Selina Maitreya Interview

Selina Maitreya called me up the other day to tell me about a new mp3 series she developed for photographers called “The View From Here.” I’ve heard good things from photographers who’ve worked with Selina so I checked it out. It all sounded very well done and informative but I thought it might be better for all of you if I just asked her a few questions, so you can gauge for yourself if you like where she’s coming from. You can learn more about the series (here) and Selina gave me this code: FOSAPE that will get you the whole thing for $99 instead of the advertised $199. I get nothing from the transaction just in case you were curious if I did that kind of thing. Just so you know, I don’t.

Here’s what Selina and I talked about:

APE: Where should we start?

I thought that Art Buyer interview you posted recently was interesting because it told me that essentially nothing has changed over the years. The way buyers assign has been tweaked, but the process is basically he same. As far back as I can remember when an Art Director would have a job they’d call in a photographer they knew to sit down and shoot the breeze, maybe they’d get on the phone if they didn’t have the time, but they’d sit down and discuss the whole project. And 9 times out of 10 they were hiring someone they knew first before they would decide to outsource to somebody that was new. I remember 30 years ago being in lots of meetings as an agent and the project was discussed before you got hired and you’d spend an hour or two, maybe have lunch and then you’d most likely get the assignment. Sometimes they might shop it around.

APE: Yeah so I’ve heard this common complaint about the personality test and even brought it up in that Art Buyer post: what does the photographers ability to communicate with the Art Director have to do with taking pictures?

Tons, this is still a creative process. On one hand, photographers want people to hire them and make it personal, on the other hand they say that they don’t want their personality considered. The business has shifted in terms of the way relationships are developed and the time and place where the relationship comes into the sell is now different. But what is the same is that relationships are still important and personalities are important. Think about it, who want’s to hire somebody that they don’t have an understanding with. It’s not just about the visual. The visual is the front end sell now and it used to be the personality and the relationship was the front end sell but those are now what seal’s the deal. Photographers will point to budgets being the front end piece but budgets get discussed after books are called in. It’s the visual that gets the initial attention.

APE: It seems to me this is the difference between photography as a business and a hobby. As a business all the normal rules of doing business apply. Customer service, marketing, competition, it’s not just about the pictures there’s so much more that goes into making a sale and making it successful.

Absolutely, and now without the visuals, which is the front end sell, you will never get to the business end of it. Conversely, if you have the vision and you haven’t spent time working out the business end of the deal then you’ve only got part of the equation. Again, everything is the same as it’s been for the last 30 years. The sequence may be different and things are named differently but it’s all the same stuff: vision, professionalism, savvy marketing skills, personality and service.

APE: I hear from a lot of young photographers that what’s holding them back is that Art Directors and Producers are not branching out and seeking new talent. They’re relying on relationships and things that are familiar to them. Do you believe that?

Relationships are always important, I think that it makes sense if you’re a buyer and you have somebody that’s done a really good job for you then you can trust them. Trust is huge in this business, so much of the business side equates to it. Lots of money is at stake and so are jobs for Art Buyer and Art Directors. But, because each project is so branded and each one has a different message there’s also more chance that a different type of visual will be needed. Because the front end buyers are the Art Buyers not the Art Directors, you have someone that’s hiring for lots of different accounts. Each of those accounts has a different style attached to it based on the message that’s going on in the ad and campaign, so there’s less chance they’re going to hire the same photographer over and over. So, there are many photographers who will tell you quite the opposite, that they’d love to be hired back and the client retention is lower than it ever was. Clients were more loyal in the past.

APE: Tell me about the new mp3 series and how that came about?

It came about because I was really concerned about the state of photography. I was lecturing around the country and I was getting emails and photographers were panicking.

APE: More than usual?

Yes, more so than ever. I have an email list that goes out 8000 photographers who’ve signed up for my articles and last spring I wrote an article entitled “Survive? Think, Thrive!” This was an article that laid out how photographers could build a business today that would thrive in the future. The response was overwhelming, so I responded by giving out my time to try and help people. I gave out 30 hours in April and May. I’m booked solid so I had to make extra time for this. Working with photographers for free inspired me to make something for people who couldn’t afford my $300/hour consultant fee.

I talked to photographers who said they wanted something they could listen to. I wanted to create a learning tool that was informative and inspirational plus I wanted it to be organized so people could easily go to the topics that spoke to their immediate needs. Two of my industry friends helped me source the equipment and within days I discovered my sound engineer who just happened to show up with an LA based client. So, I recorded every day for July and August and got over 100 hours of audio that then became the finished 12 chapter 9 hour program.

