Some Executives Strike a New Pose for Photographers

“That’s great. Hold it. Hold it,” photographer Deborah Feingold says urgently. Snap, flash. Snap, flash. “Smile,” she cajoles. “Smile.” Snap, flash.

Richard Ravitch, the new chairman of the struggling Bowery Savings Bank, is really being a good sport. Perched on the brass banister of a marble stairway so that the breathtaking interior of the bank will appear in the frame, he holds it, he smiles, he sucks in his stomach.

Then, Feingold, surrounded by photographer’s paraphernalia and a hovering assistant, persuades Ravitch to gesture in various ways.

He appears to be starting to feel just a little bit silly, but he complies. Well, until she asks him to press the palms of his hands together.

“I don’t want people to think I’m praying for money,” he says.

Being Lured Out

Today’s top executives, like Ravitch, are joining the ranks of the nation’s celebrities. And young free-lance photographers, like the 32-year-old Feingold, are luring them out from behind their desks to pose for a new kind of corporate portraiture.

“For years, executives were photographed in a very plastic fashion, very stilted,” said photographer George Lange, 30. “We’re able to bring about a more human aspect. That’s what this new breed of executive photographers is doing, making them more human.”

A force behind this change has been Alice Rose George, 41, picture editor at Fortune magazine.

“It seems to me that interest has shifted in society,” she said. “People are much more interested in business, and making money, and the material things. Everyone wants to succeed.”

So when George joined Fortune 3 1/2 years ago from Geo magazine, she said: “I thought it was a perfect opportunity to make something happen.”

Another mover has been Nancy Butkus, the 33-year-old art director of the flashier, year-old Manhattan, inc.

“When I got this job,” said Butkus, who had been with Rolling Stone magazine, “I decided I wanted to do with business what we did with rock stars.”

The results of these efforts have been memorable.

Stood on Head

Richard Cheney, a public relations executive who practices yoga, stood on his head for Lange when the photographer was on assignment for Manhattan, inc.

“It’s getting kind of embarrassing. People say of you, ‘That’s the guy who gets people to stand on their head,’ ” Lange said, laughing.

In an assignment for Fortune, photographer Joyce Ravid captured venture capitalist Morton Davis in a sexy pose, lying on his side on the rug in his office.

What kind of response did Davis get?

“Just a few requests to do a couple of centerfolds,” he quipped.

“People on the whole thought it was a good picture,” Davis said. “I don’t think it has any negative. I thought it was OK.”

Feingold persuaded West Coast ad man Jay Chiat to don a Hawaiian shirt and pair of sunglasses for the cover of Manhattan, inc.

“We decided the whole California angle would be fun to play up,” Butkus said. “He was a particularly good subject because he is in the advertising business and he knows how important image is and he relaxed and had a good time.”

Stuffy Poses

Generally, though, it has not been easy getting executives to play along. They are more accustomed to striking stuffy poses for annual reports.

“They’re not terribly cooperative. They’re so uptight about their image,” George said.

“I know there are certain individuals who don’t like the camera and they don’t like their privacy invaded,” she said. “It makes our job harder and it’s worse in the end for them.”

In addition, the editors and photographers complain, these executives are stingy with their time.

George also has encountered some resistance from her more conservative bosses at Fortune, who do not like angled photographs, dramatic lighting and indistinguishable features, for example.

She, herself, does not like a “set-up.”

“It’s almost gimmicky,” she says. “We’re more journalistic in our approach to photography.”

While George’s editors have learned to trust her, the photographers are trying to get their subjects to trust them.

“It involves people giving a bit of themselves and their time. It really becomes a kind of collaboration,” Lange said.

“I never try and get them to look foolish. I don’t want to run something that is going to ruin their reputation or offend them. I don’t purposefully take advantage of my subjects.”

Process Becomes Interesting

Ravid, 34, said she finds that, “The whole process becomes interesting to them.”

Frequently, the photographers first take Polaroid shots of their subjects, which they use to reassure them about how it all will turn out.

One Fortune photograph that caused a sensation was a leggy one of USA Today publisher Cathie Black. Lange shot her standing on a pile of newspapers on an inside window sill, with Madison Avenue stretching out beyond.

Did George anticipate the controversy?

“It was considered. There was a big debate,” she said. “I don’t think it’s sexist. I think she looks like a man. ‘It’s my empire,’ and she’s standing on it. We would run a picture of a man like that.”

Black declined to comment on the photograph.

This line of work does have its hazards.

Butkus and Lange convinced New York real estate magnate Donald Trump to hold a pigeon that they had rented for the session.

The pigeon did what pigeons will do.

“He (Trump) was really cool,” Butkus said. “He went to the bathroom and washed his hands and came back.”

Some subjects get grumpy, however.

Corporate raider Carl Icahn grew impatient during a long shoot at his estate, finally threatening to sic his German shepherd Shiloh on Ravid.

What did Ravid do?

“It was just a joke,” she said.

Ravid’s compelling photograph of Icahn, with his glassy-eyed, toothy pet, made the cover of Manhattan, inc. The caption read: “The Lone Wolf of Wall Street.”