The outlook for photographers is not all bad. In fact, I run into photographers (online) all the time who are doing well and their business is growing. One photographer I spoke with recently said his business was up 20% this year and has been up 30% on average each of the last 5 years. How is that possible? I asked him to explain why he thinks he has been so successful in a dour economy. Here’s what he said:

For years I have been doing all of the expected marking: advertise in sourcebooks, online, emails, using social media and blogging. You’ve got to have a little bit of everything going because eventually you will hit on something and you may not know what it was that stuck. I think of it more as brand building for the long run than any one job. I love working on my marketing and advertising, because for me it is a way to help drive the direction of my career and getting the work I want. Ten years ago I had a very specific vision of where I wanted to be and I really think that has been the key to it all. That and persistence every single day, if I am not shooting I am marketing.

Here are other key points to why my business is growing:

Easy To Work With
This means not only helping to solve problems, but also being passionate about the entire job and not just the creative side. It’s also, having a good time on the shoot or at dinner or even having a good time traveling.

Flexible
Sure we’d all love higher fees but the reality is they’re not always there. It’s like dining in a restaurant, if you want Salmon and they’re out of Salmon, don’t you want the waiter to recommend something else or offer another solution? Clients are the same way. Photographers need to be problem solvers, they need to propose solutions to a roadblock, not complain about it.

I know this one is touchy because most people think lowering the price means lowering the fees. You don’t have to approach it that way, you can solve production issues in ways that are cost effective. Simply choosing a different location to shoot can reduce costs or going through the estimate with clients, because one shot out of 5 is really through the roof on the budget. Explain that and maybe that shot is the least important so they drop it. Give the ideas and alternative solutions based on the brand and what they want to communicate. That is why they hired you.

Other solutions include: reducing your crew, doing without the motorhome, using real talent, shooting close to home, finding more local crew. If you have to travel with a big crew, costs really add up so you can negotiate group rates, stay in less expensive hotels to reduce them. Also, watch extras like overtime, shoot an extra shot or 2 a day or shoot gorilla style. Clients appreciate when you are looking out for the budget and it’s possible to reduce the budget without lowering your fees.

Many times things change once you get to the location and start shooting and I completely understand when clients come up with new ideas and want to change things at the last minute because I was an art director for 5 years before I started my photo business. If you do your pre-production before and everything is set you can adapt and make it happen. Sometimes this effects the cost of the shoot and sometimes I do not bill additional for it but not every decision I make is financial.

Honesty
When clients ask me what I think or if I think something is headed the wrong direction on a project I tell them and give them my reasoning. They appreciate it as long is it is coming from an honest place and you are be constructive and not just complaining.

If you work with a staff and or a rep make sure they have the same integrity and honesty as you. This was the biggest decision for me in getting a rep and I have an awesome rep.

Being a true part of the creative process
Be a part of the creative process from the first phone call to the last, not just during the shoot. I have many clients now that involve me in initial concepting even if they do not know who the photographer will be yet. I get those jobs 95% of the time. I also have many clients that ask for feedback on the layouts after the shoot. I give my honest opinion.

I do not just shoot what clients ask me to shoot, I shoot it with my vision and my creativity. But, this is not about creating fine art, I am taking all the info I know about the brand and what they are trying to accomplish and then I apply my vision. At the end of they day the client appreciates it and understand my value as more than just a technical person that understand how to work all the fancy lights and equipment.

Be Polite
for those times when you just can’t make the budget work no matter what, or you don’t get the job, be gracious. I turned down several jobs last year for budget and schedule reasons. I always leave the door open for future work.

People are really responding to my vision
I think the slower economy has made clients re-evaluate all the excess over the last several years and want to get back to the basics. My style is more honest, direct and real feeling. That is just a suspicion of mine and not really justified by specific examples.

Personal projects
If you have nothing new to promote that you’ve shot for a client, promote yourself. Clients like to see what else you’re made of and chances are if you pour your heart into it you’ll ignite a new passion. Creative Directors, Art Directors and Art Buyers love talking about personal projects. I find these to be great conversation topics with clients I am working with or have worked with because they can feel your passion.

Marketing
I have actually increased my marketing and advertising this year. I am religious about doing marketing and do it every work day I am not shooting.

If you have a rep remember it’s a partnership. They need you to participate in the process, they need new work to show. My rep also supports and understands my creative goals beyond the pure business side and I think that is invaluable for any creative.

Surround Yourself With Good People
I have a great producer/assistant on staff and it has really freed me up to focus on the bigger picture aspects of my business. She also has honesty and integrity in abundance. I never have to give a single thought to how she will interact and work with clients.

Nadav Kander talks about his Prix Pictet award winning work from China:

They are just pictures, but pictures that cant be taken again. The Yangtze River, which forms the premise to this body of work, is the main artery that flows 4100 miles (6500km) across China, travelling from its furthest westerly point in Qinghai Providence to Shanghai in the East. In this installation, Nadav invites the visitors to reflect with him on his journey.

via, The FStop.

