Mr. Jobs said: “I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers…I think we need editorial oversight now more than ever. Anything we can do to help newspapers find new ways of expression that will help them get paid, I am all for.”
via WSJ.com.
The digital graveyard is filled with the carcasses of utterly confident people who all shared this sense of invincibility. The music industry and, to some extent, the news business built large mausoleums for themselves. Today, the advertising industry is working on its own funeral monument.
via Washington Post.
The latest version of the Slideluck Potshow website (here) has the work of 2000 artists from 100 shows in over 40 cities around the world.
Seems like it will be a great resource for people who hire photographers for a living to find new talent and get inspired. Direct links to all the photographers websites makes it super handy if you’re in a hurry.
“without bad art there would be no good art”
via, gelconference.com
Former Art Buyers and current photography consultants Amanda Sosa Stone and Suzanne Sease have agreed to take anonymous questions from photographers and not only give their expert advice but put it out to a wide range of photographers, reps and art buyers to gather a variety of opinions. The goal with this column is to solicit honest questions and answers through anonymity.
QUESTION:
I have been assisting fashion photographers in NYC for about 5 years now and feel more than ready to move on to the next phase of the game. I have tried to put together a print portfolio in the past an always end up getting frustrated and scraping it halfway through. What do editors want to see? If I put in complete series, the book becomes way to thick. When I try to edit down each series it feel scattered to me and doesn’t make sense. Should a portfolio show the range of a photographer or a consistent vision? How many pages are too many? Does showing commissioned work matter more than personal? Is a homemade portfolio out of the question?
I shoot all the time and know the work is good but I just can’t seem to grasp the next step…
Amanda and Suzanne: We are excited about this question, because it’s been an ongoing question for decades and I think it’s crucial to have an open mind and know that each individual has to create their own visual voice and take the advice of potential buyers and mold it to represent your vision.
ANSWERS:
ART PRODUCER #1 This is a tough one to answer as general response. I think it’s a little different for everyone. For sure have someone else take a look at what is included. A photographer is always more attached to the work than anyone and everything holds meaning. Someone outside of that should take a look to make sure that everything included has relevance. Though I will say, usually less is more. Most art producers or editors just don’t have the time to sift through large books of work and if too much is included, may skim over some great pieces instead of really looking at the detail. Specifically show the type of work that relates to the type of assignments in which you are wanting to get. A homemade portfolio (for me) is not out of the question and can give me some insight into your creativity, just make sure that it doesn’t look thrown together and still reflects your overall brand. I also like to see a little bit of personal work. It tells me a little about you as a person and what it may be like working with you. As well, it shows me what you’re passionate about and what you like to shoot. But for sure focus on commissioned work.
ART PRODUCER #2 There is no magic number of pieces to show, nor is there a magic formula for what to show. The answer is: Show enough work to prove to the viewer that you are capable of handling a particular project. In some cases, it may mean showing 20 pieces. In others, only a handful.
This will vary not only by the body of work the photographer has in their repertoire, but by the scope of the project and by the type of client. Clients working at a local level may expect a more broad body of work than a national client, which is usually pinpoint specific in what they are looking for.
ART PRODUCER # 3 Being on both sides of the portfolio gives me a unique perspective on this. The most important thing is to show a cohesive style with aesthetic and technical repeatability. My first portfolios where scattered in terms of style and technical approaches. This was a direct result of being a freelance assistant working with a wide range of fashion photographers. Once instructed to keep things simple, I got back to my roots of graphic design and complied a book of 10-15 portraits all done in the same style and utilizing a very simple lighting scheme. It worked and got me noticed. The next step was to build on that style, introduce new subject matter, but keeping things cohesive and simple, putting the attention on what I wanted viewers to see.
Once you have a large, strong body of cohesive work, you can begin to tailor the portfolio on a case by case basis. I’ve asked photographers to show me that they’ve shot the type of product my client needs advertised. My clients are literal people.
PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER: When putting together a portfolio, I try to convey a personal vision, not the best images in my library. I view my personal vision as a fingerprint and its the only thing I can offer that I’m 100% sure I’m the best at. If you try to put work in your book you think an art buyer wants to see, it will automatically become lost in the flood of similar images.
To Summarize: The viewer has a specific need to fill. You might be able to fill that need or not, but you should not focus on what you THINK they want to see, but show them what makes you, YOU. Stated perfectly: “personal vision as a fingerprint” – use your portfolio to make a mark on that person and their visual memory. You want to be brain googled, meaning you are the first to pop up in your potential client’s mind for a specific project…the real goal of a printed portfolio.
As a side note – when showing commissioned work that does not always mean you have to show the tears, it means show the work you captured for that specific project (this usually helps clients understand your production value and how well you take art direction).
