PHOTO: Monique Laloli. Supplied
Aucklander Monique Laloli has been working in the Photoshop world for close to 15 years. After working with the New Zealand Herald and a photo restoration company, Monique made the move to New York City in 2012. Michael Weinstein, the owner of MW Studio, recognised her talent and offered her a job as a photo retoucher. Fast forward nearly 7 years, and she’s now the senior retoucher there, managing the retouching team and overseeing all the images that get sent to clients.
Weinstein has worked in the industry for almost 25 years and his company is one of the top real estate photography companies in New York City. Long-time clients include Stribling, Corcoran, Halstead, Elliman and Sotheby’s, among others. Steven Gold, who appears on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing, regularly uses MW Studio to photograph his listings. Weinstein is excited with the growth of the company over the last few years and he recently secured an exclusive contract to do all of the photography with another top real estate agency, Warburg.
Dealing with high-end real estate and architectural photos, Monique is an integral part of the selling process. The photos of properties for sale are usually the first thing a potential buyer sees and can either entice or deter the buyer from wanting to view the property in person. Monique is responsible for making each photo look warm and welcoming, or in some cases moody and rich-looking. Her excellent attention to detail and the ability to make sure the image remains realistic and not overly Photoshopped is what sets MW Studio’s work apart from other companies.
In the past year, Monique has also been working on images taken with a drone. Weinstein saw the opportunity to expand his company’s services, and contacted Tom Urban of Urban Aerials to photograph properties with the drone. A recent photoshoot was for a hilltop mansion situated in Tuxedo Park, New York. Built in 2008 on 4.7 idyllic acres, the 9,000 sq. ft. home embodies quiet, refined elegance and breathtaking scenery, with a private dock on Tuxedo Lake.
During her time at MW Studio, Monique has worked on images that have been published in the New York Times, Architectural Digest, Curbed, New York Post, Aspire Home and Design, Property Shark and many others. With a strong desire to push herself; Monique is always researching new techniques to use in Photoshop, to better her work and her career.
