Comments on: Contributor Photo

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:15:14 +0000

It\’s a great and valuable site!

By: sinuhe

sinuhe — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:22:45 +0000

It’s funny that you bring this up when you manage to have the worst photos of yourself. We all know you have decent taste in photography, so why the crap photos? Actually why post a picture of yourself at all?

By: AAD

AAD — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:35:02 +0000

Yes! I deal with this dilemma every month. Writer contributor photos are even worse, I don’t know how many JCPenney headshots I’ve seen. And the reality is, if the photo is bad, the contributor is out. Why miss the exposure? Same thing goes for art submitted by the subject of a story. If supplied art is available and great, a story is more likely to be written and published…at least in the regional world of tight budgets.

By: Sucka Pants

Sucka Pants — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:21:26 +0000

Yeah. I’ve always wondered about that too. Figured it was some weird anti-aesthics anti-vanity thing I didn’t understand.

By: Aaron L

Aaron L — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:55:35 +0000

For the love of all that is pure, never take a photo of yourself looking through a camera in a mirror and than photoshop something on the lens. I hate that…

By: Ed Hawco

Ed Hawco — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:32:15 +0000

Maybe it’s for the same reason that many hair stylists and barbers have bad haircuts — they don’t want anyone showing them up.

Since you can’t really cut your own hair, nor photograph yourself (silly “self portraits” notwithstanding), having a bad haircut or photo of yourself says “I would have done a better job than the monkey who did this.” At least that’s what those barbers and photographers like to think.

By: Erica Chadwick

Erica Chadwick — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:03:08 +0000

alan- i like any contributor photos with your kid or dog in them. make me feel like i know you. (but then again, i am just a reader of a magazine. maybe what i think is not what the PEs think)

By: Erica Chadwick

Erica Chadwick — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:00:50 +0000

i have an “good looking” photographer who always winds up on the contributor page. i’ve often wondered if he get placed just because he’s good looking. your post makes me think my hunch is right.

By: Martha Retallick

Martha Retallick — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:09:49 +0000

I plead guilty to not having a good photo of myself. I also plead guilty to being (gasp!) somewhat camera shy.

But, lately I’ve been messing around with self-portraits, and here’s my latest. One of these days, I’ll get one when I’m not out bicycling.

By: Darrell Eager

Darrell Eager — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:05:06 +0000

Several years ago I did some portraits for Graphis magazine and they asked for a portrait of me and a creative bio.
So I sent them a picture of me at the age of 15 on a beach in California holding a Hawaiian vintage big board (I’m from the midwest).
For my bio I wrote something that was like the dialogue from a David Lynch movie. It was so strange the editor of the
magazine called and questioned me about what I had said. Once she understood the metaphors and innuendoes she was fine.
I don’t know if it hurt but looking back I’m sure it didn’t help. So not only is a good portrait helpful but a professionally written bio
is also a good idea.

By: The Jackanory

The Jackanory — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:29:55 +0000

Rob

You been trawling through my archives for material now that you got all this free time on your hands, ha ha.

I did a quick post here

http://www.whatsthejackanory.com/2007/03/contributors-photo.html

on the subject way back in the early days when I was a young blogger

Many thanks for the shout out on your coming out piece it means a lot to be mentioned.

So you may be happy to hear I am ending my own blogging hiatus and will be back open for business tomorrow

Best wishes

By: moreno

moreno — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:13:27 +0000

I haven’t made it to any contributor pages yet, but when I do, I’ll be ready. I’m doing a self-portrait everyday for a year. I recommend it. I’ve gained much empathy for the people I shoot and I try, when I have the energy, to outdo myself everyday. Sounds vain, but you get into it and learn a lot.

I’m on day 73

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joemoreno/sets/72157602721420610/

By: B5

B5 — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:58:54 +0000

AHHH!

That’s the secret of martin Parr’s success. He even has a book of Autoportret!
B5

By: janel

janel — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:34:28 +0000

A very noteworthy post! I have helped photographers with this issue many times.

Take a look at the photo here: http://www.ethansalwen.com used to introduce Ethan’s new website. The shot was cropped for his business card as well, seen here: http://www.ethansalwen.com/contact.htm

When creating his site, we hired a fellow travel pro, Roberto Soncin Gerometta, to shoot him in several settings to match the site’s travel journal look and feel.

In turn, when it came time to update Roberto’s site, I convinced him to go with this shot here:
http://www.robertosoncingerometta.com/about.html taken by Maurizio Grisa. Some told him it wasn’t “professional” looking. But we both thought it was a great shot, and also because Roberto is a great swimmer.

By: tate

tate — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:18:28 +0000

I have plenty good ones of myself - taken by myself. I think it’s so great when people take the time to do their own self portraits as a form of art. Of course, if you know another photographer - definitely support them and pay them to do some photos of you!

By: rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » links for 2008-01-05

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 05:26:20 +0000

[...] Contributor photo | A Photo Editor weblog Quote - Why do photographers have such bad photographs of themselves? (tags: photography magazines) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “links for 2008-01-05″, url: “http://www.rexblog.com/2008/01/04/17426/” }); permalink | categories: All other | Time posted: 11:13 pm on Friday, January 4th, 2008 [...]

By: Stephen_Austin_Welch

Stephen_Austin_Welch — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:08:26 +0000

Nice rant! I am snickering.
Ya, I think about this too. Seriously, it happens over and over again!