You can’t teach everything about developing a vision or marketing, so I wanted to take what I felt were key concepts–knowing photographers as well as I do and being in the business as long as I have–and address where photographers make mistakes. I wanted it to be created for any photographer at any level. There’s a whole chapter on agents because that’s one of the questions I get the most from photographers.

APE: Really, I used to get that as well, but answered it recently so not so much anymore.

I started as an agent and I’ve trained over 200 agents.

APE: Trained?

Yes, people used to come to me because I had a comprehensive training program for agents. I had a 12 week 48 hour rep training program. I’ve also worked with experienced agents over the years. Many have come to me and ask that I not tell anyone about our work because they seem to feel that they should know everything but I say, “listen, working with a consultant is a good thing for your clients, because it shows how much you care,” but some people are not comfortable with that.

APE: I wanted to ask you since you’ve been in this business so long if you feel like there are more photographers and specifically more aspiring photographers than ever? Especially now that there’s so much information available for people. Maybe the barrier to entry is much lower for aspiring photographers now.

In terms of photographers coming out of schools it goes up and down, there are however programs now geared toward prosumers. There are more people trying to become photographers from the prosumer market but as far as how many of those people will make it, I don’t know. Interestingly, I would say if you go on LinkedIn or Twitter or any other social media the majority of photographers who are conversing are prosumers.

APE: Yes, but haven’t there always been a huge group of people who wish some day to make their living as a photographer and it’s just that we can see them all now thanks to the internet?

Yes, and how many of those people are doing something about it verses how many are just talking? Words without action. Photography is a field that’s competitive in numbers only. When you look at the percentage of photographers who truly take the advice that you really need to develop a vision and then will actually do the work it takes and then once they develop that vision put into the mix all the marketing tools needed (traditional and new media), go on sales calls and give it the time needed to come to fruition, that’s maybe 10% of all the photographers selling out there. Those are the people working. So, there may be a lot of prosumers coming into the market but a small percentage will actually be successful.

APE: When you say photography is competitive in numbers only. What does that mean?

It means that there are tons of people hanging out the shingle with the title photographer attached. However when you look, the number of photographers who understand the vision selling equation and have taken the time and effort to build a deep body of work based around a specific style and then have created the sales trails needed to competitively market their work and have given their effort enough time for the market to respond, the competition is slim. So, while there are many, many photographers a very small percentage are actually prepared to compete.

APE: I feel like the changes that have happened recently have made it so there’s less of a business advantage and you need to have the great vision and talent to make it happen.

None of it matters if you don’t have the vision. The reality is that just getting started in this business is just so daunting for people. If you’re a photo editor or art buyer the first tier of photographers you will hire from is always the people you’ve worked with in the past, that you’re familiar with, that you trust. Then on the second tier is the people who’ve been consistently through several sales channels marketing to you for the last 2 years. Maybe you’ve thrown them something, but they’ve been there and been in to see you, sent in their book and done the mailers. The 3rd tier is thousands of people who’ve hit you with a couple mailers or sent the book in once or stopped by the office once. That’s no man’s land and that’s where everyone starts at first. How you handle the first 2 years is going to determine if you stay in no man’s land or move up to the other level.

APE: So, you think on average it takes a couple years to start getting some traction?

Yes, and with all the people in no man’s land it’s that much harder to get seen and stand out, but the photographers who have that vision and have taken it into their direct mail, email, website, who go on sales visits, who are blogging and twittering and linking their photographs from posts and developing sales trails and doing this continuously, those are the photographers who are going to get the traction. That’s where you build that identity in the first year.

There are many more people out there who are talking photography but not any more people who are doing photography. It really does take that special person and you need the mix. My most successful photographers during the downturn have been people who have sales, traditional marketing, social networking and they work their asses off and they never stop no matter how successful they’ve become.

APE: I wanted to ask you about social networking. A common complaint among photographers is that not only do they have to take pictures, have a book, show the book, do mailers is, “now I have to facebook, linkedin and twitter?” How many hoops do we have to jump through to get a job?

My response is to stop looking at it as hoops. Stop looking at it being one big pain in the ass. Embrace it, stop complaining. So, much of this is the attitude a photographer approaches the business with. Here’s a quote from Victor Frankel, who lived through the holocaust, that I love: “The last of the human freedoms is your choice of attitude in any given situation.” So, first of all get rid of the attitude. It’s the integration of these tools. What we’re asked to do today is have an integrated marketing program that encompasses all the marketing tools.

