Photo opportunities

Some photographers like Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson had successful careers stretching over half a century. Jacques-Henri Lartigue took pictures over nine decades. Photographers never stop working and are never not at work – they are always open to inspiration from the world around them and think constantly about their work.

To have a career in photography, you not only need to be able to take great pictures but also earn a living. You have to learn as much as you can about the medium and go out to find clients who will give you work. When you do find work, you don’t want your career to be over in a flash. You have to think about how your career could evolve.

Photography jobs and opportunities are rarely advertised. To find work as a photographer you need to know how the creative industry works so that you can become part of it.

A photographer’s life seems as cool as that portrayed by David Hemmings in the 1966 film Blow-Up. This celebrated film by Michelangelo Antonioni was inspired by the lifestyle of British photographer David Bailey and 1960s London. It was a major influence on the public’s perception of photography, but the reality is that photography is a competitive and demanding profession that requires talent, passion, very hard work and a lot of luck in order to succeed.

Creating a career

Great photographers can take great pictures of anything. In order to create a career and keep working, most photographers have learnt to have very broad skills. Although some photographers are specialists, the majority work on a very large range of creative challenges. All photographers’ work evolves in response to the assignments given to them by clients and most photographers move between different areas of photography throughout a career.

There is no one route to becoming a professional photographer. Some have learnt to take pictures by trial and error, some begin by working as assistants to established photographers, some have studied – some have done all these things. This section looks at the variety of different careers in photography and the different paths on which to embark upon them.

Today’s photographers have to offer great talent and skills in an everchanging industry. They may have to work for many clients and produce work for a variety of assignments. In addition, they will earn money from commissions, stock photography and sales of prints through syndication. To improve their chances of success, they may learn additional skills in IT, web design, multimedia, editing, video and sound.

Lens-for-hire or staffphotographer?

There are some staff jobs for photographers on daily and weekly newspapers, in news agencies and sports agencies. There are also specialist photography jobs with the police and in the medical profession. The vast majority of photographers, though, work on a freelance basis: that is, they have many different clients that employ them by the day or for an assignment. Advertising agencies, design groups and magazines commission all their photography from freelance photographers.

In order to earn a living and build a career as a freelance photographer, you need to find regular work. Many clients give regular assignments to a small number of photographers that they know will deliver the exciting pictures they want. Photographers can keep clients for many years, building a relationship with other creative people who understand what they can bring to an assignment.

Getting clients

In this increasingly busy world it is difficult to get an appointment with potential clients. It is usual to be invited to show your portfolio after your work has been seen online, and commissions are often made on this basis. If a client is considering a number of photographers, you may need to leave your portfolio with them for a few days, so a duplicate book may be required, especially as you become busier.

Promotions

A photographer’s reputation often takes years to develop; there are few overnight successes. To promote your work, you need many different types of exposure. Perhaps the one that works best is winning competitions. A win can launch a career; even just selection in a reputable awards competition can bring your work to the attention of potential clients.

Exhibitions, mail campaigns, postcards and especially the use of social media are all ways that a photographer can get noticed. But never forget that the basis for all your marketing is the ability to create great work, having a passion for what you do and producing images that stand out.

Website

A website is essential for a photographer and is probably your most important showcase. You can buy a domain name for just a few pounds, but the website should look as professional as you can make it. Many companies offer readymade sites that are suitable for photographers, but remember that the site has to function across many platforms, including smartphones and tablets, so ensure that it shows off your work, not the clever design of the website. The site can generate income and manage the sales of images for publication or even prints. However, it is critical that your website is found, so knowledge of search-engine optimization is essential to enable potential clients to find your site among the millions of others out there.

The brief

Part of being a professional photographer is responding to someone else’s brief. A brief is a creative challenge that needs an inventive, original and creative solution within a set deadline. Each brief is an opportunity for you to find a visually exciting solution. The better you respond to and resolve the problems of the brief, the greater the chance that you will be given more work.

