RAISE  YOU HAND!

 If you’re an artist and you know it raise your hand!

If you know an artist and their story raise your hand!

If you know  you’re an artist and you want everyone to know it,

If you’re an artist RAISE YOUR HAND!

1966,  I think is the year it started.  I got my first camera for my birthday,  a Kodak Hawkeye instamatic 126 film and Flash cubes.  Not a single photo exist from that time, from that camera, as I  just never had any money to develop the film.  Yet, I thought of myself as a photographer.  

Somewhere around second grade, the art teacher came into our classroom and said RAISE YOUR HAND if you’re an artist. She encouraged kids to tell them what kind of art they liked and did.  When it was my turn, I said PHOTOGRAPHER, and was very disappointed to hear she was interested in the type of art she was teaching; photography was not on the list. 

It was a long time before I actually referred to myself as an artist or photographic artist, and not just a photographer. Of course, not all artists are photographers and not all photographers are artists.  I think sometimes we forget or don’t recognize artists as such.  A couple of quick examples are some chefs I have had the pleasure of tasting and photographing their food at their restaurant or a charity event where they were donating their time, skill, food and creativity to raise money for the cause.  Chef Rodrigo, in the middle of hosting the Michael Magro Foundation food and wine tasting gala at The Carltun in East Meadow, cooked this delicious scallop dish right in the middle of the tasting. His culinary art was beyond taste, as the presentation was beautiful on each of the 300 or so plates he shared that night. You can almost smell and taste the deep-sea scallops when looking at my photo.  Down the block, Chef Michael Novella invited me to his restaurant La Novella to photograph and taste his fine cuisine.  Our collaboration resulted in beautiful images I refer to as A Perfect Meal (even the proofs at https://alexmwolffphotography.smugmug.com/La-Novella-A-Perfect-Meal/ are good enough to make your mouth water and your eyes hunger.

If you know me, we probably met at  charity galas I shoot at the catering halls and golf outings for charities such as Cerebral Palsy of Nassau County (I am on their Golf and Tennis Committee, referred to as the Mulligan Club), Long Island Elite,  PinkTie.org, Long Island Hospitality Ball, Big Brothers Big Sisters Long Island, Ronald McDonald House, Adults and Children with Learning Disabilities, and in the city Change For Kids. Perhaps we met at a wedding, mitzvah, 

I have a passion for helping charities in their mission to deliver services to their chosen community, and am honored and grateful to be recognized for that work, once again, in Model Citizens Magazine. Shooting spreads and personal branding photos for Model Citizens has shown me the power that social media can have in promoting people, businesses, and charities.  That success has inspired me to launch and publish,  with co-publisher John Joseph Dowling, Jr.,  a new on line magazine late in the fall.

LONG ISLAND PORTFOLIO will start out as a seasonal quarterly with 2 special editions each year, with the following mission:

Provide an effective vehicle for people in the art world and artists to promote themselves and their work in their own words with world class photography through social media, direct emails, and our website – www.longislandportfolio.com. LongIslandPortfolio.com will host supporting videos, imagery and audio to help promote and share each artist’s, entertainer’s, club’s, band’s, venue’s, restaurant’s work.

At the risk of sounding Forrest Gumpish, the following list of artist and craft categories just touches the tip of the iceberg for the types art promotion we will enable as there is not a virtual but a real plethora of sub categories of : drawing, painting, photography,  architecture, sculpture, literature, music, performing arts, dance, theater,  cinema, and culinary arts, fashion, comedy, and so on.  Body builders as artists? Sure. Body painters and graffiti artists? Absolutely. There are no limits to artistic expression and Long Island Portfolio will have no limit to the types of art and artists that will improve their branding and recognition as we share their stories in their own word. 

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

We surround people with talent and vision but are often unable to see or experience for ourselves because it is buried in basements, towns and cities, churches and vfw halls, and even on street corners. I believe he is back in school in Virginia, but singer and performing artist Finnbar Mac (Finn MacDevitt) can be seen busking around Huntington with his guitar case open for donations. I want to see him on stage at The Paramount and hear his music on Spotify. 

Our first cover is graced with local artist Robyn Bellospirito. Robyn, all by herself represents painters and dancers and photographers, models, costume designers and character creators. We have collaborated on several projects and she shares the collaborative effort, joint art design. I forgot to mention she also sings and creates music.  I would love to help get her story and work in front of a greater audience and help her sell her work. Wouldn’t you? She is so creative, imagine she could devote her time to her artistic expression and not her day job (which is also creative, as she is a writer).. 

Long Island Portfolio is new but it has Pedigree!

Long Island Portfolio is brought to you by the creative and marketing team that creates and distributes Model Citizens Magazine each month (we are planning monthly publications from Fall 2021 on). Portfolio will use similar strategies to distribute the publication as pdfs and individual pages, full interactive website, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In.  Our regional target is Montauk to Manhattan but Portfolio has a global reach, and will reach people interested in the arts and artists everywhere. Articles are supported by artists, sponsors and advertisers.

OUR READERS ARE NOT JUST READERS, THEY ARE ALSO SCOUTS

There is a whole universe of artists and their associates working to share their art, build their branding, and match their creations to the people that appreciate their art.  We can’t see it all but collectively you can. You can help artists promote themselves.  Ed Coyne, who runs Brooklyn Open in Facebook, is constantly finding artists and their work and creates visibility for them by posting their work and their links. Please be our Ed! Share the magazine links, website and PDFs with your friends that love art and entertainment. Use our Nominate an Artist or Art link on the website. We will reach out and connect to help move that artist’s career forward.

Please follow the link to receive an email when the first issue of Long Island Portfolio is published in the fall.

Want a media kit?  Questions or want to get in our historic first issue as a feature or advertiser?   Call me at 516.375.4315 or email me at Alex@LongIslandPortfolio.com

RAISE YOUR HAND!