There’s direct mail and email, sales calls, your website, blog and social networks. So, you look at each of those and say, ok I need to integrate all of this. Look at it this way, you go on a sales visit and you can talk to them and see where they are on social networks and you can follow them on twitter and connect on LinkedIn. Then you see who they’re LinkedIn with and if you want an introduction to another art buyer you ask them for that and you start using it. Use the LinkedIn page to leave your latest shot and an address that goes to your blog that goes to your website. You create sales trails for the people that you’ve seen in person and hopefully they will go there. You send out a tweet about it so you’re creating this other level of opportunity for the people that you’ve seen in person and the people who haven’t met yet to start to see your work.

Is it effort? Yes, it is but if you integrate your meetings with your social online efforts and you do it thoughtfully you’re creating this online trail for people to follow and there’s a purpose to it. You don’t have to do all of them but you have to pick from each of the categories and start to integrate them together so that there’s an intelligent plan.

APE: Right, so what is that plan?

Photographers need to have an understanding how each tool works individually and then together. Visual emails and direct mail create initial visibility. Sales meetings to researched key contacts provide the opportunity for your personality to be known. A blog can show work and tell more about you as a creative person. A website is a wonderful outreach marketing too. Social networking provides another layer of visual and personality refresh. Once you choose which tools you will use, create a schedule and stick to it.

I get really concerned when photographers hear a specific buyer talk about their marketing preferences and then assume that the buyer’s opinion represents everyone’s opinion. If that buyer doesn’t like email, suddenly they assume that no one looks at email. The truth is different buyers come through different channels. It’s the mix between selling and marketing. There are more ways than ever to market but there’s only one way to sell and that’s to go get your tush in a chair in front of somebody. Because, there are so many more people out there, the early stage is where photographers get discouraged. When Nike came out with just do it they didn’t just do tv, or print, or tshirts on road races, or web or radio they did it all. Photographers need to look at their time and budget and work with an assistant or marketing expert and decide what channels to use then commit to 2-4 years of doing it. I’m very clear with photographers that it takes a long time before you’re going to feel like your efforts are consistently generating enough funding so you feel like it’s worth it.

I moderated a panel of art buyers in New England that had a range of people from a designer at a small local studio up to an Art Buyer at a huge agency and what was interesting was when we asked what works for you, every single one of them had different ways they wanted to be reached and every one of them agreed that just because they start with websites doesn’t mean they don’t pay attention to direct mail or email. Every one of them said the same thing which was you gotta hit me in several different ways and you have to do it continuously because my memory is really short. From the small agency to the large one the only difference was that when it came to print portfolios only the small agency said they buy off the web. Everyone else wanted print portfolios. 6 different companies all saying the same thing, hit me in different ways. It’s not enough to get an email, it’s not enough to do direct mail. You need to sell, market and participate in social networking.

APE: It just seems like, and you can tell me compared to 30 years ago, that you need to put more effort and more time into marketing than ever?

It’s is true but isn’t life like that. Don’t we have a President who’s saying roll up your sleeves america and get back to work.

APE: It’s just too bad then, is that what it is?

Life is busy and life is fabulous, but if you take the attitude that life is a fucking pain in the ass, well hello welcome to the world you’ve created. Yes, we have to work harder than ever before but you know what? When I became an agent I had 6 months of photography school under my belt and I loved photography but didn’t have the money to continue, so I was selling my Firebird to pay for the rest and my friend wrapped it around a tree the night before it was to be delivered to the buyer. So, I became a waitress instead. Then some photographer came into the restaurant and wanted someone to take his book around, so I did it in purple tights and a black dance skirt, walking into advertising agencies not knowing a thing. It’s all about how we approach and embrace life and that’s a big piece of my message too. There are a few photographers in 30 years that I was unable to help and it was grounded in the fact that they believed it wasn’t going to work because life stinks. How can you help someone like that? You can’t, that negativity is toxic.

APE: What does the future look like?

People ask me all the time if photography is dying. I feel like the role of photographer is shifting and it always has been shifting. The photographer who is invested in developing the visual craft; is willing to show up and do the work; is committed to going through life with a positive attitude; is able to see the shifts, is willing to embrace them and move with them; is the photographer that’s going to continue to thrive.

The Business Of Photography – Books

John Harrington sent me his latest book “Best Business Practices For Photographers” and at over 500 pages It’s a real door stopper. It has the look and feel of a college text book: loaded with examples, little notes sections along the way, 32 chapters and a cover image/design that screams textbook. For anyone looking for a place to understand the business of photography this seems like the place to start. At one point I considered getting an MBA and while doing research discovered the personal MBA website and this manifesto:

MBA programs don’t have a monopoly on business knowledge: you can teach yourself everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work. The Personal MBA features the very best business books available, based on thousands of hours of research. If you’re serious about learning advanced business principles, the Personal MBA can help you master business without the baggage of b-school.

