Curren Calhoun

San Francisco, CA · (415) 231-6801 · [email protected]

I'm an experienced photo production and digital operations professional, having spent 20+ years working within the industry of which 15 years has been leading photo production operations at several corporations. I believe there is always opportunity to improve operations having conceived, designed, and developed multiple custom workflow systems for each of the operations I've lead in my tenure as an operational leader.

Over the last 6 years, I've incorporated various Lean & Six Sigma approaches to process improvement within creative operations, leading large and small scale improvement projects that have lead to millions in annual operational savings without sacraficing quality.

I'm passionate about enhancing operations through complimentary technology and process optimization. This now includes researching, testing, and even developing various AI to further enhance operations and creative output.

Experience

Speaker & Creative Operations Advocate

I've appeared as a panelist and featured speaker at several photo operations conferences and appeared on an early episode of the eCommerce Content Creation Podcast with Daniel Jester. I've also guest lectured at Rochester Institute of Technology on the Business and Professional Practices of Photography.

Sr. Director, Photo Production & Technology

Gap, Inc.

I lead the executional aspects of the Gap Platform Photo Studios, responsible for the creation of Product Photography and Video assets for 5 brands within the Gap, Inc. portfolio - Athleta, Banana Republic, Banana Republic Factory, Gap, and Gap Factory. Overseeing the Photography, Styling, Retouching, Technology/Systems, Facilities, and Capital Investment Planning.

Our team creates the unique experiences required of our brand partners to connect their products and lifestyle with their customers, while sharing best practices of operations and leveraged creative talent and technology systems to produce over 100,000 assets a year within 45,000 sq ft of production space.

A recent sucess has been the development of a custom workflow application and incorporation of AI to further enhance and automate various workflows while increasing the volume of creative output.

June 2017 - Present

Director, Digital Operations - Studios

Tory Burch

I was brought on at Tory Burch to execute the insourcing of photography operations, building a team to elevate the product photography and introduce internal video production capabilities previously unavailable. Growing the team from 5 to 20+, bringing in retouching, styling, art direction, photography, videography, video editing, and internal video production capabilities.

This team also supported on-site production at the New York Fashion Weeks Runway Shows produced twice a year, as well as provided internally streamed multi-camera live switched video productions of seasonal product reviews - enabiling a broader audience to see and hear the inspiration for Tory's designs and further help articulate her aesthetic to the customer through the content we created.

Managing a multi-million dollar annual operational budget across two brands (Tory Burch, and Tory Sport), I successfully scaled the content creation capabilities without parallel cost increases.

June 2014 - May 2017

Manager, Photography & Studio Operations

Rue La La

At Rue La La, our focus was on producing quality content at scale. At the peak of production, my team produced at an annualized rate of nearly 200,000 images. Leading a team of over 40 creative and operations professionals, I also looked for opportunties to ehnahce the entire production operation upstream and downstream from my direct teams in order to maximize efficiency and communications throughout the system.

My direct team consisted of Photographers, Stylists, Assistant Stylists, Hair & Makeup Artists, Studio Coordinators, Sample Management, and Shipping and Receiving teams.

April 2013 - June 2014

Digital Imaging Director

QVC

While at QVC, I oversaw the 24/7/364 operations of their product photography studio, which was both tied to the live television broadcast, and the online catalog of products. The definition of a fast paced, LIVE environment... where it was no joke to say that the show will be set once its over - you learned that there's nothing you can't overcome if you put your mind to it, and know what to look out for.

In my capacity at QVC, I oversaw the photography, retouching, and sample management teams. During my tenure, I also designed, developed, and implimented a workflow tool built on an Access Database to streamline the various manual processes necessary to support the site and live tv productions - and provide an increased level of performance metrics into our operational management. This tool was in use long after I moved on to other endevors; across the photography, web design, and sales teams.


May 2008 - April 2013

Freelance Photographer, Photo Educator, and Computer Systems Specialist

Curren & Company, LLC

Working as a freelance photographer creating compelling photography for various organizations across a variety of subject matter. From traveling throughout North America on projects for Case New Holland North America, to product and model photography for QVC, and a variety of specialty support for the United States Golf Association.

As an educator, I've taught college and university courses in Traditional and Digital Photography, as well as Advanced Digital Photography Workflows. Teaching at Harrisburg Area Community College, Mercer County Community College, and Rowan University.

I've built, implimented, and administered several small business computer networks based on Windows Server OS, including Domain Controllers, Exchange Servers, VoIP PBX Systems (Digital and POTS Trunks), CMS and Document Management Systems, and small business E-Commerce Platforms. Additionally, I functioned as the Macintosh Support Specialist for the United States Golf Association, as well as the on-site photo editor for several U.S. Open & Women's Open Championships.

July 1996 - May 2008

Recognition

Top 50 E-Commerce Photo Studio Professionals 2025

Nominated

Recently Nominated as one of the Top 50 E-Commerce Photo Studio Professionals 2025.

Top 30 E-Commerce Photo Studio Professionals 2023

Recognized

Recognized as one of the Top 30 E-Commerce Photo Studio Professionals 2023 by Pixelz, Profoto, and Creative Force.

“Curren possesses a unique blend of skills - creative and analytical - and his ability to speak to various corporate audiences to improve the end product. He’s extremely solution-oriented and brings a wealth of industry knowledge to any project.”

Education

Southern New Hampshire University

Masters of Business Administration
Quality Systems & Six Sigma

2017

Rochester Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Fine Arts
Professional Photographic Illustration

2001

Skills

Multidisciplinary Leadership
  • Production, Operations, Facilities Design and Management
  • Leading and Developing Creative Teams (Art Direction, Styling, Photography, Retouching, Videography, and Post Production)
  • Financial Management, Budgeting and Forecasting, Captial Expense Planning
  • Technology Infrastructure and Workflow Systems Design, Development, Implimentation, and Management - For both Still Photography, Motion Video, and Multi-Camera Live Video
  • Continuous and Project Based Process Improvement through Lean & Six Sigma principles

Systems & Operations
  • Research, testing, and implimentation of AI into production operations to decrease cycle times, increase creative output, and offer more content to our partners
  • Custom Workflow Systems Design & Development - Microsoft Access, VBA, Filemaker, Python, Django
  • Large Scale Asset Management & Production Flow Systems
  • Creative Operations Tools - Adobe Creative Cloud, Digital Asset Management, Photo Production Tools & Software
  • Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems, Docker, NAS, Systems Automation

Interests

My curiosity and drive to learn have me digging into many personal projects to further fuel my inability to be idle! As a skier, my desire to learn more lead me to work as a 'weekend' ski instructor for 7 years, albeit in Pennsylvania. I enjoy woodworking and remodelling projects, as well as maintaining and upgrading an overland vehicle that I tour and offroad in as time permits. Its amazing to see the views from off the beaten path!

From a technology standpoint, I toy with electronics and home automation with development boards and IoT devices - building a fully integrated home automation system with voice activation and conditionally triggered reminders (or anoyances, depending on who you ask). I've also explored various web development frameworks, recently learning Django and Python which I've used to develop and deploy a workflow system to satisfy gaps that exist within my current organizations available suite of tools.


With the rapidly evolving AI landscape, I've been amazed by both open source and commercial offerings that can be hugely benefitial to several aspects of photo operations and content creation. Much of my recent time has been spent researching, testing and implementing AI into my teams workflows.