Heather Morton has worked with photography in advertising for almost 10 years. Having assisted for various photographers, she found her niche with Tom Feiler and served as his first full-time Producer- becoming one of the first dedicated Photography producers in the city. Still grateful for the opportunities she was given, Heather learned tremendously from one of the most innovative and hard working photographers in the industry. At the same time she helped define the importance of the Photography Producer and how it would be practiced in Toronto.

After 2 years, her learning curve plateaued and she left Tom’s studio for a position as an Art Buyer at Cossette Communications in August of 2001. Working on major accounts including Nike, McDonalds, Bell Canada, Bank of Montreal, and Shoppers Drug Mart, she augmented her department with two Junior Art Buyers and expanded to service all convergent partners within the agency. A revenue-generating role, she increased her departments’ billings by 300% in her first two years. In addition, she instituted legal practices and image release protocols and offered ongoing training for Creative and Account Service in areas of image acquisition and management. At that time Heather was one of only a handful of Art Buyers in Canada and ran the largest Art Buying Department in the country.

Needing a new challenge, Heather left Cossette in July of 2006 and began to offer freelance Art Buying services and portfolio consultation for photographers. Despite Canada’s vibrant Advertising and commercial photography culture, few agencies have Art Buyers. As the only freelancer in Canada, she has been given the opportunity to introduce this role to some of the most interesting agencies in the country including John St., Leo Burnett and Zig. In this role, Heather is thrilled to be pioneering again.

At the same time, Heather feels passionately about helping under-recognized photographers get consideration in this very competitive marketplace. To this end, she offers portfolio review and consultation, re-branding services and quoting assistance. She is an ongoing participant in the portfolio review panel at Toronto’s Photography Festival, Contact. Heather is a member of the Art Producers Forum, which gives Art Buyers access to each other internationally via the web.