Each year, The Hippo magazine hires me to handle a majority of the images for their “BEST OF” issue. This is a quality color glossy magazine that covers all of Southern New Hampshire that features businesses voted and recommended by readers and citizens of the state. If you love certain businesses and want them to get a little exposure, you can write them in. The places with the most votes then get collected in this magazine with short articles and information about them. It’s serves as a great travel guide for visitors to see what the state has to offer.
I've read and collected comic books my entire life. I pretty much learned to read when I was a tiny person by trying to figure out words in the balloons on comic pages. There is a special place in my heart for characters like Green Lantern and Green Arrow and Airwave and Iron Man and many, many, many more. So many.
When the Hippo phoned me up asking if I would photograph some local cosplayers for a cover story I practically jumped through the phone with an excited YES! The paper scheduled four cosplayers to come by the studio one evening so we could make some images that would be featured on the cover as well as serve as the main story for that issue.
I had the opportunity to meet and take some portraits of James Vara; who is New Hampshires Governor's Advisor on Addiction and Behavioral Health, also known as the "Drug Czar" (just don't mention that phrase around him) for the Hippo. James came to the studio and we spent a little time getting some portraits that would be used with an extensive article on him.
I've been working with The Hippo for years now. It makes me happy when each year they reach out to me to photograph for their glossy "Best Of" magazine. Hippo's Best Of asks readers each year to tell them all of their favorite places and businesses in Southern New Hampshire. In the past, when the magazine focused more on personalities, I was proud to have my name mentioned five years in a row. The last few years however, the magazine has restructured it's format and is now more of a "travel guide" to help visitors locate new places that they might not have heard of before.
For 2016, I wanted to make sure I took portraits of the people who ran the venues I was assigned to photograph, and I wanted to share some of those people in this post.