Just over 2 years ago a story ran in the New York Times that asked the question: “If the Copy Is an Artwork, Then What’s the Original? (here)” The original they were referring to belonged to Jim Krantz and the story went on to explain that Jim had recently paid a visit to the Guggenheim Museum where he discovered one of his photographs included in a retrospective of artist Richard Prince’s work. Most photographers by now are aware of Prince and his practice of using other peoples photographs to make his art and we’ve debated various aspects of the practice including the pending lawsuit by photographer Patrick Cariou (here). What caught my eye recently was that Krantz, a long time artist (here) as well as a big time commercial photographer is starting to get some recognition from the fickle fashion and art communities for his work. His statement in the New York Times article that, “I just want some recognition, and I want some understanding” may be coming true. He’s now represented by Danziger Projects in New York, he recently shot an advertising campaign based on the cowboy work for designer Adam Kimmel (here) and has a show hanging at the Colette in Paris that opened Monday (here). I gave him a call to discuss:

APE: In the time since that article came out about Richard Price using your photography how have things changed for you?

There’s been an awful lot of recognition of my work. So much of the time I work in a vacuum. The work that I produce for my commercial accounts is unconnected from my name. In fact the ad in itself is a very different interpretation from the work I create.

APE: Hasn’t that always been the case with advertising photography?

With tobacco in particular there’s even more of a disconnect because you can’t enter the work in CA or any photo contests. So, you’re really, really in a vacuum.

APE: Do you feel like what happened with Richard Prince changed peoples opinion about your work or brought it more recognition?

The general consensus from over 200 emails that I’ve gotten since that article ran is very negative and people were actually pissed off as far as what he’s done and how he goes about his business. There’s a fine line between appropriation and plagiarism. A lot of the people who write me are photographers and artists and they feel vulnerable to this because they project themselves into the situation I find myself in.

In general I’m not happy about it and artists are not happy about it. Now, if you go talk to a gallerist about it they will look at it as American iconography and describe him as a collector of images. I kind of understand if you take the whole Ad with the Marlboro words with the copy, the header and the cigarette pack stripped out. As opposed to what he’s doing which is stripping all the copy away so you have the photograph in its purest form. That’s a very different thing because at that point it’s not an Ad, which is a departure from what I’ve done, it’s literally exactly what I’ve done. The context is everything. And in the context with all the copy and everything else my work creates a new entity in itself. When he eliminates all of that, it goes back to the core image, which is mine, so yeah I don’t see this as really being a photograph of an advertisement. It’s really just the purest form of the art out of context. That’s exactly how I shoot it, I’m not thinking about cigarettes, I’m not thinking about anything more than fantastic art.

APE: Don’t you think that you have to be Richard Prince to pull it off. He’s dedicated his life to this practice. A lot of people react by saying anyone can do this, but it’s all wrapped up in him.

Yeah, I think you’re right but I think a lot of people take a lot of things all the time because everything is so accessible. I’ll bet there’s a lot of crazy things that take place that we don’t know about. I can’t imagine it, but it’s so accessible you know, why not. People do bad things all the time.

APE: How has it evolved for you from seeing it in the Guggenheim to now where you’re represented by James Danziger in NYC, you shot an advertising campaign for Adam Kimmel based on the cowboy work and you have an opening at the Colette in Paris this week?

What its done is its really illuminated my work and given me the opportunity to take it outside of the advertising world and into the fashion and art world right now. In the last month I’ve been in the New York Times twice, Wallpaper magazine coming up, Bon magazine in Europe, a feature in CA, Arena Hommes Plus, Hercules Magazine in Europe, French Vogue and German GQ.

So the recognition you were seeking for the work happened?

The recognition has been fantastic and the source for all of this is the article in the New York Times and it’s funny because I’ve been doing this since I was 19 when I took a photography workshop from Ansel Adams at his house and all these guys were hanging out there like Brett Weston and Jerry Uselman. I’ve been shooting fine art my entire career.

APE: But, that’s the irony isn’t it. Someone steals a photograph and suddenly your work is important to the art community. That’s what it took.

It’s amazing to me that the curators at the Guggenheim would bring this work in without acknowledging the source or giving the viewers the opportunity to see what motivates and inspires a person. You need a footnote in a paper but there’s no source recognized here.

APE: I think that is something that’s changing with the web. There’s suddenly more transparency whether you want it or not. People want to dig down and figure out what inspired something or reveal things that aren’t attributed properly.

This is a very fascinating phenomenon and where did anything originate is a big question.

APE: So, what are you feelings towards Richard Prince now that there’s been some form of attribution?

The recognition has been great because it’s fairly impossible with all the millions and millions of images out there to get recognized for anything now days.

But I still to this day don’t understand what he did. Put yourself in my shoes walking down the street and you see the photograph that I shot in Albany, TX in 1990 of a cowboy with his arms stretched out on those on banners wondering why are my pictures there. It’s bizarre man. So, do I understand it? No. And when I went in and saw the posters for the Richard Prince show with my photograph, I don’t understand that either.

APE: Yeah, I can’t imagine that. I won’t pretend to.

It’s not original and it’s not art. I still don’t understand it and I don’t see the significance of it no matter what.

It’s ballsy as hell, I’ll give him that.