I got a call last Monday from portfolio magazine, asking if i could do a shoot for them on Thursday for a new section in the back of the book. The section is called "transitions" or "moving on" or something like that. It's a profile/q and a/photo of a business person that is moving on to another job. This assignment was to shoot David Neeleman, the CEO of Jet Blue airlines. David is leaving Jet Blue next month to start a new low cost airline in Brazil, much in the same model as Jet Blue. Last winter during a blizzard, Jet Blue left some planes on the tarmac at JFK for 9 hours! It was and is a huge story and led directly to some passengers rights laws being written. Jet Blue really took it hard, and David was the the management that was hung out to dry. The real irony is that Jet Blue is truly the only airline that I'm at all loyal to, and the only airline i will remotely stick up for. In fact, I'm flying them again this Wednesday. I have hated all of the airlines for as long as i can remember. When Jet Blue came along it was a breath of fresh air. I even have pet names for all of the airlines, northworst, us scareways, etc.. I decided to do it because I didn't have to travel, and I had shot David 3 times in the past for other magazines and had a relationship with him. I shot him for Fortune Small Business magazine over the years, and David and I always got along and the pictures always looks good. I even had given him a print from one of the shoots as a gift. Anyway, i went out to JFK on Tuesday to scout the location, which was the jet Blue corporate office out by JFK. Of course there weren't many options to take the picture, but as always, I had to find something to make it work. I looked at his office (he had the 11x14 print i had given him framed on the wall) and I also looked outside on the plaza on the side of the building. The photo editor, Louisa Anderson, mentioned that they would love a picture with a blue sky background, as the picture needed to run full page with text on it. After scouting, we decided to shoot on the plaza first and then try another shot in his office. We also hired a prop stylist to get some vintage suitcases, (get it, moving on) and make it look a little more stylized. I was told I would have 45 minutes with David, but knowing David, he would lose focus after about 20 minutes. He has (admittedly) ADD and he has talked about it a lot in interviews and how how won't medicate himself to help with it because he doesn't want to lose his edge, and it really does define who he is as a CEO in a lot of ways. The shoot went off pretty smoothly, David was in good spirits and had fun with it, here's a couple from the shoot. Here's a couple of my favorites....
