About TBC

Margo90x90webMargo Taussig Pinkerton has been known as The Barefoot Contessa (TBC) since 1970 when a friend of hers said that her practice of entertaining in a long skirt and bare feet with her then-dark hair falling to her waist reminded him of Ava Gardner in the movie, The Barefoot Contessa.

In the early 80s, under the name Barefoot Contessa Adventures, she started leading adventures that included helping clients make stronger photographs of their once-in-a-lifetime trips.  Her favorite adventures were the canoe trips she led down National Wild and Scenic Rivers north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska. Those included ones on the Kobuk and Alatna Rivers, places to which she would return in a heartbeat!

In addition to leading trips, TBC traveled to many places in the world doing stock and assignment photography.  Her stock was picked up by National Geographic Traveler, GEO, Caribbean Travel & Life, Vogue, a plethora of other magazines, corporations, and coffee-table books, and she did assignment work for the likes of Coleman, The Moorings, and Moss Tent, to name a few.

Her husband/partner, Arnold “Arnie” Zann, a former LIFE and Time photographer, also did work for National Geographic, GEO, and other magazines before turning to corporate work for Fortune 500 and 100 companies.

When they joined their photo businesses, they continued to work for both corporate and high-end editorial clients.  And because they had both taught photography, given seminars and lectures to professional photo and designer groups, they morphed Barefoot Contessa Adventures into Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures.  Currently, they run seventeenover a dozen regularly-scheduled photo workshops in the US, Central America, and Europe with a maximum ratio of 6:1 students to instructors as well as private workshops for individuals, families, and small groups. They also run a Lightroom workshop, generally once a year, and the location for that moves around.

TBC’s interests are eclectic, including, but not limited to most anything to do with the outdoors, travel, sailing, canoeing, skiing, hiking, reading, teaching race-car driving to amateurs, and sharing her knowledge with others

Arnie’s and her work may be seen at Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures as well as on YouTube.

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