Editorial photography – working for magazines and newspapers

The pictures taken for magazines and newspapers to partner the articles are called editorial photographs. Many freelance photographers have careers in editorial photography, enjoying the huge variety of assignments available.

Every magazine’s staff has a vision of exactly who their readers are, their age range, jobs, tastes, aspirations and spending power. Staff know their title’s position in the market and have often even named their imaginary ‘ideal’ reader: Brenda from Brighton, Hannah from Hamburg or Nicky from New Jersey.

Newspaper publishers also think they know exactly what their readers want to read about and look at. They know whether their readers’ views are forward- or backward-looking – that is, whether their title is for society’s leaders or followers.

The editor

Every magazine and newspaper has an editor. The editor is the person ultimately responsible for everything printed in a publication. He or she makes the big decisions about every issue, including which stories and articles are printed, who’s on the cover, the voice in which the publication speaks and which staff and contributors are employed. The editor is appointed by a publisher or board of directors. If a magazine or newspaper makes an error or if sales fall, the editor bears the responsibility.

The art director

The look of a publication is the job of an art director, who oversees the design of every issue. His or her job is to create a unique vision for the publication through the choice of photographers, illustrators, use of design, typography and layout of the pages.

The art director leads the art department, appointing designers to help create the look of the publication and picture editors to commission and coordinate all the photography.

The picture editor

On the picture desk there are often several picture editors coordinating photos for different areas of the publication, with juniors to organize the return and filing of photographs. Leading titles have a picture director in charge of all the work of the picture desk.

The picture editor’s job is to ensure that all the photography used in a publication is amazing. Picture editors commission photos, organize shoots, source images from photo libraries and photographers, arrange picture clearance and negotiate syndication. They edit the work of photographers whom they have commissioned, seeking the very best images.

The newspaper picture editor gives assignments to the paper’s own staff and freelancers. Different picture editors have responsibility for each area of a paper: news, sport, features, etc. News picture editors find photographs for stories when there is no time to commission pictures. They look at the thousands of images available from picture agencies worldwide and select the ones best suited to partner the stories that the editor wants to include in that issue, working swiftly to the deadlines of their publication.

Getting work from magazines and newspapers

In order to work for magazines and newspapers, you need to show your work to the picture editor or the art director. Magazines need portrait photographers, celebrity photographers, still-life photographers, photojournalists, beauty and fashion photographers. (See Fashion magazines, p. 237.) Magazines are always seeking new talent, often finding new photographers by visiting exhibitions and college shows. Part of the art director’s job is to keep the look of his or her publication fresh, so they often nurture young photographers at the beginning of their careers, building long-standing commissioning partnerships with them.

National newspapers give many commissions to freelancers, in particular for regional assignments. Newspaper picture editors have national networks of photographers who get the call to cover breaking stories on their patch. Some newspapers have training schemes for young photographers. Places on them are often offered as the prize for winning photo competitions run by the newspaper. (See Competitions, p. 249.)

Far more news photographers now work for news agencies rather than on staff at a newspaper. News agencies syndicate use of their photographers’ pictures. (See Syndication, p. 250.) Many news agencies nurture the talent of young photographers, helping them to begin their careers.

So you want to be a news photographer?

Newspaper pictures have to compete against bold headlines, which means they need impact and immediacy. As such, they are often very simple and easy to interpret. News pictures have to communicate ‘who, what, where, when and why’ – that is, who the participants are, what they are doing, where they are, when the event took place and what its significance is.

Every news photographer wants to be front-paged. Good news photographers break free from the press pack and find their own views, even at photo-calls and staged photo opportunities. American president Richard Nixon’s press secretary coined the term ‘photo opportunity’ to describe a brief staged session for photographers and cameramen at which he attempted to portray his boss in the best possible light and control the images available.

Great news pictures can come from run-of-the-mill assignments when a photographer sees an event through fresh eyes or finds a unique angle. News photographers need initiative and an instinct for ‘right place, right time’, an ability to get into places they shouldn’t really be and a head for being at the centre of the action. They have to have patience. They sometimes have to wait for hours or days and still be able to react in an instant, always getting a picture, no matter what the conditions and circumstances, with total trust in their equipment. They have to be able to think and take pictures at high speed, even when working in confusion.

