In the height of the recession when the financial world was crumbling, I stood in the middle of Herald Square in New York City, staring up at the billboards, wondering how I was going to pay the next months rent. I had been making a cup of tea and wondering what I might have for lunch when I was laid off from my job as a full time assistant. I decided right there and then that I would never again put my security in someone else's hands and started my own photography business. It has turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. That experience is one reason why I love the story on comeback chefs in the latest issue of the Improper (the other is that I got to shoot all the pictures for it!). If you live in Boston and don't know the name William Kovel yet, you will. William was laid off from his job as executive chef at the now closed Aujourd'hui during the recession. He has doubled his bet and is opening a restaurant in Kendall Square that is at least twice as big. The opening line in the magazine gets it just right, “the economy may have knocked out their last restaurants, but these chefs aren’t just making comebacks-they’re coming back swinging.”
You can see more of my magazine portrait photography here.