Photo Copyright Gregory Heisler
Skip Cohen is President/Founder of Marketing Essentials International, a marketing consulting firm specializing in projects dedicated to photography, (www.mei500.com), primarily photographic education.
He is also founder of Skip’s Summer School, (www.mei500.com), the Akron Photo Series (www.AkronPhotoSeries.com ), co-founder of GhostRighters, (www.GhostRighters.com) a content resource for professional photographers needing help with editorial content, web re-design and marketing.
In 2010 he co-founded GoingPro (www.GoingPro2011.com), a project for new photographers with author, photographer and social media icon, Scott Bourne. After only two weeks Alltop named GoingPro as one of the best sites in photography. Now, two years later the blog has over 50,000 followers and a new podcast airs every ten days. There are 150,000 downloads a month of the podcasts.
He is past President/Chief Operating Officer of Rangefinder Publishing Inc. and previously had responsibility for Rangefinder Magazine, AfterCapture Magazine, the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Association and the WPPI Convention and Trade Show.
He has been a guest editor and consultant for Photo District News and responsible for the 2010 editions of Focus on Weddings, Focus on Portraits each June, a contributor to the PDN Online blog, educational consultant for PhotoPlus Expo programming and the monthly issue of PDN magazine. He currently is a senior editor for PMA’s new online magazine and an editorial contributor for Resource Magazine.
His career in the photographic industry started at Polaroid in 1970 in the emulsion development group in R&D. During his 17½ years with Polaroid he held positions in research, personnel, customer service, both overseas and domestic, and was the US Marketing Manager for Polaroid’s photo-specialty dealers from 1984 –1987, when he left to take over Hasselblad USA as President/CEO.
During his twelve years at Hasselblad he founded Hasselblad University, today Hasselblad’s worldwide educational arm; expanded the Hasselblad newsletter to a quarterly magazine and helped to establish Hasselblad as a leader in marketing and education. In 1998 at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, Skip and his management team were recognized as the best Swedish company in America.
He served as President/CEO of Hasselblad USA until 1999, at which time he helped launch an Internet photographic retail site as president of PhotoAlley.com until 2002, when the dot com economy collapsed.
He currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Cameras For Kids Foundation. He has served as Industry Advisor and Board member for Professional Photographers of America, Vice President of the Photographic Manufacturer’s and Distributor’s Association, member of the board of directors of Photographers + Friends United Against AIDS, board member of the Center for Creative Photography, originally founded by Ansel Adams, the Photographic Hall of Fame and the P.H.O.T.O. Foundation created to help photographers who were victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Two key industry fund raisers, created by Skip, included the sales of Ansel Adams’ Cadillac to the Coastal Hotel Group in 1991 and the sales of Ansel’s Hasselblad gear to shock jock, Don Imus in 1997, raising over $125,000 for charity. Last year, the Akron Photo Series raised $10,000 for Akron Children’s Hospital through just four photographic seminars in the Cleveland/Akron area.
He has been a recipient of ADL’s Torch of Liberty Award, Foto Imagen Magazine’s Man of the Year Award and in 2001 he received PPA’s Legacy Award for his work in support of PPA Charities.
He has written six books on photography, The Art of Wedding Photography, The Art of the Digital Wedding and The Art of People Photography with Bambi Cantrell. Don Blair’s Guide to Posing and Lighting Body Parts and Wedding Photography from the Heart co-authored with celebrity wedding photographer Joe Buissink. Book number six, GoingPro co-authored with Scott Bourne was released by Random House in October, 2011 and remains on the best seller list at Amazon for photography books.
Contact Skip directly at skip@mei500.com
