If you had an hour with Jodi Peckman, the former long standing creative director for the iconic publication Rolling Stone—someone who has been in the center of culture, spending time with presidents, the Dali Lama, major entertainers like Madonna and  George Clooney, and musicians from The Beatles to Cardi B—through wars, trends and a a technological revolution, what would you ask? What could you learn? Hosts Amber Mundinger, Natasha Cholerton-Brown, and Dalia Strum do exactly that, and the conversation is wide ranging.

In this episode:

• How the meaning of “content” has evolved over time, and why Jodi didn’t consider herself a content creator 
• Jodi’s long tenure at Rolling Stone, and how the change from film to digital and recently back to film affected the approach to photography and visual language of the magazine as well as the business side of the photography world
• Jodi’s approach to a photo shoot, and how that changes based on the subject, from actors to musicians to the President
• The importance of trust as a photographer, and how that trust earned Jodi some of her biggest shoots 
• The challenge of getting access to the best locations for a subject: their own home
• Why Jodi gets more excited when she gets to a photo shoot at a client’s home or office and finds it a mess
• How building relationships with subjects makes repeat photo shoots more relaxed and easier to create stronger work thanks to the established trust and ability for everyone to have more fun with the experience
• The importance of knowing when to pull back from a concept for a shoot, even when you think it would make for a stronger statement
• The difficulty of working with artists today, where the imagery and persona are more closely associated with their brand and product, which can get in the way of finding the authenticity and human connection between artist and fans that Jodi sought out with her earlier work 
• How Jodi approached the Cardi B photo shoot
• The way Rolling Stone chooses its cover photo subjects to embody that era or current news cycle, and how Jodi went about encapsulating the magazine’s 50 year history with the anniversary issue, along with celebrating its visual impact on culture with a book
• The scrutiny that mainstream news goes through in 2019, and what that means for a magazine like Rolling Stone in the era of “fake news”
• The dangers of photojournalism, and the difficulties setting up shoots for articles on environmental issues and war zones
• How Rolling Stone’s mission statement to get to the truth of all things pop culture has led to some controversial cover images throughout its history
• The prevalence of video content online, and what that means for still photography 
• Why war photography and nature photography resonates with her so much
• Jodi’s departure from Rolling Stone, and how she plans to take everything she’s learned about visual storytelling to new mediums: books, showroom installations, and documentaries
• Jodi’s inspirations throughout her career, why being a lifetime New Yorker is important to her, and what having a mentor like Jann Wenner meant to her

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