News photographers and photojournalists shoot both landscape- and portrait-format pictures to give their picture editors alternatives about how the photos can be used when published. Portrait-format pictures suit being used for covers or single pages, landscape-format pictures can be enlarged across an entire double-page spread. If you’re a photographer you don’t want to miss having an image used on a cover just because you’ve shot a whole story in landscape format and none will fit the cover format. (See Composition – Order or Disorder, p. 201.)

News photographers have to be thick-skinned. They have to witness very highly charged events and may be sent on assignments they do not relish, such as when they are asked to ‘doorstep’ people. Doorstepping means a photographer is sent by an editor to take pictures of a person thrust into the news by scandal or tragedy – as they appear on their doorstep.

A news photographer should seek a new angle on every event. News photographers may also be asked to photograph people – such as politicians – to show them in a bad light, suiting the bias of their publication.

Media handlers, public-relations and press officers, minders and security will often steward photographers in an attempt to control angles and access to the subject, to keep them at a distance. Journalists and photographers sometimes have to collude with this system in order to get any access at all. It takes courage and planning to avoid getting penned in.

You have to shoot, shoot and shoot because you may not know the whole story nor how it is going to unfold. Shoot both horizontal and vertical (landscape- and portrait-format) pictures. You don’t know the outcome, who the winners or losers will be. Sometimes you don’t even know who the participants are. So where do you point your camera? You point it at the story.

So you want to be a photojournalist?

Photojournalists have to be questioning, humanitarian and fascinated by everyday life. They need to have an eye for human detail, be compassionate and have a discreet presence so as to be able to observe unfolding events. As with the news photographer, the photojournalist must shoot, shoot, shoot both landscape- and portrait-format pictures. There are agencies that employ photojournalists and syndicate their photo stories. They also nurture the talent of young photographers. (See Syndication, p. 250.)

So you want to be a portrait photographer?

Portrait photographers are curious about people. They must have empathy with their subjects, make them feel comfortable in front of the camera and engender trust. Portrait photographers usually love working with others, possess charm and good humour, and are at ease in the company of many different types of people.

So you want to be a sports photographer?

Many newspapers and photo agencies employ specialist sports photographers. The vast majority of sports pictures are taken with digital cameras and are sent digitally by phone to the paper or agency while the event is still in progress so they can be laid out at once for tomorrow’s paper. At a huge sporting event an agency will send more than one photographer to cover the action together with assistants to send back the pictures.

Sports photographers are often corralled at the sides of the pitch or track, though in some sports accredited photographers may more or less be allowed to choose their own vantage points. Sports photographers need a passion for the sport they are photographing. They often have to work in terrible lighting conditions and at a distance from the action. They must work quickly to meet urgent deadlines and need luck to find themselves in the right place when a pivotal moment in a game occurs.

‘You can’t get away from the element of luck in sports photography; but what makes a great sports photographer is that, when we get lucky, we don’t miss.’

Sports photographer Neil Leifer was interviewed in the Observer newspaper after his picture of Muhammad Ali celebrating victory over Cleveland Williams, shot from the lighting rig above the boxing ring, had been acclaimed as the greatest sports photograph ever.

Many sports photographers work with more than one camera, so as to be able to get different views quickly and to ensure that a key shot is not missed when changing lenses. Some arrange multiple cameras around the sports arena that can be triggered remotely. Big demands are made of sports photographers. They need to be able to stay calm while the crowd is going crazy and to capture all the goals, tries, wickets, home runs, etc, together with all the celebration and desolation of winning or losing.

So you want to be a celebrity portrait photographer?

Celebrity photographers need to make their sitters feel relaxed and at ease. The celebrity photographer must be comfortable in the presence of fame and beauty, and be able to create fresh pictures of people who have been photographed thousands of times before. The novice celebrity photographer needs to be able to work very quickly, as the first greeting from a celebrity is often ‘Will this take long?’

