Q+A with Frank Evers of INSTITUTE
The Photography Post hosts a Q+A every Tuesday.
I am very excited to check in with Frank Evers this week, as he is the man behind the recently launched (and highly lauded) agency INSTITUTE for Artist Management. Evers is no stranger to the industry; he has helmed the VII Agency and founded The New York Photo Festival. His new venture boasts incredible talent- the roster includes Joshua Lutz, Gillian Laub, James Pomerantz and Simon Norfolk, among many others.
Without further ado…
TPP: Tell me about INSTITUTE- everyone’s talking about it! It’s interesting that you’re representing artists across many platforms — is the structure a response to the ever changing needs of the marketplace, or something you’ve been planning to do for some time?
FE: The goal for INSTITUTE is to build a company around our artists which supports them in all that they do. Already, we are involved in documentary film funding, book publishing deals, facilitating fine art representation, producing print/video commercials (LEVI’S in Beijing for BBH Singapore), as well as the usual assignment and image licensing deals. We also have three very big educational initiatives that we are developing.
Lauren Greenfield for New York Magazine
Gerd Ludwig feature on the Salton Sea
Simon Norfolk for Sunday Times Magazine
The structure of INSTITUTE is in response to the ever changing market conditions and the comprehensive needs of our artists. I don’t claim to have the silver bullet, but we are working very hard to raise the opportunity sets for our artists.
TPP: You’ve got quite the roster already. Are you looking to grow even larger? What does INSTITUTE want to be a few years from now?
photo by Gillian Laub
FE: We may take on talent, if that is the right thing to do. Our focus is on growing the business for the betterment of our artists and the work that they do, and want to do going forward.
TPP: Your announcement of new artists Jeff Jacobson, Matthew Niederhauser and Lorena Ros is super exciting. How did you choose these artists?
photo by Jeff Jacobson
photo by Matthew Niederhauser
photo by Lorena Ros
FE: I love their work, their work ethic, and their intelligence. It is really the same metric that I used for all of our visual artists.
TPP: You’ve had quite an impact in the photo world, with your work for VII and NYPH; what do you love about imagery, and what makes you strive to find new outlets for it to be shown?
FE: I don’t know the answer to that, but I can tell you that my entire life has been dedicated to all things visuals. Perhaps being born with a hearing impairment, I gained a greater appreciation for visual media. My mother nurtured my love of the visual arts, and her own personal frustrations as an professional actress taught me the importance of artistic expression and fulfillment. Artists need a lot of support and to be fully enabled. That is what I do. As for new outlets…I guess that is all about finding new ways of getting the work out to the widest possible audience. This is why I created the New York Photo Festival, because I saw a need for contemporary photography to be presented in a context of scholarship and ideas, not just as a commercial commodity.
TPP: How did you start out in the business- were you ever a photographer yourself?
FE: I got my first film camera when I was 8 in Egypt, and I have been photographing ever since. My interests in photography really expanded exponentially in the mid-90s, when we began to collect. During that time I was making movies and video games, mostly producing and running game development divisions/studios. It wasn’t until 2005 that I got involved with photography professionally.
TPP: Thanks, Frank!
See more of INSTITUTE, here.
