Sometimes it's impossible to ignore the synchronicity surrounding us.

When Claudia Monaco quit her job with the intention of opening her own photo rep agency, it only took a fifteen minute walk to the subway to know she was onto something. She stepped on to the subway platform only to run into an old friend, the wife of a photographer she had worked with. When asked what she was up to, Claudia answered with her characteristic candor, "As of twenty minutes ago, I am representing photographers." By the time she walked into her front door a half hour later, she was able to inform David of a trifecta of important information; "I quit my job, we are opening a photo rep agency, and we already have our first photographer."

While things haven't all been so marked by that sort of synchronicity, there has certainly been enough for the Monacos to know that they were on the right track. It was a long and winding road to get to the point of starting their own shop. The two met while working at Vogue, Claudia was on the editorial team and David was in the art department learning layouts and typography as part of the staff under the great Alexander Liberman. Indeed, from the beginning, they were surrounded by some of the most influential creatives of the time; the first time Claudia found herself alone on a set was with the great French actress Isabelle Huppert. The photographer? Richard Avedon.

Within a few short years, at both Vogue and Paris Vogue, she had worked on set with photography's most legendary characters : Irving Penn, Arthur Elgort, Francesca Scavullo, Albert Watson and Andy Warhol, among others. A foray into photojournalism trained her to edit under the proverbial gun. With the valuable combination of a highly refined creative acumen and an uncanny editorial eye, Claudia was once asked by Horst P. Horst to be his rep. She graciously turned down the offer, but the seed was certainly sown.

Meanwhile, David had moved on from graphics and design work to marketing and advertising. The change in direction helped him to cultivate an understanding of the delicate balance between being able to identify creative skill and marketing it. This would become an invaluable cornerstone of the success of Monaco Reps.

The Monaco Reps team has grown over the years; with two in house agents, Ian Gipe and Yoni Ben-Yosef; as well as an LA office headed by Leslie McGowan. Each of the agents bring their own individual strengths to the table, and the business has prospered for it. The Monaco Reps family is rounded out by creative producer extraordinaire Brian Flink, office management superstar Jenn Sommermann, and the virtual voice of the company, Brittany Raynor.

It's been a couple decades since that fateful day on the subway platform, but that synchronicity has persisted over the years. When the ad business was hit by the down economy in the early 90's, Monaco Reps was ahead of the curve. They diversified their client roster from primarily fashion focused to a broader range of commercial photography, and the change has marked their business ever since. In the first ten years of the new century, Monaco Reps once again identified an important shift in the industry, this time towards the growing importance of video in a commercial photographer's repertoire. Monaco Reps provides comprehensive support to their photographers, from portfolio and concept building to exploring new marketing tools. The Monacos utilize their extensive wealth of prior experience to help photographers realize their own potential.

While many agencies focus on established talents, the Monacos find themselves time and again drawn to the young and up & coming photographers who are eager to make their mark in the industry. Those photographers inevitably benefit from the knowledge and experience the Monacos and their dedicated and experienced team of agents posses. While they do not believe in fate, David and Claudia certainly accept that there was some bit of kismet that led them to create Monaco Reps.