Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Working for free has the biggest stigma on it. And for good reason, because if you don’t know how to work for free properly, you can be taken advantage of. When you work for free, you need to try and always put yourself in the best possible position to gain something from the work.
Whether you’re just putting new work in your portfolio or you’re adding to your network, you need to realize that working for free can benefit you, especially early in your career.
I really dislike it when photographers aren’t treated with respect for their time and talent. It happens way too often sadly.
Justin Rosenberg recently fell into this situation. He was recently approached by a media personality that wanted to take advantage of her position. The funny part is that she had less online engagement than he did so there was legitimately no value to the over-inflated claims produced in the beginning.
The conversation below is exactly how NOT to approach a photographer when you want someone to produce content for you.
Clients can sometimes be… tricky. Okay, “tricky” is an understatement in some situations. They can be absolutely horrific. I’m sure you’ve been offered an “amazing opportunity” to work for exposure at least once in your career. Or maybe you’ve even had an offer you just couldn’t refuse, like working for socks or spray tan. I wonder if people would apply the same logic to other professions. Guys from Foil Arms and Hog wondered the same thing, so they have created a really funny video that shows what it would like if you ask a plumber to work for free.
I always say that if you want to see creativity, ask a photographer the various ways potential clients will respond back to rate requests. I decided to turn that into reality!
I asked photographers the worst stories they had with potential clients responding back after being asked what their rates were. I promised to keep the responses anonymous so they could let loose. Sadly, it happens to even some of the best photographers.
The point of this is to make you realize that you’re not alone. It’s a part of the industry. I think in time, it gets easier to handle knowing that it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with you, but how awful people can be sometimes. And hopefully, by sharing this, people will know that it’s really not cool to act like this!
I decided to collect the *best* (of the worst) 35 responses and here they are below:
The word “testing” can have a variety of different meanings in the industry.
But it always refers to creatives sharing their time to create something as a team.
In commercial photography the test is done to see if the model is suitable for a commercial shoot, since models cost a lot of money and “bad chemistry” can cost the client too much.
Earlier this week, the Washington City Paper made a stand against what it considered an unfair concert photography contract presented by the Foo Fighters with an article entitled Why We’re Not Photographing The Foo Fighters. Concert photographers everywhere stood up and slow clapped for the headline and main idea of the article and the stand it took on photographers rights. In the last paragraph of the article however, the Washington City Paper did something even worse to photographers than the Foo Fighters ever could have; they called on the fans to submit photos of the show, and they offered to pay for them. Instead of simply not covering the event and saying “Screw you, Foo Fighters” as the article’s title might make you believe, they’re saying “Screw you, concert photographers” and created a new class of concert photographer; the front row, amateur, on spec, freelance iPhoneographer. The ramifications are going to be far reaching to the concert photographer, the concert attendee, the artist, and the publications themselves.
It seems like Taylor Swift has had a spot reserved for her in the headlines lately. First it was positive press for standing up to Apple’s music streaming service and defending artists’ rights, but then came along a concert photographer calling the singer a hypocrite for exploiting photographers that cover her concerts.
Then came her agent’s response to the photographer’s accusations, quickly followed by the photographer’s response to the agent.
Making valid points and drawing attention to a touchy subject for photographers, Jason Sheldon got people talking about the problem, but it was just talk.
Today, however, that changed when the Irish Times covered Swift’s Dublin concert but didn’t include any photos of her performance. Taking it a step further, the news outlet also posted an article on its website explaining that the star’s contract didn’t leave them another option.
Sometimes ranting about things works. On Friday, Jared Polin of FroKnowsPhoto posted a rant in which he expressed his frustration with Live Nation about their policy of not paying photographers for their work while retaining the rights to the images.
After replying to a job ad looking for photographers to cover the opening of their new Ascend Amphitheater, Polin was informed that the position “is a great opportunity to build a portfolio.” In response, Polin made a video as an open letter to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino. In his original bog post, Jared urged readers to “share this out with the world and lets make Michael Rapino hear that he needs to make a change inside his company and #RespectPhotographers.” And, apparently, it worked.
After my public response to Taylor Swift’s open letter to Apple, I didn’t quite expect the phenomenal reaction it received. I knew it was provocative, I knew it was going to be risky and could possibly harm my chances of getting access to other concerts in future. but it needed to be said – out loud. When I thought hard about the possible consequences, and restrictions on my access to future work, I asked myself “What point is there in going to work if I can’t be paid for it – yet everyone else gets to benefit from my labour?”. The answer?
There was nothing left to lose. When you’re faced with a choice of working for free to save a millionaire having to pay a reasonable fee, or not working at all. what would you do?
[Editor’s note: Taylor Swift letter to Apple saying that it is unfair for artists to go unpaid, seems to have made make Apple take a (somewhat limited) U turn and Apple’s swiftly responded (no pun intended) with a promise to compensate artists.]
Dear Taylor Swift,
I have read your open letter to Apple where you give your reasons for refusing to allow your album ‘1989′ to be included on their forthcoming Apple Music streaming service. (For reference)
I applaud it. It’s great to have someone with a huge following standing up for the rights of creative people and making a stand against the corporate behemoths who have so much power they can make or break someone’s career.
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