I’ve since read about 15 business books (some of the list but many based on Amazon reviews) including 4 that I think should be the cornerstone of any personal business learning: Good To Great, Built To Last, What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School, How To Win Friends & Influence People. All of these I checked out at the local library.

Right now I’m really into a book called Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson that I would highly recommend for photographers and any other entrepreneurs. When you look at the principles that underpin a successful business you see the world in a very different light.

The great thing about reading a business book while you own a business, instead of while you’re in school, is that when you discover something important you can put it to work immediately. These books also prove to be awesome motivators.

Listen Up, Advice From A Photo Dino

I discovered a great new blog written by Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai via The Online Photographer that you may want to follow called PhotoDino. Not just because she’s an excellent photographer but because she has excellent advice for everyone. These are real gems:

I get asked all the time, during workshops, in e-mails, in private messages, what words of wisdom I would give to a new and aspiring photographer. Here’s my answer.

– Style is a voice, not a prop or an action. If you can buy it, borrow it, download it, or steal it, it is not a style. Don’t look outward for your style; look inward.

– Know your stuff. Luck is a nice thing, but a terrifying thing to rely on. It’s like money; you only have it when you don’t need it.

– Say no. Say it often. It may be difficult, but you owe it to yourself and your clients. Turn down jobs that don’t fit you, say no to overbooking yourself. You are no good to anyone when you’re stressed and anxious.

– Know your style before you hang out your shingle. If you don’t, your clients will dictate your style to you. That makes you nothing more than a picture taker. Changing your style later will force you to start all over again, and that’s tough.

– Remember that if your work looks like everyone else’s, there’s no reason for a client to book you instead of someone else. Unless you’re cheaper. And nobody wants to be known as “the cheaper photographer”.

Read them all (here).

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500,000 loyal, engaged users who want quality, long form journalism

More sophisticated ways of measuring usership and engagement will change focus from mass audience, Plotz believes, and that will make journalism better. Raw numbers create “pressure to produce one kind of story” that will draw hits. New metrics of engagement and behavior offer a “tremendous opportunity for Web journalism to escape the traffic” trap. He believes that will liberate Slate to “make a magazine that recognizes those dedicated readers.”

via Knight Digital Media Center.

Prix Pictet Award Goes To Nadav Kander

UPDATE: Jeanette Ward the Publicist from theresasimon.com just called me on the phone to bitch at me for breaking their news embargo on the winner of this prize. I was told all the photographers were very upset that I made the announcement. I think it’s insane that you would email blast bloggers the winner of a prize you haven’t handed out yet. PR at its worst.

Kofi Annan awards £60,000 (CHF100,000) Prix Pictet photography prize for environmental sustainability to Nadav Kander

Nadav Kander (Israel, 1961)
Nominated for Yangtze, The Long River Series, 2006-07
Kandar has documented the rapidly changing landscape and communities of China’s Yangtze River, from its mouth to source. More people live on the river’s 6500km of banks than in America. However, China’s current programme of development is also destroying the country’s heritage and displacing many of its people. Kander is a regular contributor to many international publications, including The New York Times Magazine, for whom he recently documented ‘Obama’s People’. His many international awards and nominations include most recently the Silver Photographer of the Year Award at the Lianzhou International Photo Festival 08 in China.

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David Alan Harvey on Launching a Photo-j Magazine

“You’ve got to have something to say. It could be conceptual, or you can try to save the world as a photojournalist. But you can’t just be a technician. Everybody’s a technician. You’ve got to have an idea.”

via PDN.

Oyster Hotel Reviews – Hotel Photo Fakeout

I like this new hotel review site, Oyster Hotel Reviews, because they understand how powerful the editorial voice can be when making a buying decision and they understand a photograph will convey the most information in the shortest amount of time. They’ve hired a bunch of writer photographers to go check out hotel properties and show you what they really look like.

My favorite feature is the photo fakeout on their blog (here). Where they shoot their own version of the hotels pool, workout room and hotel room to show you the careful cropping and outright photoshopping the hotels have done to fool you.

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Breaking: Getty Shuts Down The Entire Wholly-Owned Shoot Program

This just in: The entire wholly-owned shoot program at Getty Images has been shut down and the producer and digital tech person at Getty have been laid off.

