Protocol Document
from Glassman. Jordan took shots between the ocial
photography sessions, impressing his actor and
supermodel subjects who encouraged him to find an
agent to help him get work as a photographer. They
also recommended his photographic prowess to the
companies that were hiring him to art direct the shoots.
Jordan’s first big break came when J. Crew hired him
to shoot a catalog. Success there led to meeting more
people, leading to more shoots and helping him build the
business to where it is today.
Jim Jordan Photography employs seven full-time
employees in Los Angeles and four in New York. In
recent years the company has added commercial and
multimedia creation to its portfolio, helping individuals
and companies create unique, cutting-edge brand
images. A separate company, White Cross Productions,
provides talent management for actors, directors, makeup
artists and others.
One of the biggest reasons Jim Jordan Photography
has been so successful is the trust Jordan and his team
earned from the people with whom they work. Whether
it’s how an actor or actress will look on a magazine cover
or how a brand will be portrayed to its customers, a lot
rides on the final outcome. Jordan and his team take
great care throughout the process and use the best
equipment for the results they want to achieve.
The Challenge
Getting an image just right in the demanding world of
celebrity and fashion photography is a painstaking eort.
It starts with using high-quality cameras, such as the
Leica S system that is used for all studio shoots and as the
Canon EOS 1DX for location and other shoots. Jim only
trusts Lexar memory cards to capture his images. The
images then go through extensive retouching, editing and
refinement using Wacom Intuos5 tablets on Apple Mac Pro
workstations with multiple graphics cards. All of the files
are stored on Seagate hard drives in a sophisticated RAID
system.
“A lot of work goes into every still image as well as every
frame of a multimedia production,” Jordan says. “Color
correction and calibration using the Spectra View II system
is a big part of what we do. A subtle dierence in hues can
have a profound eect on the finished image. Celebrities
and supermodels are very protective of how they look in a
photo shoot or commercial because their faces and bodies