WHY I LOVE MY JOB: Barbara Griffin, Senior vice president, image management
By Karl W. Ritzler
For ajcjobs
Published on: 03/30/08
• Job: Senior vice president, image management, Turner Broadcasting System
• What I do: When most people think of Turner Classic Movies or the TNT network, they think of moving pictures. Barbara Griffin thinks of the stills. As part of her job, Griffin is the head of still photography for Turner Broadcasting System, which includes photos used in advertising, promotions, news and public relations for all of the company's networks and brands. Her work includes images of CNN's Robin Meade smiling down from billboards and TNT's Kyra Sedgwick looking out from the cover of a DVD of her series "The Closer." Griffin, 49, sends photographers with CNN camera crews around the world as well as setting up photo shoots in a studio just down the hall from her office." We deploy photographers to get the shots," she said. Her job is being the strategic and creative director. "What's the look, the event, the strategy?" she asks. She also is in charge of choosing the best person to shoot the assignment, either one of four staff photographers or a freelancer. That's where her knowledge of photographers' styles and strengths weighs in on the decision."I'm a director of photography," Griffin said. "I know how to put a photographer in place where his visual skill set supports the story we're trying to tell." The hallways in her department are lined with brooding, '50s-style photos from TNT's production of "The Company," a fictional look inside the CIA, as well as upbeat photos to convey the personalities of CNN notables such as Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta. For a DVD cover or promotional photo, Griffin seeks an image that is "a visual representation of the show." To choose the best image, "I need to know what is the show, the heart of the story." Griffin is in charge of "the creative part and the logistics," she said. And the logistics can get tricky. "Last year, for 'CNN Heroes,' we photographed 18 people in 10 days around the world." Shooting stills is different from shooting video for broadcast. " We have to visually figure out how to capture in a single image" everything that's on video. Once the shots are in hand and selected, it's Griffin's job to distribute them to appear in magazines, on billboards, on Web sites, in trade publications and in newspapers." We're making these photos and then setting them free into the world," she said.
• What got me interested in this: "My father," Griffin said. She was taking a painting class in college and wasn't satisfied with her work, when her father, a former Navy photographer, persuaded her to try photography."It was a calling," she said.
• Best part of my job: "I could answer that 10 different ways," she said. "I've been at Turner 16 years and never been bored. It changes very quickly.". . . I am inspired and challenged by the people here."
• Most challenging part: "The same things that make it the best," Griffin said. "You never stop learning and growing. Creative people have to be curious. . . . You have to be very aware of news, pop culture, sports . . ." Recently, however, she's been challenged to convert her department's operation from film to digital.
• What people don't know about my job: "I work with photographers in remote locations," Griffin said. In addition, "as a creative person, people don't think of you as being strategic" in having to plan and execute a project from beginning to end to meet a specific goal. " A lot of problem-solving goes into every aspect of a shoot."
• What keeps me going: "The amazing projects at all the networks," Griffin said. Of the people in her department, she said, "I love to watch people find new ways to do something."
• Preparation needed for this job: You have to have a passion for your work and be willing to put yourself in a position to learn, Griffin said. She also said a person needs to be visually skilled and intellectually curious. Griffin has a bachelor of fine arts degree in photography from the University of Alabama and has been working in photography since graduation, starting with a job as a receptionist at a photo agency in New York City. Griffin learned all she could from photographers and directors at the agency and learned how to tell a story with pictures. In New York, she also took classes at the International Center of Photography. She spent a little time behind the camera, shooting photos of NASCAR races, but, most of the time, she's concentrated on directing photographers. Griffin said she worked her way up through the photo agency and later was associate picture editor for a movie magazine. She came to Turner 16 years ago as its first head of photography and has seen her department take on an expanded role. - By Karl W. Ritzler, for ajcjobs.