My source (here).

I’m told: “Wholly owned is when Getty Images would commission photographers for shoots in their creative division. It may also include photographers who were on salary at Getty Images who created content for them.”

Lucie Award Winners

Picture Editor of the year – Steve Fine – Sports Illustrated

Photo Magazine of the Year – www.burnmagazine.org

Fashion Layout of the Year – Harper’s Bazaar – Thriller Fashion by Terry Richardson

Book Publisher of the Year – Verso Limited Editions Bruce Davidson – Central Park

Print Advertising Campaign of the Year – FFL France Wrangler We Are Animals Ryan McGinley

Photography Curator of the Year – Sarah Greenough Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans

International Photographer of the Year – Nadav Kander

Discovery of the Year Award – Elliot Wilcox

International Photographer of the Year, Deeper Perspective Award – Rachel Papo

The Spotlight Award – The W.Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, accepted by Marcel Saba, the fund’s current President.

Shepard Fairey Admits He Lied About Which Photo He Used

FaireyvsGarciaIn a strange twist to an important case with strange twists (photographer Mannie Garcia claims AP has no rights to the image) Shepard Fairey admits that the image he used for his iconic poster was the image that everyone and their dog knew he used: The image that’s an exact match to the poster.

From the NYTimes story (here):

Attorneys for Fairey have withdrawn and, in papers filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan, stated that he misled them. They also amended the original court documents, reflecting that Fairey used a different picture.

”Mr. Fairey was apparently mistaken about the photograph he used when his original complaint for declaratory relief was filed on February 9, 2009,” the papers say. ”After the original complaint was filed, Mr. Fairey realized his mistake. Instead of acknowledging that mistake, Mr. Fairey attempted to delete the electronic files he had used in creating the illustration at issue. He also created, and delivered to his counsel for production, new documents to make it appear as though he had used the Clooney photograph as his reference.”

This has to do serious damage to any fair use argument because obviously he’s trying to cover something up. But, as I’ve discovered by following this case “how much is too much,” when you base your work on someone else’s work can only be determined by a court. In my mind the real test would be how much time and effort was spent by Fairey to find the perfect image to base his poster on and he’s already admitted that he looked at thousands before finding the right shot.

Emailers are now little better then spam

While emailers sounded like a good idea several years ago, they are now little better then spam. Most of the work I get is not appropriate to any need I might possibly have, and lots of it just isn’t good at all. Plus, if the image isn’t displaying in my email window and fast, I’m on to the next one. On the other hand, when I receive a printed promo, at the very least, I look at the image(s). I also notice your attention to detail in your paper and design choice. Most often, email promos feel templated and generic, hence the agency opt-outs.

via HeatherMortonArt buyer.

How Art Producers Find The Right Photographer For The Project

canadian clubI’ve always thought this Canadian Club print campaign was genius, partially because of the vibe but mostly because I couldn’t figure out if the images were 40 years old or shot recently. When I discovered that Liz Miller-Gershfeld, VP and Senior Art Producer at Energy BBDO (the agency that made those ads) reads APE I asked her to tell me how the photography for that campaign went down. Here’s what Liz told me about the campaign (Robert Whitman shot it btw) and the important steps that go into finding the right photographer for any project:

When the creatives approached me about this project they told me they wanted to use real snapshots from the 50’s and 60’s. They were committed to these images feeling absolutely authentic and felt they needed to be historic. The challenge with that was twofold:
1. Liquor advertising has to depict models who are a verifiable 25 years old or older.
2. We already had specific headlines so the images had to match those.

We found some great images on Flickr, but they weren’t fitting the headlines and I couldn’t verify the subjects of the photos were 25 when the images were taken so, we decided to produce photography.

APE: Ok, hold on lets talk about Flickr for a second. Did you immediately go to Flickr when you knew you wanted authentic shots? You’re basically looking for old album shots and shoebox shots so I guess that’s the only source for that kind of material. Right?

I can understand why the topic of Flickr is a contentious issue. Thousands of photographers are in business struggling to create some stability in a marketplace and Flickr is largely made up of amateur photographers, so why are we looking there? I don’t generally look for stock photography on Flickr although a lot of creatives do. With this project in particular we looked everywhere. I reached out to a lot of photographers, but they were looking through their shoeboxes too; we were looking for snapshots that probably would have been taken before a lot of them were pushing a shutter release button. In the end it was too problematic to use Flickr images for this because of model releases and the 25 or older issue.