The superstar picture has its own unique set of rules and conventions. Different levels of celebrity demand different levels of control over a photoshoot. A superstar has the greatest amount of control over how they are portrayed, often dictating exactly how they wish to appear.

Publications always want exclusive photographs of celebrities, especially for cover photos. These are usually specifically shot for the publication, to fit their style and readership, and to avoid the possibility that a rival magazine has the same picture. The first hurdle for any publication is to get a star to agree to be photographed. Celebrities will often only agree when they have something to sell or promote – a new movie, record or product.

Once a request has been tentatively accepted, a photoshoot will only take place once a long list of conditions have been met in a pre-shoot agreement negotiated with the star’s representatives; all the conditions have to be paid for by the magazine. Stars may choose their own photographer, clothes, hairdresser and make-up artist; stipulate that the resulting pictures appear on the cover; approve the location at which the photographs are to be taken; and approve the final photographs and their retouching.

These images, and those on the previous page, show sports photographers taking and editing pictures. In the black-and-white picture above a photographer sets up his camera before kick-off in a position in which he will not be allowed to remain during the game itself. The shutter can be triggered remotely. On p. 235, a shade is improvised so that the photographer can see the pictures clearly on a screen.

Fashion magazines

The fashion department of a magazine is responsible for all the series of fashion pictures – known as fashion stories – that appear in a particular publication. Each fashion department is led by a fashion editor whose job it is to commission all the fashion photography.

‘The fashion department of a publication is a separate magazine within the magazine. They are totally focused on their thirty or forty pages or fashion pictures.’

Stuart Selner, art director, Marie Claire magazine.

Fashion stories feature the clothes that will be available in the shops. They are inspired by the international fashion catwalk shows – the big fashion circuses staged in Milan, Paris, New York and London every spring and autumn, where the top fashion designers showcase their clothes for the next season. These very expensive high-fashion outfits will be the clothes available in the leading fashion stores in the following months, while filtered-down versions of the same looks will be stocked in high-street clothes shops.

The fashion editor

The catwalk shows are attended by every fashion editor and all the buyers from the major stores. After each set of shows, the fashion editors pick out trends and themes – the styles and colours of the clothes they’ve seen – and create fashion stories inspired by them for their next issues. At the same time the buyers place orders for their stores.

The job of fashion editors is to create exciting pictures in the visual tone of voice that will ‘speak’ to their readers. They do this by carefully selecting the fashion photographers, stylists, hair and make-up artists and models that can give life to their vision. As publications cater for very different readerships, fashion editors are careful not to create pictures that could alienate or lose them readers. They must also remember to include clothes made by the manufacturers that advertise in their magazine.

There are many smaller fashion and style magazines that don’t have to work under these pressures. These take inspiration from young designers, street fashion and popular culture.

The cover

‘The cover is critical – on a shoot the only thing that really, really matters is the cover.’

Stuart Selner, art director, Marie Claire magazine.

As each page of a fashion magazine is designed, it is stuck on the wall by the magazine’s art director.

Fashion magazines take their cover pictures very, very seriously. Great covers sell far more copies of an issue. On every fashion shoot the photographer and fashion editor will do ‘cover tries’ – attempts to create a great cover photo. The art director will pick out three or four pictures from each attempt to create mock-up covers to discuss with the editor. Cover pictures have to compete with the magazine’s logo and cover lines – the text relating to stories in the issue – and are often very simple, strong pictures selected to stand out on the newsstand.

The beauty section

Fashion magazines have beauty editors as well as fashion editors. The beauty editor is responsible for all the pages about make-up, hair and beauty products. Like fashion photography, beauty photography is another very creative area in fashion magazines, and the beauty pages are often illustrated with bold, vivid colour, huge close-up photos of eyes and lips or creative still lifes of products.

So you want to be a fashion photographer?

