Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Tenenbaum.
Hi Jordan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Over ten years ago I was at my sister’s birthday party in Washington, DC when my parents whipped out a brand new Nikon D3100 for her. I didn’t know anything about cameras or art, but when I put that camera in my hands, I knew right away that I had found something important. Thankfully she never really used it, because I stole it from her room every chance I could get. One day, she was going to play her high school tennis match and I was going to go later with my Mom. I snuck into my sister’s room and tucked that camera in my bag to bring with me to the courts. I didn’t know what I was doing… I was a 12-year-old kid solely driven by instinct. Somehow, the photos I took of Madison on court were enough to appeal to her and my family. Madison shared the photos with her team and right away, they all asked for me to come to the next match and photograph them. Even the coach put me on the court to get as close to the action as possible. Everyone loved the photos and I quickly began to enjoy and appreciate the joy that others got from something I was able to give them. I didn’t notice at the time, but that fueled me to take it to the next level. I photographed everything…. travel, sports, flowers, people, it really didn’t matter. I lived with the camera in my hands. I ventured into video a couple of years later and found the same joy in that.
Corporate videos, concert recaps, restaurant advertisements… nothing was off limits for me. By my freshman year of high school, I was known as the camera guy. My principal asked me to make a video recap of the school’s football games, with those videos being sent to the entire school, and even on the local news briefly. From that moment on, I knew I had something that I couldn’t let go of. Senior year comes along and I applied to only two schools – NYU and SCAD. I knew NYU was a long shot and that SCAD was going to likely be where I spent my next 4 years. I was hiking through the woods off the side of a highway, walking over 2 miles to an abandoned tuberculosis hospital with 2 photographer friends when I got the email saying I was accepted into SCAD. I stopped in my tracks and yelled, “NO WAY?! I GOT INTO COLLEGE!!” I process the news as I keep walking, then quickly forgot about it as we got trapped in the flooded basement of this old hospital and had to climb up a ladder in a pitch black man-hole, pushing the giant lid away, and crawling out of the ground in the courtyard of the old hospital. Quite the memorable way to find out you got into college.
When I got to SCAD, right away I found myself on set of some of SCAD’s biggest and most expensive productions. I couldn’t get enough of it. Day and night, I soaked up information like a sponge, taking that knowledge and implementing it into my own work. Throughout my 4 years at SCAD, I collaborated on over 60 photo and video projects with other students, faculty, sports teams, and whoever else wanted work with me. I even began my own wedding videography business, now having completed over 40 weddings all over the country. My portfolio and connections grew exponentially.
In addition to working directly with clients doing freelance work for the last seven years, I worked alongside the Fashion Marketing, Fashion Design, and Accessory Design departments at SCAD. Having so much experience working on a variety of projects with such a broad range of people, I developed a unique eye that allows me to create bold yet simple imagery for people and brands that require nothing but elegance and excellence.
All this work got the attention of a Fashion Marketing professor and Department Chair who subsequently took my under his wing and mentored me along the way. One month before I graduated, I get an email saying that there is an internship position in New York at The Estée Lauder Companies… exactly where I wanted to be, in the industry of my choice. I graduated, packed up my stuff, and began the internship. That led to me being hired part-time, then a couple of months later, brought on Full Time.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The work itself is constantly evolving, creating new challenges every day. Thankfully, my desire to learn grows more and more each day. I am so passionate about the work that I do, most of the time it doesn’t feel like work. This is what allowed me to work on paid or unpaid projects CONSTANTLY. Just by doing what I loved, I set myself up for some incredible opportunities along the way, including the one that got me to my current job in New York. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard work and it is often all-consuming, but by doing what I loved and doing it well, opportunities presented themselves often, leaving it up to me to jump on them to make the most of them.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I focus on collaboration first and foremost. More often than not, I am taking someone else’s idea and bringing it to life. This means listening to and understanding the brief, end goals, effects, outcomes, and bringing their vision to life by creating a video that has passed through my artistic filter. I love the way commercial beauty work allows me to get up close and personal with the face and skin, highlighting emotion, texture and color, ingredients, and showing the details that you don’t often see on others unless you are intimately close to them. These parts of our anatomy are keys to deep emotions; bringing them forward as a visual communication style to tell a story experienced through video is something about which I am passionate.
As I work with different brands, I’ve learned that everyone has their own language. Developing a visual communication language with the client is key in fostering an effective professional relationship. I’m incredibly versatile, being skilled in photo, video, art direction, and more. This agility and ability to adapt to the client allow me to ensure that their vision comes through clearly and in an effective manner.
At my current job, I lead the creation of integrated scientific communications strategies and plans, product stories, R&D-branded assets, and end-to-end scientific content, leveraging the science behind the company’s technologies and products.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Like most kids, I was always been full of energy and drive. It didn’t matter if I was alone, which I often was, or with friends or teammates. I always wanted to be on the move and doing something. Anything to keep myself busy, I always found a way to enjoy it. That energy was expressed in movement and smiles. It didn’t matter if I was alone in the backyard throwing a frisbee in the air and catching it myself, or on the tennis court as the captain of my high school team, I always approached everything with positivity and hard work. It wasn’t something I was told to do, it just naturally happened, which I am grateful for.
99% of my interests growing up were centered around sports. I have been on the tennis court since I was 7 years old, competing every weekend, training every weekday, and even being ranked #30 in Virginia for my age at one point. Because it was so fun to me, I didn’t mind the hard work – it came naturally. It helped me develop my maturity and drive. I worked all through high school teaching tennis. and working at the Country Club because I inherently knew that I had to work hard to get to where I want to be. All that was important for my growth because I had pretty bad anger issues up until maybe 10 years old. I didn’t know how to channel that energy into something positive. Now, I am the most calm person I know… funny how things switch like that. My parents even thought of sending me off to an academy or something because they didn’t know if they could handle me for much longer. Thankfully, I grew out of it.
I worked my way up to captain of my high school tennis team. I took a break for 2 years after high school, not even touching a tennis racquet for those first couple years of college, then one day I was playing tennis at the park with a friend when the SCAD coach saw me and asked to meet. A few days later I was signing my letter of commitment as a walk on player for the SCAD Men’s Tennis Team.
Contact Info:
- Website: jtenenbaum.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordantenenbaum/?__coig_restricted=1
