Prime Collective is a brand new photographic cooperative that I stumbled upon recently. I like the idea of photographers banding together and Luceo Images has proven that it can work well for marketing and potentially for business as well. They’ve got a nice professional group site set up and I know photo editors will like the one stop shopping of it all. With all the social networking that needs to happen and the potential to use twitter, facebook and blogging to market yourself it makes a lot of sense to me to share those tasks among a group of photographers. Good luck to Prime.

primecollective

Prime is a photographic cooperative founded in 2011. Our six founding members – Dominic Bracco II, Melanie Burford, Brendan Hoffman, Charlie Mahoney, Lance Rosenfield, and Max Whittaker – are united by our firm belief in the power of the image, the importance of pursuing self-directed projects and stories we believe in, and our commitment to journalistic integrity. By working in cooperation, we hope to further several goals: to reinforce the importance of, and market for, photography; to use economies of scale to increase the financial viability of our own careers; and to share information and motivation between ourselves to constantly improve our photographic abilities.

We are devoted to the idea that while truth is not absolute, experience never total, and perception invariably colors reality, the world can be most universally understood and related through images. By applying our own studied judgment, we believe that we can produce narratives that shine a light on the human condition. We may further human understanding, though it is just as likely that the stories we produce will serve only to highlight the complexities of mankind. Either way, we hope our work enriches the lives of our viewers, our subjects, and ourselves.

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5 Comments

  1. Thanks for posting this. Melanie Buford, amazing.

  2. No doubt our future is collaboration and teamwork enabled by new ways to communicate with our peers, new ways to reach our audience and new ways to tell stories.
    “By working in cooperation, we hope to further several goals: to reinforce the importance of, and market for, photography; to use economies of scale to increase the financial viability of our own careers; and to share information and motivation between ourselves to constantly improve our photographic abilities.”
    Well said !
    I’ve been watching with interest both Luceo and Prime Collective to consider how the model can apply to regional groups of talented complemetary photographers in the commercial realm to share resources, studio space, assistants, stylists and importantly promotion – a team of a food shooter, architectural, fashion, lifestyle, people, marketing asst, etc ..looks like a rep’s roster but put them all in a shared collective with individual responsibilities and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

  3. Thanks for the shout out Rob – we are thrilled.

    At only two weeks young, our collective is already paying off with assignments and a level of visibility we could not have achieved individually. The beauty of this collective (I’m sure not unlike others) is that we are committed to supporting each other and we have a sense of family that might be similar to the days of ‘bumping asses and elbows’ in the darkroom. Even though we are geographically scattered (by design), we meet at least once a week using Skype and email each other daily. In short, we are there for each other and push each other which is a great thing in the freelance world.

    We have group projects on deck, we brainstorm together, share business and photo tech knowledge, and as you said, we market and network together for the group. It’s nice to know that I have at least these five comrades who are pushing for me, and I for them. We have no alpha males and we get along beautifully, yet we maintain our individual inspirations and outlooks which makes the group richer, I believe.

    I think we have a lot to look forward to, so please stay tuned. Thanks again for the post!

    Lance

  4. I really love the idea of a photographic collective, its hard to find people that are really serious though to move forward though. Good Luck to Prime Collective!!

  5. Good luck with your wonderful new collaboration. The work is beautiful and I can see why you are already experiencing success and increased opportunities.


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