The American Society of Picture Professionals has named Jerry Tavin its 2008 Picture Professional of the Year. The award honors a current ASPP member’s significant contributions to photography, a singular outstanding achievement or longtime service to the organization and its members.
Trained as an attorney, Tavin founded a travel-agency chain before moving to Germany to manage a jazz singer. When he met and married Janou Pakter a quarter of a century ago, the duo launched the global executive-search firm that is now known as a leader among creative recruiters. In 1994, Tavin and Pakter created Nonstock, which represented over 40,000 images by some 500 photographers and was sold to PictureArts in 2004. Since then, Tavin managed a vintage-image collection and is now working on upcoming rights-managed collection IC Worldwide in partnership with French agency PhotoAlto.
Previous recipients of ASPP Picture Professional of the Year included Jane Kinne, Larry Levin, Anita Duncan, Niki Barrie and Nancy Wolff. ASPP will present the award to Tavin in December in New York.