Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
Mercedes planning for $1.4M upgrade
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016
Vol. 104, No. 027 • Two SecTioNS
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
'The best it can be
For photographer Daryl Bunn, work is about striving for perfection
Mercedes-Benz USA is preparing for an almost $1.4 million renovation at its North Jacksonville center for the relocation of an engineering services division from New Jersey. The relocation will mean another 54 jobs for newly hired and relocated employees. Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG, is adding the division to its Quality Evaluation Center at Jacksonville International Tradeport. Known as Project Grace through its incentives evaluation, the project was approved for almost $450,000 in city and state assistance. The resolution was adopted June 28. The jobs will be added by year-end 2018 and pay an average of almost $66,100 a year, plus benefits. A legislative summary describes the relocation as an expansion to an existing service of 30 jobs, boosting the division to 84 positions. As part of the incentives package, the company said it would invest $2.1 million in information technology, equipment and other improvements. The city is reviewing a permit application by Mercedes-Benz USA to renovate 30,000 square feet in its building at 13470 International Parkway at a cost of $1.36 million. MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
Library manager has passion for events, meetings
Daryl Bunn in his Brooklyn studio with his camera. Behind him is the table-top setup he uses to create his food and product photography.
Photos by Fran Ruchalski
By Fran Ruchalski, Contributing Writer Photographing people gets messy. “They don’t stay where you put them. And they talk back,” said Daryl Bunn. “When you’re shooting products, you don’t have those problems.” And he should know. Bunn is a Jacksonville commercial product photographer who has been producing images for clients for over 40 years. He also is a fine art photographer, serigraphy artist, art collector, designer and woodworker. He works out of his rehabbed studio at Edison and May streets in Brooklyn that he bought as a condemned building in 1982. He lives upstairs with his four cats — Jack, Edison, May and Rufus. His passion for photography began when his parents gave him a camera for Christmas as a boy in northern Michigan. He loved it. He spent three years in the Navy as a photographer, which is how he ended up in Jacksonville. After leaving the service, Bunn went back home for a bit. He jumped at the opportunity to start his business in Jacksonville in the back of a frame shop, shooting anything that would help buy a few groceries and put gas in the tank. Little by little — by working hard and getting some good breaks — he ended up shooting for advertising agencies. At first it was a lot of resort imagery, but eventually he graduated to table-top and product work. “I like to spend an hour or two strategically placing sesame seeds on a bun. … That’s kind of my personality,” jokes Bunn. WORKSPACE CONTINUED ON PAGE A-7
By Max Marbut, Staff Writer Ten social functions, 58 weddings, 61 corporate and nonprofit meetings and 505 Jacksonville Public Library events. That’s what was on the calendar at The Conference Center at The Main Library in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Mandie McKenzie took over as manager of the center 10 days into the current fiscal year and plans to use her expertise as a certified meeting professional to put even more entries on the 2016-17 schedule. She was the Friday Musicale’s office manager and rental agent for two years and the arts nonprofit’s executive director for four before joining the library. “I really wanted to get back into hospitality and meetings. That’s my passion,” she said. A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, McKenzie spent three years as an event manager for Destination Planning Corp., where her work included planning logistics for the JAX Chamber’s LIBRARY
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On this production, Bunn and food stylist Heather Nance of San Antonio carefully choose the right ingredients to make the photo pop and entice the viewer to want to try a new sandwich. Nance says she appreciates working with Bunn because he has the technical skills of a photographer and the eye of an artist.
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The lamp Bunn made from a traveling typewriter and case that is about 1920s vintage. In constructing the lamp, he drilled a couple of holes in the case to run the wires, but the typewriter is still functional.
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