Fashion photographers have to live and breathe fashion. They need great imagination, passion, originality and creativity. Many fashion photographers begin by working on the many smaller fashion and style magazines. These titles are the ones that drive visual imagery forward by having a far more radical and innovative approach to photography, and they are the ideal starting place for new fashion photographers.

Design groups and advertising agencies

Most companies do not have their own design department, so when they need a brochure, a website or a catalogue they employ a design group to create it for them. Design groups specialize in creating visually exciting communication. These companies vary in size from a few people sharing an office to large enterprises.

Most companies do not have their own advertising department either, so when they want to advertise a new or established product they employ an advertising agency. Agencies do everything from creating the advertisement to booking the billboard sites and the spaces in magazines and papers to display it. Advertising agencies are also responsible for developing brand identities for their client company and its products or services. The most important people in an advertising agency for a photographer to know are the art directors and art buyers. An advertising art director performs a very different job from that of a magazine art director.

The advertising art director and art buyer

An art director in an advertising agency thinks of ideas for advertisements. His or her job is to devise brilliant and original advertisements that sell a product to the client’s target market. An art director works in partnership with a copywriter. The art director comes up with the visual ideas and the copywriter provides the words. As advertising evolves, however, these roles begin to blur. Although the titles of art director and copywriter are still used, in addition to bringing their traditional design skills to advertising campaigns, these creatives now work across all types of digital and social media that dominate advertising.

Art buyers are a vital part of advertising agencies. An art buyer’s job is to keep up with the very latest developments in the creative world. This involves seeking out the work of new creative photographers and illustrators by looking at portfolios and exhibitions, and filtering the best work through to their art directors. The art buyer’s job also includes negotiating the fees that advertising photographers are paid. As the media spend for a campaign is often in the hundreds of thousands, the choice of photographer is critical and only very experienced photographers will be employed. However, small campaigns and clients may employ younger up-and-coming photographers, who may have a great portfolio and some experience of editorial work.

Advertising art directors and art buyers are constantly looking for new photographers to keep the output of their agency fresh. They often find talented photographers by looking at editorial photography, and by going to exhibitions and student shows. It is these key people that an aspiring advertising photographer must impress.

So you want to be an advertising photographer?

Advertising photographers are usually at the top of their game, both technically and creatively. They are specialists in the type of work they produce, are able to adapt to new technology and are constantly developing their craft. The developments in digital interactive media mean that an advertising photographer will be employed to shoot stills (photographs) and video. For online advertising campaigns this is increasingly the case.

Advertising photography can be very demanding. The studio-based advertising photographer has to turn over a greater amount of work to pay for the rent of an expensive property, especially in cities, so many hire the studio they need for each commission, or share facilities with fellow photographers.

The photographic agent

‘Photographers want an agent for their contacts within the creative industries. It can be very difficult for a new photographer to get appointments with some top creatives.’

Alan Latchley, photographer.

The right photographic agent can help build a photographer’s career. Agents have relationships with agencies, magazines, picture editors, art directors and art buyers that have often been nurtured over years. They make appointments for their photographers and send out their books to prospective clients. They sometimes take their photographers’ books into a magazine or agency themselves to ‘sell’ each photographer’s talent. Agents recruit new photographers from student shows and as a result of seeing striking editorial work. However, it is unrealistic to expect to be properly represented until you have gained some recognition in your field as a full-time photographer, with awards and an exceptional portfolio. Agents do, however, employ assistants and this is one way to break into photography.

Agents can help coordinate photographers’ shoots by finding locations and arranging for assistants, permits and insurance. They also take charge of a photographer’s billing and chasing payments. For their services photographers usually pay their agents between 10 and 20 per cent of their fees for work obtained.

‘In essence an agent can take all the worry from a photographer except getting the pictures on the film.’

Alison Smithee, photographer.

To be represented by a good agent means that clients are reassured and know that with the support of a strong back-up team and an agent’s years of experience, the photographer will deliver a very good result. The advantages for the photographer are that he or she can be away on location or in a studio and concentrate on what he or she does best: taking great photographs.