The Flickr issue is a bigger one however. When we need stock, creatives want access to a wider range of photographers’ work; they don’t always feel the way the big agencies curate their collections fit their visions. In the past, every time we had a project requiring stock I would reach out to as many photographers as I could in the time I had, in addition to larger stock sources. This problem inspired me to start an all-photographer Twitter network that I use to Tweet my stock needs. It’s cool because I really enjoy the chatter, the references and the images people post in an informal way. A lot of equipment chatter I follow to get more informed about, for example, the Red camera, etc. No one really hears from me unless I need stock and then I Tweet it over and over. In theory it’s an attempt to democratize the access to our buying needs so more people get a shot. It’s still an experiment, but why not?

APE: Ok, fair enough. What’s next?

Step one is the creative conversation. This is a step we go back to again and again. The initial creative conversation between art producer and creative attempts to flesh out the nuances lacking in a layout. Layouts convey an idea, but rarely the entire visual story. This conversation gives a map for the search.

Next step: photographer search. This project in particular needed a photographer who had the production chops to authentically pull off a recreation of the past, not only in content but also in the look of the photography. They needed to have a dynamic enough range that it would be believable that different people authored the images. The next piece of criteria was perhaps the most important to us, the most difficult to ascertain and reminds me of a recent APE post when you wrote that you were a fan of luck and unexpected results in photography: we needed someone who had a portfolio filled with lucky shots which were no accident. At its heart, and this is something I look for a lot, I wanted to find someone who is masterful at creating conditions that allow for real human moments to happen.

Next, I look at portfolios and cull what doesn’t apply. Often this process occurs online, but for this project we called the books in first. I then review portfolios with the AD. This isn’t always possible, but I think it is an important step. It tends to slow down the flipping of the pages, gives me a chance to express what I saw and why I’m showing it and most importantly lets me hear honest feedback about what is working and what is missing. With Canadian Club this process went on for a few days; not because the books weren’t hitting the mark, but because there were some really good ones that all went in different directions.

The next step is the creative call with the photographers and it plays a crucial role in deciding who gets the job. It’s really like a job interview. I’ve been a part of many calls where a photographer who was a front-runner disqualified him or herself. I’ve also seen the opposite. It is important to note that to get to this stage a creative team has usually been back to a drawing board several times, has given up weekends and evenings, has sometimes been through focus group testing and has often had strategies and creative briefs changed. They would like to hear that you would like to do the job. They would like to hear what you like about the project. No obsequiousness, just a positive word or two to set a tone and communicate sincere interest.

APE: I’ve heard some grumbling about the creative call, so I just have to ask, what does the phone personality have to do with taking pictures? Have you actually had situations where you went with a photographer who performed miserably on the call and the shoot was bad. Is this truly an indication of something important?

It is a fair question to ask what the phone personality has to do with taking pictures. The first part of what I mentioned, about finding something positive to say really has nothing to do with taking pictures. What I have observed more than once is that it created a competitive edge because it communicated to the AD an emotional investment in the project.

I’ve never had a situation where the call went miserably and the shoot was bad, because if the call goes wrong they don’t get the job. That is why I prescribe listening; many photographers express themselves more eloquently with a camera. Less is more on the call. If you have ideas you want to share at this point do so, but listen first.

You asked if the call is truly an indication of something important. It can be. If it is just a personality showcase then it is a worthless call. If the call is done well then it can elicit responses which indicate creative compatibility and a willingness to collaborate…on both ends. In addition to giving the photographer the information they need to generate a smart estimate, those are the biggest things for everyone to get out of the call.

I have been in situations where we are deciding between two photographers. When we had the calls one said, “Hey, I really like this ad. I’m happy to have a shot, I think it’s going to be great.” The other did not express that sort of sentiment. At the end of the calls the AD said, “Hey, that one guy was fired up, let’s work with him!” It is a good idea on these initial calls to ask the AD to take you through their vision for the project. Layouts don’t tell the whole story and it is a good opportunity to hear what is important to them. Listening also demonstrates collaboration skills. Ask the AD what they saw in your portfolio or what it was about your work that brought you to this phone call. It is a good way to bring the conversation to look and feel in a way that is relevant to the project. It is also a good way to gauge true interest. If they don’t have an answer they aren’t really interested. Ask questions; it shows how you are thinking about things. I have heard more raves after calls where photographers deeply listened and asked intelligent questions than when they did all the talking. It is not that the agency is not interested in the artist’s vision, but it raises the comfort factor that what is important to us is being taken into consideration. If you went into the call with ideas you wanted to share this is a good time for it. If not, that is fine. Tell them you want to think about what you’ve talked about and you will follow up with an estimate and treatment.

