tock Answers® was founded in 1999 by PAUL H. HENNING to fill what he perceived as a significant dearth of available expertise to aid small & medium stock picture agencies, as well as both neophyte and higher level photographers producing stock images. Henning heads up this virtual company which is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Henning’s background in the visual communication industry goes back to 1974 when he founded a fine art photography gallery while simultaneously shooting photo assignments. In 1977 he closed the gallery in order to pursue a full-time career in audio-visual, corporate, and editorial photography.
During the 1980s, Henning’s corporate assignments took him throughout the country as well as outside the USA on several occasions, most notably shooting a 6-week, around-the-world multi-image assignment for AT&T International in 1983, and a 2-week assignment in Europe in 1986 for Coca Cola's Centennial multi-image production.
n 1985 Henning co-founded Third Coast Stock Source Inc., a general subject professional stock picture agency. By the end of 1989 its files had grown to include over 150,000 images produced by 90 contributing photographers from around the USA. Third Coast served a nationwide roster of ad agency, graphic design, corporate and publishing clients, enabling Henning to cease assignment photography in December of ’89 to function as the stock agency's director. His areas of responsibility included: catalog design and production; advertising & marketing; legal issues; and establishment and maintenance of relationships with international affiliates in Europe, Canada, Japan, and South America.
In the autumn of 1997 Henning and his partners sold Third Coast and Henning began a stint in London, England as Manager of European Operations for Comstock, Inc., a stock picture agency then headquartered in New York. Henning had overall responsibility for the performance of Comstock's three European offices (London, Paris and Berlin) as well as developing the company's future strategy for expansion in European markets.
eeling the desire to pursue a professional path more closely attuned to his creative and business talents, Henning left Comstock to launch Stock Answers® and offer marketing, business and strategic planning services to stock agencies, photographers, creative service and media companies. One of Henning’s first consulting clients, the Robert Harding Picture Library, invited him back to London in August of 1999; that consulting session stretched out to nine months, during which Henning served as Harding’s Acting Managing Director.
Henning was a prominent figure in the 1988 reorganization of the Picture Agency [now “Archive”] Council of America (PACA), the North American trade organization for stock picture agencies. He served as that organization's Membership Chairperson and vice president prior to assuming the organization's presidency in 1992, after which he continued to serve on that organization's Executive Committee as Immediate Past President until 1996. Henning has also served as a Vice President of the Midwest Chapter of the American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP) and continues to be an active participant on the chapter’s Board of Directors.
enning lives in Milwaukee with his son, a 16-year old rock guitar phenom and sophomore at the Milwaukee School of Languages. His numerous Stock Answers® activities are augmented by teaching and writing about the picture industry as well as participating in frequent industry seminars and presentations. He balances out this demanding professional life with interests that include bicycling, kayaking, skiing, music and spending time at his second home in Madison, Wisconsin. 