Further photo opportunities

Documentary photographers often gain support for their long-term projects with grants or they subsidize their projects with commissions for other types of photography. Still-life photographers need to have great patience, technical skill and tremendous attention to detail. They must be able to create beauty from the banal. Many photographers, including Eve Arnold, Bert Stern, Ernst Haas and Terry O’Neill, have worked on film sets as stills photographers. Stills photographers are commissioned to photograph a film’s production for use as publicity.

Theatre and dance photographers are commissioned to take pictures that recreate the feel of a show. Time constraints mean that they are often obliged to do this at a chaotic dress rehearsal when costumes, sets, lighting and even performers are still uncertain. Live-music photographers are often only allowed to take images during the first few songs of a show.

Architectural photography is another specialist career in which the photographer’s job is to display and reveal the qualities of a building. The convention is to view a building flat on, with all lines shown straight. These pictures are often taken using a plate camera to achieve this perspective and give great quality of detail.

Event photographers photograph arrivals at film premieres, openings and parties while standing by the edge of the red carpet, corralled behind a rope.

Other opportunities for photographers lie in the areas of interior design, gardening, cookery, scientific imaging, weddings and catalogue products. There are also specialist careers in forensic, scene-of-the-crime and medical photography – all fascinating areas if you have the stomach for corpses, autopsies and operations.

Stock libraries also now offer the opportunity of work for photographers. (See Stock libraries, p. 249.)

So you want to be a paparazzo?

Italian film director Federico Fellini coined the term ‘paparazzi’ to describe the breed of press photographer he had witnessed in Italy in the 1950s. In his brilliant black-and-white film La Dolce Vita , a playboy journalist is pursued through nocturnal Rome by a posse of Vespa-riding press snappers eager to grab pictures of his glamorous conquests, both in nightclubs and on the street. Fellini named one of the flashlight photographers Paparazzo – Italian for a buzzing insect; the name not only reflects his scooter-riding mobility and behaviour but also neatly echoes the pop of the flash gun.

The term paparazzi has come to be used to describe photographers who take pictures of stars without any regard for personal boundaries. Often behaving in a predatory and provocative manner, they are the antithesis of the invited photographer. In truth, there is nothing new about such behaviour; in 1898 photographers climbed through a window to photograph German statesman Otto von Bismarck on his deathbed.

The original Paparazzo in Federico Fellini’s 1960 movie La Dolce Vita.

Modern paparazzi satisfy the public’s appetite to see glimpses of celebrities’ private lives – images of stars on the beach, drunk or misbehaving, as well as clandestinely taken pictures of celebrity weddings from which all photographers have officially been barred.

The competition between the newspapers and celebrity magazines for more and more outrageous pictures of stars has been driven by the public’s huge appetite for celebrity flesh. The more extreme paparazzi have taken on the roles of modern-day bounty hunters. They track down stars who are avoiding or in hiding from the press, confident in the knowledge that there is a highly lucrative market for their pictures in the increasingly salacious tabloids. Agencies often hold auctions for the rights to an exclusive picture, selling to the highest bidder.

Paparazzi pictures are often technically poor because of the constraints under which they are taken – through a limousine window, from half a mile away or while hanging out of a helicopter. The success of such paparazzi images lies perhaps in the fact that they are the complete opposite of the posed, groomed and retouched pictures that stars like to use to control their image.

Being an assistant – the sorcerer’s apprentice

Serving an apprenticeship as a photographer’s assistant is a good way to learn about how professional photography works. You can do this before, during, after or even instead of going to college. Photographers have always had assistants. The history of photography is filled with assistants of great photographers who have become great photographers themselves.

Assistants are paid a small amount to help established photographers carry out their work. Some assistants are given great responsibility, others not as much. Assistants set up and take down shoots, prepare studios, look after clients, pick up props, stand in for test shots, load film, anticipate what the photographer needs, and make tea and coffee.

‘Assistants have to gauge what the photographer wants and give it to them before they ask for it.’

Kitty McCorry, photographer.