Call To Action: Research Print portfolio options and get one printed:
Some examples to consider:
Paper options:
(consider using double sided paper – http://www.moabpaper.com/entrada.aspx – which you can purchase directly from http://www.lost-luggage.com/store/paper.php – which is pre-scored) or from http://www.rexart.com/case_envy.html
Printer to consider: Lincoln Miller at pushdot studio www.pushdotstudio.com
Portfolios: www.lost-luggage.com
http://www.plasticsandwich.co.uk/
Custom book binders:
Brooke – fantastic Book binder: http://dwellerbythestream.wordpress.com
Nicole Andersen – www.nabookarts.com
Scott Mullenberg – www.mullenbergdesigns.com
Also there are perfect bound book options out there…
blurb.com
aandi.com
If you want more insight from Amanda and Suzanne you can contact them directly (here and here) or tune in once a week or so for more of “Ask Anything.” Amanda and Suzanne review your comments for 2 days, and then they are off researching next week’s question.
…all I’m trying to do is take interesting photographs. I’m a photographer, not a social worker.
— Tony Fouhse
via Colin Pantall’s blog.
Today is the last day to register with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting to speak out at the hearing on June 3rd against charging fees for all still photography permits. Every editorial and advertising photographer uses the type of equipment that under current rules requires a film permit from the city and up until now those seeking a permit simply were required to carry $1,000,000 in liability insurance, but the new proposal is adding a non-refundable $300.00 ‘application’ fee for every time a permit is pulled to shoot!
Condé Nast has worked with Adobe for about a year to develop software that integrates with Adobe’s popular publishing program, InDesign. The new software gets the magazine closer to something that now seems like a company mantra: “author once, publish everywhere.”
The add-on to InDesign, Mr. Dadich said, allows the magazine’s editorial team to easily move the print design into the iPad design and vice versa. Until now, Condé Nast’s apps relied on software developers, not the magazine’s design team, to put the content into an app. The Adobe add-on will be available for sale to other publishers.
Kickstarter is one of those collective/social/new-web ways to fund projects. For photographers and filmmakers the premise is actually quite good. You state how much money you need to pull off a project then as an incentive for different levels of funding you offer access to the project and collateral. It’s also great for the backers because money is only taken if the goal is reached so the project can be completed.
Like all new-web ways of bringing in money you must already have the audience/fans in place to make it work. Joey Daoud of the Coffee and Celluloid blog recounts his experience trying to get a film made using Kickstarter (here).
I think the main thing to takeaway is it’s a tool, not a magical source of funding.
If you’re a photographer who already has a fan base and you want to fund a project by pre-selling prints, books and access to you then this could be the perfect way to get it done. Or maybe you have friends with deep pockets but don’t want to offend them by begging for money. Turning it into a Kickstarter project will make it less awkward for them to fund your artistic ways.
Just don’t expect angel investors to recognize your genius and magically appear.
APE: When I worked at Outside Magazine we had a flat day rate for assignments but then had to create all these other rates to accommodate certain photographers or certain situations where the use was more extensive. It turned into a huge mess where we didn’t know what an assignment would cost and we would need to pull old invoices to see what we paid someone last time. When I went to Men’s Journal I redid the system and changed to a day rate against space structure which was much more elegant and logical. A fashion shoot that took one day but had 8 pages of images resulted in $3200 for the creative fees, which was more reflective of the level of talent we were pulling from and the overall amount of work that went into that one day of shooting. It’s good to see Wonderful Machine shedding some light on this concept in our monthly column, because it works well for both the magazine and the photographer. When shoots are “killed” some money can be saved and photographers have a guaranteed minimum but are paid based on the total usage.
By Ben Weldon, Wonderful Machine Producer
Many magazines have contracts with rates and terms that they offer to photographers (which are generally negotiable). Others don’t have their own contracts and instead work on a case-by-case basis with individual photographers. For those situations, it’s good for photographers to have a contract template on hand. We tend to structure our editorial fees based on a day rate against space. It’s an elegant solution to the problem of how to scale editorial fees, and it’s widely used by many national magazines, but some people find it hard to get their head around at first.
Pricing for editorial photography tends to be different from commercial photography for a couple of reasons. When a company decides to produce an ad or brochure, they already know what they need (in terms of photo display and usage) before the photographer is brought in. So it’s mostly a matter of the photographer coming up with a price and terms to fit those unique specifications. Magazines, on the other hand, need to work much more spontaneously. Editorial opportunities often come up on very short notice, and they also tend to morph from the time of the assignment to the time of publication. When an editor and art director send a writer and photographer out on a project, they never know what they’re going to come back with. And the play in the magazine is going to depend largely on how interesting and relevant that result turns out to be, compared to other stories that they’ve got cooking.
So photographers and magazines are best served by a contract that can be put in place for a couple years at a time (which allows for last-minute projects) and is scaleable (to account for variations in the amount of time required, expenses and the number and size of the pictures used). After all, it’s reasonable to charge less for a project that takes a day to complete vs. one that takes a month. It’s reasonable to charge less for a project that you can do alone in your back yard with a fill card than one that you have to take a crew of 7 and a dozen cases of rental equipment to Tunisia for. And it’s reasonable to charge less for a 1/4-page photo inside the magazine than a cover and 10 pages in the well.
