Executive Producer
Denise is a Midwesterner at heart and started her career in commercial photography at the St. Louis based studio Ferguson & Katzman as studio manager. After a few years at FK, she realized her passion for organization, list-making and clear communication would be best for production. She followed that path to The Big Club Hall where she worked for Gregg Goldman Photography and Scott Smith Photography developing her production capabilities, playing den mother and gaining valuable experience within the business of photography.
After visiting and falling in love New York City, Denise relocated there, working for Frances Manzi Productions on fast-paced shoots for established and respected catalog clients like J. Jill, Garnet Hill and West Elm. From there she spent over nine years with Kate Ryan Inc. as Executive Producer, where her skill set expanded from not only estimating and managing photo shoots but into wrangling an intense, constant production schedule for KRI’s 10-12 photographers, working with clients such as L’Oreal, Gap, Target, Sephora, Nike, TRESemmé, Mary Kay and Olay. She also cultivated crucial agenting skills which include negotiating usage rates, client hand-holding and growing photographers’ careers through strong client and vendor relationships.
After moving to Asheville, and almost 20 years in commercial photography, Denise became Executive Producer for Project 13 and now puts her skills to use managing projects, clients, schedules and team members while continually running photo production projects. Denise balances her firm grasp of the creative process from every perspective with grounding in the realities of budget and schedules and strives to foster excellent communications that help exceed a clients’ expectations with every project.
