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Established Alumni
› Shooting Star
The Hectic Life of a New York Photographer
The phone rang four times during the 10-minute interview and Andrea Dylewski (BA, Photography, 2000) never flinched. Not once.
She rescheduled appointments, juggled schedules and still kept focus answering questions for her alma mater nearly 1,000 miles away. Such is the life as studio manager for a New York City photographer.
“It’s been pretty crazy,” Dylewski said. “But I still get a major rush from it.”
Dylewski moved to New York nearly five years ago and has since moved up the ranks from unpaid intern to her current position with Timothy Hogan. It’s been a challenging career path, she said, but certainly an exciting one.
It all started with a phone call … actually, two years worth of phone calls … to one of the most respected portrait artists working today, Annie Leibovitz. Dylewski regularly phoned Leibovitz’s New York studio looking for any opportunity they could provide.
“They kept telling me to call back later,” Dylewski said. “I would just bug them so that they wouldn’t forget about me. I guess I just pushed my way through.”
The persistence paid off.
The Annie Leibovitz Studio offered Dylewski a 6-month, unpaid internship upon her graduation from the School of Communications. And so, with nothing more than the clothes she took on the plane, Dylewski was headed for the Big Apple.
The first months on the job certainly weren’t glamorous — “You start way low,” Dylewski said — but she loved it. Everyone seemed to share the same understanding that it’s hard to live in New York and offered some form of support.
“It’s like an extended family,” Dylewski said. “Everybody understands it’s a pain to move here.”
Dylewski spent most of her time with the Annie Leibovitz Studio scouting locations for Leibovitz to shoot portraits of celebrities, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, “Survivor” winner Richard Hatch and the cast of “The Sopranos.”
When the internship ended, Dylewski accepted a handful of freelance jobs with the Annie Leibovitz Studio until she was hired full-time as an assistant for Maggie Nimkin. The change was dramatic.
Dylewski abandoned celebrities and fashion for the world of fine art. While working for Nimkin, Dylewski photographed private art collections for their respective owners. One of her first assignments was to photograph a black-tie affair during Asian Art Week.
Dylewski spent four years with Nimkim, until she met Timothy Hogan, one of the Photo District News’ Top 30 Emerging Photographers.
Hogan hired Dylewski as his studio manager, pulling her back into the world of fashion and beauty. Hogan’s clients include Calvin Klein, Neiman Marcus, Vogue, Glamour, Elle and Stuff.
“It’s pretty interesting, making sure everything is pulled together for a shoot,” Dylewski said. “You have to make all the pieces of the puzzle work together or it won’t work. The amount of teamwork needed is amazing.”
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