Some people love assisting and make a career of it, though most see it as a way to learn and build up contacts while developing their own work and building a portfolio. Assisting is a chance to see how things are done in the real world of professional photography, to meet art directors and people from magazines together with other young people just starting out in the creative professions.

‘Assistant’s rule number one: an assistant should never ask a photographer’s client if they can make an appointment to show their book. This is a sackable offence!’

Alan Latchley, photographer.

Some studios employ permanent assistants to be on hand to work with photographers who have rented a studio. Some photographers would rather employ an assistant who knows next to nothing rather than one who thinks he or she knows everything. After all a photographer wants assistance not hindrance.

You gain most by working for a photographer whose work you really like. Remember that many photographers have been assistants themselves and will help young people trying to get a start in the business. When you get an appointment with a photographer seeking an assistant, take your own work to show; even if you don’t get the job you may make further contacts. Assistants often advertise their details in photo labs and hire studios. Some professional photographers’ associations post vacancies on their websites.

Art college and university

Studying in the creative community of an art and design college or university gives you the opportunity to develop your thinking about photography, improve your technical skills, experiment with new equipment, learn about the history of the medium and explore possible career paths.

Colleges aim to create a dynamic and exciting learning atmosphere in which students are given opportunities to meet and work with people from many other creative disciplines. Colleges also help students develop the verbal skills needed to present, discuss and ‘sell’ work and ideas.

Courses are structured around answering creative briefs; the resulting work is reviewed in critiques or ‘crits’. Briefs are written by staff to develop the different professional skills required. Such projects are coupled with technical learning and classes examining photography’s history, impact and future. Staff also encourage students to enter photography competitions, which may reward winners with exposure in publications and exhibitions, or alternatively provide work experience or prizes in the form of equipment.

At the end of their college courses, students exhibit the work they have produced as a result of their studies. These shows give them the opportunity to show their best work to prospective clients, including art editors, art directors, art buyers, fashion editors and the general public.

Colleges aim to create an exciting atmosphere in which to learn about photography.

Choosing the right course

Pick the course that suits the way you want to learn. There are a great variety of photography courses available, both full-time ones and part-time weekend and evening classes. Some courses are aimed at developing the skills of photographers ready to work in the creative industries, often offering periods of work experience. Some focus on photography as a personal medium of expression and others are based on the study of theories about how photography is used. Courses can be biased towards digital photography or may emphasize traditional ways of working; the best fuse both.

Some courses offer broad learning experiences, such as the possibility of an extended period of study abroad at a partner college or university. Some are very tightly structured and timetabled, others expect students to be very active in their own learning, research and planning of their time.

Photography is also taught as part of many creative courses, including many design and communications courses. Some choose these courses in preference to pure photographic courses in the belief that a very broad knowledge of visual communication is the key to a successful career.

On these courses photography is often taught in partnership with design, multimedia, illustration and advertising.

Read the different college prospectuses and websites, go to the open days. You may be investing years of your life in a course, so find out as much as you can before you begin. Talk to staff about the curriculum and get students on the course to tell you about their experiences. Also talk to graduates and view the facilities.

To get a place on most courses, you have to fill in an application, submit a portfolio and have an interview. Most colleges will overlook a lack of academic qualifications if an applicant has dynamic and original work and a passion to learn. Teachers and lecturers want to see work that is self-directed and that you are passionate about. They want to see completed projects and experimental work, as well as sketchbooks showing ideas and visual research. In the interview you will be asked about which photographers’ work you like, which exhibitions you have visited and what subjects interest you most. Staff will ask you about your work and its direction together with why you have chosen their particular course.

Competitions

Many newspapers and magazines, design, advertising and photography associations, and photographic manufacturers and suppliers run annual photography competitions. Many companies now sponsor prizes and exhibitions of entrants’ work. Competitions are published in the photographic press, newspapers, magazines and on the internet. When entering your work for a competition, never second-guess what you think judges will like. It is best to enter work that you really believe in and are passionate about.