APE: A treatment? You think photographers should provide a treatment?

Absolutely. It is not expected of photographers, (it is of directors and with motion and still colliding it is probably a good idea to start that habit) but some photographers do it and if it lines up with and pluses the idea it helps to sell yourself in. I have seen several people move from last to first by submitting a written treatment. A treatment which actively incorporates what was important to the AD (further reinforcing that this will be a collaborative process). It is also important for us as an agency to have confidence that you have thought through the process and the potential problems and that you have solutions. This is not to say you should include proprietary information like lighting specifics, but speak to the look, mood, what you hope to capture with the talent, etc. A treatment also is a clear way in print to attribute your unique ideas to you.

The next step in the process is analyzing the estimates. This is the blueprint. It is important to me as an art producer that the usage language is clear and up front, that there are no hidden costs (with disclaimer language in a very small font size telling me expected items are not included in the bottom line) and that everything we discussed is represented. It is important that the estimate goes into detail. It is important that whoever would be producing the job is involved at this point and can answer my questions which will be very detailed. I have learned the hard way that sometimes agents or other third parties generate estimates. This is making a promise for someone else to keep and almost always leads to a conversation where a producer tells me that they would have put a different plan together and they are just trying to move things around to try to make it work. We no longer work with 10 -15% variances allowed, a sad victim of the economic “downturn.” Those tolerances are gone so it is important to me that you have a stellar producer and that they generate the estimate. (unless the job is small or of limited complexity).

OK, this is the point where people often start calling. Make sure the art producer is clear and specific about when they will award the job so you don’t drive your self crazy waiting to hear. Last minute declarations of enthusiasm are no longer appropriate. Meetings often get moved so give the agency a day, if you haven’t heard send an e-mail for a quick decision status. If you submitted an estimate it is always appropriate to receive a call saying “congratulations!” or “thanks so much but we’re taking this in a different direction.”
I really hope all your readers get a “congratulations” call for projects that fit their talents.

He who wishes to become a painter first must cut out his tongue

We must resist academia as artists. We really must. When Matisse was near death a young man visited him and as he turned to leave Matisse said, “Remember one thing: guard your naiveté. Some day young man, that’s going to be all you’ve got. And now I’m packing my bags for the next world.”

–Robert Bergman

via The Brooklyn Rail.

Peter Yang and Rolling Stone Win Magazine Cover of the Year

yangcoveroftheyear

I’ve sat through too many meetings where badges, sashes, boxes, hairlines and an entire dump truck full of coverlines were added to perfectly good cover images or instead a meeting where perfectly good cover images were thrown out in favor of images that held coverlines better, to not point out the irony of a winner with no coverlines. Sure, Obama was a shoo-in as a winning cover subject but go check out the other category winners (here). Keep in mind that this is an organization of editors (ASME) who decided to let the public pick their favorite cover out of a group of nominees. Of course this proves nothing about selling on newsstands other than the public has better taste than most editors, many magazine owners and every single newsstand director in existence.

Online Symposium: Seeking Justice – Social Activism through Journalism & Documentary Practice

The Centre for Documentary Practice invites you to logon and join the world’s first online journalism and documentary conference on October 15th 2009, starting 12:01am (GMT) (That’s 8PM EST).

Speakers include Paul Fusco, Ed Kashi, Jodi Bieber, Marcus Bleasdale, Shahidul Alam, Gary Knight, Robin Hammond, Adam Ferguson, Travis Beard, Michael Coyne, Masaru Goto, Jack Picone, Megan Lewis, and more to be confirmed.

On October 15th we will connect an international community of documentary practitioners and journalists for one day, to share stories, to stimulate discussion and debate about our discipline, and to inspire each other to continue the fight for justice.

[read more here] thx luca.

A Couple Docs Shot With A Stills Camera

Photographers are doing some amazing things shooting video with the Canon 5D Mark II. Here are a couple that I saw that made me go “wow” when I heard they were shot on a stills camera. I have no idea how they will hold up on a 50″plasma TV, but who’s got time to watch TV anymore. It’s worth noting that both involve some serious hardships to shoot.

First This Documentary on Afghanistan shot by Danfung Dennis. He says “The footage was shot on a custom built rig, using a Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70 f/2.8 L lens, Sennheiser ME-66 and G2 wireless system, Singh-Ray variable ND filter, and Beachtek 2XAs mounted on a Glidecam 2000 HD with custom made aluminum ‘wings.'”

The next one comes from Surf photographer Yassine (Yazzy) Ouhilal:

Since I know Yazzy I asked him a couple questions:

Did you edit, shoot and record all the sound yourself?

