Photographers Hiring Help – New vs. Old (school)

How ironic. Aghan-girl-on-the-cover-of-Nat-Geo photographer Steve McCurry and my-dslr-is-a-freaking-movie-camera photographer Vincent LaForet post help wanted ads 1 day apart.

Old schooler McCurry goes for the craigslist classified ad seeking an intern who is “highly motivated” with a “proven track record of excellence.” This intern must be proficient in “retouching in Photoshop” and will work 9am to 6pm, 5 days a week for 3 months unless Steve is out of the office in which case you will be working on the weekends too. The position is unpaid (apply here).

New schooler LaForet goes for the blog post (natch) where his legions of followers can quickly spread the word and apply for 3 (yes 3!) open slots on his team. Applicants must be “proficient in Premiere or Final Cut Pro” and “obsessed with gear” and have the ability to “grade footage.” All positions are paid (apply here) and part time (2-3 days a week).

I’m not sure who wants to be not getting paid to zap the dust off old negatives over getting paid to grade footage (whatever that means), but the coincidence of it all felt very telling to me.

Someone sent me their application for McCurry’s internship:

intern

FYI, if you want learn more about hiring interns here’s some solid advice from the U.S. Department of Labor (here).

Take our business, please! We’re throwing in the towel!

Simon Dumenco of AdAge delivers the keynote this holiday season:

“That big publishers can’t manage to sell enough print ads, in a post-print media economy shadowed by a larger economic meltdown, is not exactly shocking. What is shocking, though, is that they’re essentially saying to scrappier, upstart online competitors: Take our business, please! We’re throwing in the towel! If we can’t play by the old rules of publishing — the profit-soaked, imperial model with endless layers of coddled management ensconced in luxe trophy offices — then we don’t want to play at all!”

“I’m just asking: Are you willing to radically adjust your business model precisely because you still believe in the act of publishing?”

“And when I say ‘radically adjust your business model,’ I don’t mean radically amputating so the patient bleeds to death faster. I don’t mean cutting all the front-line content producers — the editors and writers and art staffers who don’t make million-dollar-plus salaries — in great brutal rolling waves so that soon you’ll be unable to produce any content anymore. I don’t mean changing your business purpose from editorial brand building to, basically, editorial brand hospice care — abusive, inadequate hospice care at that.”

Read it all (here).

Interesting Staff Photographer Position

I was sent this interesting Job opening with Titan Media and Technology Corp. They’re looking for 10-15 staff photographers to pay $45k a year plus benefits to travel for 10 to 15 days at a time, 15 times or more a year, away from NYC taking pictures.

Didn’t see anything about owning a flak jacket, so that’s a good sign.

I thought some of you might find this interesting.

Download the PDF Job Description here.