I always give ’em (at least) two options.

From my competitive nature point of view, I am relieved when I see a not-so-great shot. But I do not mean that in a mean way—really, I don’t.

Pictures aside, anything is better than THE BIO:
“When I was 6 I got a Brownie Camera…”
How can this be true time & time again!?!

Thanks APE/RH. I enjoy your blog and want it to continue.
And I also dig the friendly photographer community it as spawned.

It is so cool that all this happened from your honest opinions on your real experiences.

cheers, SAW

p.s. btw, my first comment.

By: STONER

STONER — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 02:23:47 +0000

@19: That’s a great one!

I’m glad APE brought this up. I’ve actually run vintage police blotter mugshots for every single contributor in one issue, covers of beatnik comic books for another…all because the contributors either didn’t supply shots or they were so atrocious that we just couldn’t run ‘em.

Allow me to suggest just this: don’t make your shots so damned serious, photographers. I’m not saying you have to put on clown makeup, but reward the reader for actually taking a moment to read your freakin’ bio. Most of them could care less, so make them pause for a moment as they turn the page and give them a compelling shot that’ll actually make them look up your website when they can turn on their crackberry after the plane lands.

If I didn’t know anything about Richardson and I saw his furbie shot in the contributors section, damn straight I’d remember it and look him up.

STONER

By: stpiduko » Blog Archive » Photo of Stpiduko

stpiduko » Blog Archive » Photo of Stpiduko — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:04:53 +0000

[...] of Stpiduko I read this, than thought of this (taken by Ben Roberts) [...]

By: Jim Goldstein

Jim Goldstein — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:33:15 +0000

Great point. One more thing to add to my list of things to do. Now to work on being as comfortable in front of the camera as I do behind it.

By: dude

dude — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:58:06 +0000

One mag I know bans all babies, puppies, scooters, ice cream, hand-holding, flowers, kittens, etc. from their pages as part of an anti-cliche policy. Proceed at your own risk.

By: Sarra Fleur

Sarra Fleur — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:15:01 +0000

@18

Holding the kid shot works for me. Not pretentious and not too serious. Damn! Too bad I don’t have one. Maybe I can borrow a friends’.

By: Peter Garner

Peter Garner — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:36:11 +0000

@3 .. @4 .. how true!

Anyway, chances are that if someone else takes my picture I’ll be chimping or my face will be scrunched up looking through the viewfinder of my Nikon Dxxx that don’t have active preview. Not flattering..

By: Simon Winnall

Simon Winnall — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:16:05 +0000

I like Terry Richardson’s shot of himself on the home page of his site!!!

By: Alan Farkas

Alan Farkas — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:10:40 +0000

All right I’m gonna let it all hang out.
I, like all of you, hate 99.9% of the snaps of myself.
I happen to have one I like but it’s of me holding my baby daughter.

http://www.alanfarkas.com/misc/farkas_bio.jpg

Is this out of line? Not cool enough? As Rocky points out on post 17 - the last thing I wanna look like is one of those PPA dorks holding a camera, no offense PPA people, it’s just a different aesthetic. Maybe I should just get a Terry Richardson blow up doll prop …….

By: Rocky Dobbs

Rocky Dobbs — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:53:10 +0000

If you want to see a hilarious example of this, look at the latest edition of Rangefinder magazine that lists several pages of the photographers that will be speaking at the upcoming WPPI conference. Most of them look like there were taken by a second rate yearbook photographer.

By: Simon Winnall

Simon Winnall — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:47:01 +0000

On a similar topic…

I’d love to put a video of me working on my site as I think its invaluable for client to feel a bit more of a connection with you… problem is, how do you do it without looking like an f*cking idiot! I’m still not happy with it! I know Chase Jarvis is a famous exponent of video as a self promo tool!

What’s APE’s thoughts on photographers having video on their sites? Insightful or frightful?

By: dez

dez — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:42:32 +0000

I am guilty of not having any contributor worthy photos of myself. When I’m on the other side of the camera, I can’t help but to make some goofy face just to be silly. Those who know me, think that the photos fit my personality, but I guess I really should buckle down and take a nice portrait … one that Mom would be proud of.

By: Simon Winnall

Simon Winnall — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:29:05 +0000

@11 Tony that’s funny!

By: Joe L.

Joe L. — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:11:55 +0000

It’s a tough thing — I know of a lot of my photographer friends who feel uncomfortable saying, “Hey look at me, Mr Suave Photographer”. Maybe it’s just a shyness thing. Another friend of mine did a funny picture, where he did the classic pose with the 501 Hasselblad up under his chin, and then he did that classic “earnest expression”, but he took scotch tape and taped his face in place, holding that earnest expression. Sounds stupid, but it was pretty damn funny, and summed up his personality. I’d hire him on his headshot alone.

But on the flipside, read back thru Rob’s archives here, and read about the hundreds of photographers wanting to “get discovered” but they don’t live in LA or NYC. Imagine Rob having a job in their part of the country; don’t you KNOW he’d be a little nervous hiring someone he’d never met before? I think the picture can show that you’re not a dork, or a loser, or a crackhead, or a RocksAndRoots guy. Every little bit helps, especially if you don’t live in a major city. You do whatever you can to eliminate doubt, and build confidence that you could be hired sight-unseen.