J.P. Pappis, a 22-year industry veteran, has launched Polaris Images, a new agency based in New York City. Pappis is the former executive editor of Sygma Photo News and Corbis Sygma, and also served as editor-in-chief of Gamma Press USA.

Polaris will represent photographers to magazines, newspapers and television, cover major news events, produce feature stories, market special celebrity shoots and seek corporate assignments. The agency’s stable of photographers includes Misha Erwitt, Timothy Fadek, J. Patrick Forden, Paulo Fridman, Wade Goddard, Evelyn Hockstein, John Hryniuk, Stuart Isett, Robert King, Yannis Kontos, Ziv Koren, Gerardo Somoza, Shannon Stapleton, Robert Stolarik, and Allan Tannenbaum.

The new agency has invested in advanced Internet technology to receive and deliver Polaris’s photographic production worldwide. Polaris already delivers light boxes and FTP drops of images selected from the archive with its search engine, photoSpark. The public site, polarisimages.com, will carry the portfolios of its photographers. The next version will exhibit their production and offer archive presentation and search capabilities.