Debra Weiss Creative Consultant
About
The short one:
Former: Agent; Black Book Consultant; CEO, APA National; Advocate
Present: Lecturer; Moderator; Independent Curator; PLUS Coalition (Picture Licensing Universal System) Website Curator and Industry Committee Coordinator; sometime published writer and still an advocate
The long one:
Debra was fourteen years old when she stood mesmerized in front of an Edward Steichen print of Greta Garbo at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Steichen had just berated Garbo for showing up at his studio looking a mess. Garbo looked up pulling her hair back off her forehead. Steichen snapped. Debra didn’t know the story behind that moment in the picture yet, but she knew it was something special. Ever since that day, Debra has had a passion for photographic images that capture essence. She has relentlessly acquired a vast knowledge of photographers and their works and is now a widely recognized consultant working with photographers across the United States and far off places.
A former agent for some of the top names in the business, a consultant for the former great Black Book and CEO of APA National, Debra now primarily works with photographers one on one. She is called a “creative consultant” but what she really does is coach a photographer’s career as an artist and a business. She inspires and guides, helping the photographer explore and shape their talent. Beginning with an evaluation of their work, she edits and sequences the material while working with great design talent to ensure a well designed website, portfolio and promotional materials that create an artistic marketable identity that will improve their opportunities for success.
A lecturer and moderator, Debra has created several programs designed to educate and entertain including COPYRIGHT: Know It or Blow It!, How 2 Get Work From Ad Agencies, How 2B Your Own Best Rep and Everyone's a Photographer. Holding on to the belief that human contact is still a good thing Debra established Show & Tell: The Story Behind the Image, an intimate, invitation only dinner designed to place top creatives, art producers/buyers and photographers in direct contact with each other in major cities.
Debra is also an independent curator and has served as curator for an internationally traveled exhibit of the Best of the International Photography Awards, HARAMBEE! (Come Together) at The Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles; a collection of images created by Pulitzer Prize and other award winning photojournalists exhibited in NYC and exhibitions of works by Scott Caan and Sara Terry for The Photo Independent Art Fair as well as curating works for several participating photographers in the recently mounted Virtual Photo Independent, currently in its second edition.