The day rate vs. space structure takes all of these variables into account. The day rate is a minimum guarantee that compensates the photographer for his time on the project. It tends to be fairly modest, to accommodate small projects that won’t have a big presence in the magazine. The space rate comes into effect only when the magazine ends up using multiple or large pictures. The expenses are what they are. The structure nicely scales from small assignments that the publication can have done inexpensively, while incentivizing the photographer to produce a lot of great pictures. And it minimizes the need to renegotiate after the fact, when the final piece in the magazine is different than imagined.
Here is our standard day vs. space agreement (in Adobe PDF ):
And here’s an explanation of each paragraph:
Via, spd.org
PDN has their photo annual live on the website now (here). Lots of great work and some crossover from the American Photography Book which is always good to see.
Congratulations to all the winners. Amazing work from last year.
Consumer uptake will be slow, he acknowledged, but he laid out a scenario in which [E-Reader] adoption could save Meredith, which publishes Ladies’ Home Journal and Family Circle, about $60 million a year. Lacy told analysts the publisher spends about $150 million annually on paper, $80 million in printing costs and $80 million for mailing. If audience migration to an e-reader allows 20% of that $310 million to be trimmed, “that could really be meaningful to us from a financial point of view.”
via MediaPost.
My expenses are almost as high as my photography income and I have so little left at the end even when I am lucky. So, maybe I am not qualified to answer this question. Then why am I doing photography? I think it is a combination of passion and stupidity. For me, photography is intellectual, artistic, and curiosity fulfilling. I love making photographs.
–Hiroshi Watanabe
via Two Way Lens
I found this photo of Improper Bostonian Photo Editor, Katie Noble’s desktop on Nick Onken’s shoptalk blog:
I would love to see more, so all you Photo Editor’s and Art Buyer’s out there send me the view of your desktop.
Former Art Buyers and current photography consultants Amanda Sosa Stone and Suzanne Sease have agreed to take anonymous questions from photographers and not only give their expert advice but put it out to a wide range of photographers, reps and art buyers to gather a variety of opinions. The goal with this column is to solicit honest questions and answers through anonymity.
QUESTION:
The past week I did 2 separate estimates for different agencies. In my estimates I broke down the usage for print and web, both agencies came back to me and asked if it covered social media. This is the first time I’ve been asked about social media rights and usage. I talked to an AD friend and he suggested I treat it as broadcast. Should there be an extra charge for social media rights/usage ?
Amanda and Suzanne: This is a NEW usage being requested…and we are SO LUCKY to have APE and our AMAZING resources and friends to ask this HOT TOPIC and be able to share this question quickly to our community.
ANSWERS:
ART PRODUCER #1
I’m considering social media as web use (unless that social media outlet lives someplace other than the internet) and I wouldn’t expect and probably would not pay an additional fee to use content within social media parameters, if I’m buying a general web use. If I’ve got a smaller budget than I may get very specific with the use in order to still use a preferred photographer, while still working within my budget parameters. However, in my head if it’s specified as (general) web use that includes social media use (as long as it lives on the web).
ART PRODUCER #2
I think that charging for Broadcast use is way too high. Social Media is typically encompassed within Internet usage. As always, pricing is determined by exposure, uniqueness and the degree of association with a product. One thing to note about Social Media is that there is usually not a blatant advertising message, so there’s often less of a direct association with product. If separated from Internet, the photographer should gauge the degree of association, the uniqueness of the image, and the degree that the imagery itself is delivering the message.
ART PRODUCER #3
From Wikipedia: “Social media is a term used to describe the type of media that is based on conversation and interaction between people online. Where media means digital words, sounds & pictures which are typically shared via the internet and the value can be cultural, societal or even financial.”
Social Media is web. When I negotiate with an artist, I ask for unlimited web. More people watch TV then scan the social networks so I don’t see this as the same as broadcast.
To Summarize: Social Media should be covered under web usage. You can say Unlimited Web and some might assume that social media will be covered under this. But our advice is to be clear with your wording since this media is a fairly new usage request. Web Usage, including or not including Social Media.
Call To Action: Decide how you feel about the above topic and how you feel comfortable charging for the above. When asked you will be ready to give an appropriate and fair estimate based on your own education from the REAL buyers above.
If you want more insight from Amanda and Suzanne you can contact them directly (here and here) or tune in once a week or so for more of “Ask Anything.”
Photography is incredibly difficult as I’m sure you know. The complexities within a single picture can be enormous at times. The composition, the content, the lighting, there’s so many elements that have to be brought in to one picture. From that point of view, I’m still learning a lot about photography. It’s a very narrow discipline in that way and even to think about doing something else would be a distraction.
via Milky Blacks.
Awesome opportunity to bid on some fantastic photography and have your money go to Doctors Without Borders at the ♥Art for Haiti auction that opens today.
