The Idea Man
More than 25 years of experience in special promotion and marketing for major clients such as Adobe, Canon, Dodge, eBay, Ford, Fujifilm, Kodak, Microsoft, Nikon, SanDisk, Seagram’s, Sony, and dozens more prominent manufacturers. Most recently, Rabinowitz was the VP / Group Publisher of noted photography publications Popular Photography and American Photo. In that capacity for 15 years, Rabinowitz established and produced a number of new programs including the American Photo MentorSeries (8 years running), the Popular Photography Photo Trek series (8 years running), the Digital Days classroom and how-to DVD series (2 years running), American Photo OnCampus College Quarterly (9 years running), the Popular Photography award-winning Freeze-Frame Travel Channel series, and the American Photo Magazine Safari Shoot, an ESPN 26-part Saturday morning series. While maintaining these programs, Richard also wrote and produced television commercials, designed and executed integrated marketing strategies that were comprised of product launches, live events around the world, retail tie-in promotions, and various programs featuring noted professional photographers and other prominent luminaries. Says Rabinowitz, “The programs were great challenges and great fun, and never would have come off without the help of talented teammates and visionary clients as partners.”
Rabinowitz’s experience also lies in web development and video production. The American Photo and Popular Photography travel websites now feature thousands and thousands of images shot by dozens of the world’s most accomplished photographers and hundreds of students who have attended over 75 workshops, which have taken place throughout the country and across the ocean. These travel photography websites began over a beer in Marrakech between Rabinowitz and photo enthusiast Tom Niccum, which occurred in 1999 on the second trip of the now long-standing photo travel series. Shortly thereafter, Tom returned to his hometown in Minnesota, while Richard headed back to New York City, where he currently lives and they began speaking on the phone and emailing several times a week to build a website together. A number of years later, the sites were purchased by the publishers of Popular Photography and American Photo. With the inspiration and collective efforts of the PMDA board members (including representatives from Canon, Fujifilm, Kodak, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, SanDisk, Sony, and Tamron), Rabinowitz spearheaded another website, the widely-recognized non-profit educational site TakeGreatPictures.com. Established in 2000, the site’s aim is to inspire photo enthusiasts around the country and has been featured in People, LIFE, TIME, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, US Weekly, CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, CNN, NPR, and hundreds of local and national broadcast and print media throughout the country.
