Susan Weinik

I've been working as a real estate agent for 24 years now, but my career started very differently. I graduated from Boston University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science in photojournalism from the School of Communication, and I became an award-winning photojournalist in New York, working for publications like People Magazine, New York Times, Newsweek, Time Magazine, Paris Match, and others. One of my early breaks was photographing John McEnroe as a pimply-faced kid at the Orange Lawn Tennis Club - nobody wanted those pictures for 2 months, but then I got calls from all over the world and assignments on top of that. I also photographed Whitney Houston in what became the highest-sold picture for one use through Getty at $67,000. I broke my first story with Reverend Moon's church, and People Magazine told me I could be a photographer or a journalist but not both, so I chose photography because I didn't have to stay at the building till 3 in the morning. When I moved to Hawaii for love, there wasn't any real journalism here where you could make money, so I self-published and created the Hoologram die-cut Hula Girl greeting cards, posters, and calendars, doing my own distribution. Eventually my dad, who retired and opened his own real estate company in New Jersey, suggested I try real estate, so I did. I'm still doing it, and dealing with clients here is not really unlike dealing with celebrities - though celebrities are actually a little easier. Now I'm working on archiving all my negatives and putting my body of work together, maybe doing a book while I continue with real estate.