notes: the paradox of the professional photographer
I just had a great chance to catch up with an old colleague for a nice lunch- Larry Stein.
Larry and I were working the same area at the same time, and shared a few clients. It was pretty funny, for the first time, to talk about those clients (were your ears burning, Mark?) and jobs, but also, more importantly, our perceptions of each other's reputations and work, and relationships with those clients, mostly through offhand comments and maybe even rumors.
I use the term "colleague" here very deliberately, because that is what we were. We were competitors, sure, but we also had respect for the other's work, and reputation. I regret that, at that point in our careers, we did not somehow reinforce that relationship, but I think both of us shared the perspective that we were competitors, pure and simple.
And that, my friends, is what is wrong, and has been for decades, with commercial photography.
We've all been looking at the business like we're gunslingers- one lonely cowboy out there, scrapping and fighting, looking out for number one.
I recalled, yesterday, the story that led me to cancel my subscription to PDN, the story about the guy who was crowing about shooting for PhotoDisc- royalty free, work for hire, for a $5000 day rate. For some reason, the fact that he was pulling the rug out from under the entire industry escaped him... in his self-centered greed.
And another photographer, lately one I can call a friend, comes to mind... Lou Jones. If there is one single thing I think of when I hear his name, it's his career of supporting the industry, the community of professional photography. Maybe it will distress him to read this, that I think of this rather than his photography, but this too is his "work". Thinking not only of himself, and his career, but acting in a way that creates a future, a legacy for every young photographer getting out of school, trying to make a living. (OK, his photography is pretty damn inspiring too...)
The only way this business, and business it is, can survive, is if we remake our perception of who we are, and how we fit in as individuals in the community of commercial photography. Strangely, I feel that, somehow, networking like Facebook may hold some of the answers...
...that is all.
Larry and I were working the same area at the same time, and shared a few clients. It was pretty funny, for the first time, to talk about those clients (were your ears burning, Mark?) and jobs, but also, more importantly, our perceptions of each other's reputations and work, and relationships with those clients, mostly through offhand comments and maybe even rumors.
I use the term "colleague" here very deliberately, because that is what we were. We were competitors, sure, but we also had respect for the other's work, and reputation. I regret that, at that point in our careers, we did not somehow reinforce that relationship, but I think both of us shared the perspective that we were competitors, pure and simple.
And that, my friends, is what is wrong, and has been for decades, with commercial photography.
We've all been looking at the business like we're gunslingers- one lonely cowboy out there, scrapping and fighting, looking out for number one.
I recalled, yesterday, the story that led me to cancel my subscription to PDN, the story about the guy who was crowing about shooting for PhotoDisc- royalty free, work for hire, for a $5000 day rate. For some reason, the fact that he was pulling the rug out from under the entire industry escaped him... in his self-centered greed.
And another photographer, lately one I can call a friend, comes to mind... Lou Jones. If there is one single thing I think of when I hear his name, it's his career of supporting the industry, the community of professional photography. Maybe it will distress him to read this, that I think of this rather than his photography, but this too is his "work". Thinking not only of himself, and his career, but acting in a way that creates a future, a legacy for every young photographer getting out of school, trying to make a living. (OK, his photography is pretty damn inspiring too...)
The only way this business, and business it is, can survive, is if we remake our perception of who we are, and how we fit in as individuals in the community of commercial photography. Strangely, I feel that, somehow, networking like Facebook may hold some of the answers...
...that is all.
posted by Ted Dillard at
6:55 AM
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