I shot  most of the raw footage and time lapses over 44 days in the Arctic. A couple of other members of the expedition shot additional footage as well. Since this was also an editorial photo trip, a lot of the surfing footage had to be shot by someone else as I was usually too busy shooting stills. The rest of the time, it was pretty easy to go from shooting stills to video with the 5DMKII.

The audio was pulled from video interviews and audio recordings I got from some of the expedition members. I loaned an H2 digital audio recorder to the surfers on the expedition and asked them to record their thoughts when they were alone or by themselves in order to get authentic impressions from their experience in the Arctic- which wasn’t without challenges.

A lot of the sound effects were pulled from video clips. The 5DMKII has an audio input jack which allows for hi quality mics to be used.

I edited the film myself in imovie and mixed all the audio/sound/music tracks in Garage Band, two simple yet very effective pieces of software that if properly used can yield pretty incredible results.

The time lapses were animated using Quicktime Pro (by importing image sequences of stills and exporting uncompressed movie files)

What kind of experience do you have doing this kind of stuff?

I actually have a film production background- I spent 6 years at Concordia University in Montreal doing the Film Production program there. That was just before the digital/video era so the majority of the film work I did was in 16 and 35mm using editing tables and optical printers that are a much slower process than today’s digital workflow.

After film school, I found it hard to integrate the industry as a film maker. My two options were to try and get funding for my own films or to start working as a technician on film sets and work my way up the food chain. I opted to pursue my dreams and passions as a surf photographer instead and for the last 10 years, I’ve been roaming the globe shooting off the beaten path locations for magazines and companies. This type of work has given me the freedom to work in a field that I really enjoy and has been a good balance of personal and creative freedom as I have been self funding a lot of my trips on a freelance basis and then (hopefully) recouping my investments by providing the content out to various editorial clients.

Returning to filmmaking has been a natural progression and one that I have been looking forward to for a long time now.The way technology is going now, the line between photography and filmmaking is getting thinner and thinner everyday. It has been really exciting to get to shoot with a camera like the 5DMKII. As a photographer, I really know how to compose my shots and how my glass works. To be able to translate that into a cinematic medium has been really incredible.

The experience I had in film school using a much more traditional and slower workflow, it has definitely helped  me to restrain myself and not get carried away with all the possibilities of the digital workflow.

How much time did it take you to make this shot doc?

While I probably could have put something together for this project in just a few days, I really wanted to make an authentic film about the experience of surfing in the Arctic- with all the drama and the hostility of the environment. The editing process was done over  3 months. Much like with my photography, I like to distance myself from the content so that I can approach it again with a fresher perspective. It allows me to look at the photos/footage objectively rather than to remain attached to certain shots or clips because of the experience involved with obtaining the imagery. I find that in both photography and filmmaking, being able to “let go” is an important part of the process. Maybe an image means a lot to me because I endured many hardships to obtain it, but I have to keep in mind that the audience doesn’t necessarily know that- therefore will often see less value than I do in a particular shot. Distancing myself from the content for a certain period is definitely part of my approach and it really helps to “forget” about it in order to rediscover it.

Over the first month or two, I basically narrowed down the raw footage from around 40hours to about 4hours. Then I separated all the clips into different categories, much like I do with my approach to editing my photos: scenics, action, lifestyles and interviews. I then narrowed down the footage in each category to end up with about 1 hour of footage that in my opinion consisted of the most beautiful imagery that was also the most pertinent to the story I was trying to push through.

The backbone of the story was constructed using audio voice overs and interviews. This was a very long process as well as I had to listen to hours of audio and basically pull the most important and pertinent points that told the story.

I did this by transcribing every single phrase of audio I had (which turned into around 100 pages or so). From there I edited the audio in the text file by cutting and pasting sentences and later applied that to the actual audio tracks.

Once I had the audio backbone and the best clips, it was about 4  days and nights of intense editing. I actually happened to be back in the Arctic for the editing process which I found very conducive to an inspired approach to the post production. I was really impressed with the workflow in iMovie. It was efficient and simple and compared to editing on a steenbeck (16mm editing table) and splicing film with tape, it was a much simpler process. I definitely made sure to stay away from using too many effects and transitions in order to keep this close to what could have been achieved using more traditional methods. I find in the digital workflow, it’s really easy to say “I’ll fix this in Post” or to get carried away with all the options- which can end up ruining the result. I think with today’s incredible advances in technology, a mix of using the technology along with some self constraint can produce some really interesting and authentic results.