Some people are just not content with doing one thing well—they insist on adding another. Of course, some get dragged kicking and screaming into doing that second thing. Director Peggy Sirota of bicoastal HSI Productions probably comes closer to being one of the latter. She was perfectly content with life as a Los Angeles-based still photographer, working primarily in fashion.
"I had a career going, and I’d say about five years into that I was asked by a client of mine to shoot a television commercial," relates Sirota. "I was totally shocked and said, ‘No! There’s no way! I’m not a director.’ And they insisted, so that’s kind of when I started directing."
Sirota has been conducting her twin careers since 1992. During that time, she’s helmed ads for the likes of Banana Republic, US West, Buick, Toyota and Fidelity. Her most recent effort includes Gateway’s "Teaser" for the computer company’s "People Rules" campaign, out of McCann-Erickson, New York; and Acura’s "Florida Keys," "New Orleans" and "Palm Springs" via Rubin Postaer and Associates, Santa Monica.
Besides advertising and editorial assignments as a photographer, Sirota has shot a number of high-profile magazine covers. In the last year she has photographed Renee Zellweger for Vanity Fair, Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford for GQ, Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron for Entertainment Weekly, Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey for Rolling Stone and Courtney Love for Marie Claire.
And Guess Who?, her first photo collection, has just been published by Steidl, a German publishing firm. "It’s a funny, weird, different take on celebrity portraits [featuring] one-hundred-seventy-two very famous people," says Sirota of the coffee table book. "But you can’t tell who anybody is—you have to guess who people are." All proceeds from the book will be going to assorted AIDS charities, such as AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA).
Self-taught
Sirota didn’t attend college or film school. What she did do, when she turned 21 in ’78, was go to California. In Los Angeles she looked around for a way to expand her income. "When I started as a photographer, I had no training, never assisted anyone, and I just started shooting pictures," she recalls. "I really, literally just wanted to make some extra money on the weekends, just wanted to take pictures of friends who wanted to be actors. I never thought twice about it; I knew I could do it."
There was a basis for such self-confidence. "It’s really the visual thing," notes Sirota. "I never had a problem expressing my opinion about what looked right and what didn’t look right. That always came very, very naturally."
But how about taking the step to commercial director? "It was really scary," she admits, "so scary, in fact, that I was just kind of frozen in my tracks. I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to let people know that I didn’t know everything. I was just kind of very quiet and tried to take in everything I possibly could, and asked questions when it was appropriate."
Although she sometimes operates the camera, Sirota has had to use DPs most of the time. "I’m real
