By Kevin Heffernan
Photos from Katie Addo & Addo Productions

World class talent has come home to roost.

We want to grow. A lot. It’s in our plans over the next few years to see Rise do so while maintaining an HQ in Buffalo. A few years ago, that sentiment would have been scoffed at with “Well if you really wanna make it, you gotta get outta here and head to New York.” But as we see more home-grown creative talent cultivated, more people moving here after leaving massive cities behind, and our favorite – more expats coming home, we see a bright future for a creative and highly-skilled Buffalo, especially when it comes to media production.

One such influx of expat talent is Katie Addo. A Buffalo native, she has spent the last few years in New York as a photographer working with some small brands you might have heard of like Glamour, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post to name a few.

Addo and her husband Greg were building their production careers by leaps and bounds in NYC when they had a baby and started to take a look at the quality of life they were seeking. What we see so often is that when people start actually giving that consideration value, Buffalo comes back into focus, clear as day. Now, they’re back home and back to work.

To reintroduce herself  and Addo Productions (Instagram) (Website) to town, and put her skillset on display, Addo is throwing a headshot happy hour event at Trattoria Aroma on Bryant Thursday 4/25.

On coming home, Greg and Katie say, “We didn’t know if we would be able to find work locally or if we would need to rely on our NYC network and travel back and forth. We’ve been so excited to find that there is a real need for the work that we do both in Buffalo and beyond. We have loved working with brands of all sizes to help tell their stories, and it’s been exciting to see how each person/company utilizes our skill sets differently. Our favorite part about what we do is all of the people we meet. Being new in a city allows us to tell new stories, make new friends, and pushes us to stay creative.”

Winter’s over. Get to this happy hour, get re-energized and refresh that headshot for $50.

Check out some of Katie’s work in the links above, or the photos below.