend, Lanny worked as an assignment and stock photographer. His assignments included editorial, political, and portrait work. His business background includes work as a management consultant and being on the marketing staff of MTV during its start-up phase in the early 1980s. Lanny holds an MBA from UCLA’s Andersen Graduate School of Management.