The rewards for entering and winning a competition can be very significant, including publication of your work, assignments, newspaper and magazine work, travel bursaries, contacts, money, equipment and even exhibitions in national and international galleries.

Stock libraries

The original stock libraries

Picture libraries were begun by newspapers as a way of filing photographs of people and events for later use. They soon became valuable sources of instant images and a small fee began to be charged when other publishers asked to use the pictures. They have now evolved into today’s picture libraries, which have huge quantities of photos. National Geographic magazine has a library of ten-million images for sale to other publishers.

Specialist resources known as stock libraries also evolved to supply designers and advertising agencies with pictures of every subject imaginable. Photographers offered these libraries pictures from their archives and received a payment if they were used. Stock libraries began to display their images in glossy printed catalogues the size of phone directories.

To say to a photographer that one of their images looks like stock used to be an insult, as stock catalogues were full of images of clichéd sunsets, holiday destinations and impossibly happy and beautiful families with beaming smiles and amazing teeth. Today stock photography is very different.

Modern stock libraries

The internet has radically changed the use of stock photography. Stock has become a huge business and has had a radical effect on professional photography. Where many art directors, art editors, picture editors and designers would once have commissioned a photographer to take their images for them, they now turn to stock libraries on the internet instead.

Billions of stock pictures can be instantly downloaded and laid out. There are numerous versions of every possible subject, often available at a fee far below what it would cost to commission an original photograph. Stock libraries have therefore deprived photographers of many avenues of potential work.

Stock libraries now invest heavily in trying to predict the issues, trends and fashions that will dominate the media in the near-future. Rather than waiting for photographers to come to them with images, they commission shoots of their own to try to ensure they have images available for every conceivable contemporary issue. Commissioned stock photos can sell very well in what is now a global market. This demand from stock libraries has created work for a small number of photographers.

The stock photo fee is negotiated by the library’s sales team according to how an image is to be used and by whom. The rewards for creating this new type of stock photo can be huge for both the stock library and the photographer. If you want to take pictures for stock libraries make an appointment to show them your portfolio.

Your archive

Your archive could be your pension. The pictures you have taken – even ones you think are of little significance – could earn you money in the future. Carefully store all your work. Keep everything, including your prints, negatives, slides and digital files. Their value may not be apparent now, but time changes photographs. People you have photographed may become famous, giving your pictures a totally new value. Even pictures of everyday things and everyday life can gain a historic or nostalgic value, thereby creating a commercial one. You are able to maximize the worth of your own archive through syndication.

Syndication

Syndication is a process by which a photo is made available for sale to the widest possible clientele. The internet has made this easy. Photographic news and sports agencies and picture libraries are in business to sell their pictures to anyone who wants them, showcasing them on their websites. The price charged depends on how the images are to be used.

If you are in a position to spend a few minutes taking a picture of a celebrity, you can earn money from it for many years to come. The greater and longer-lasting the fame of the star, the longer your income will continue. But you do have to take a great picture for it to be worth anything.

If you then place your work in a picture library, you have a chance of making money while you’re sleeping – though, again, you first have to take pictures that people want to buy.

Royalties from syndication

Income resulting from sales of archive pictures is called royalties. There are industry-standard payment rates for the use of photographs. These vary according to how large a picture is used – a quarter-page, a half-page, a full page or a cover – and separate rates for use in design and advertising. If your pictures are used in huge billboard advertisements you will receive royalties fit for a king.

The fee for the sale of an archive picture from a picture library is generally shared equally between the library and the photographer.

Exhibiting

‘Today, there is an alternative to being a commercial photographer. If you have the vision there is a future in exhibiting and people buying your work as an artist.’

Nicky Michelin, curator, The Photographers’ Gallery, London.

A new breed of young photographers have created careers for themselves based around selling their work through galleries, rather than undertaking commissions for magazines or agencies. Some have established international reputations in this way and now have an audience of eager collectors. As well as exhibiting in private galleries, they gain recognition through publication in books and through winning or by being nominated for prizes and awards. Photographers who have followed this path include Wolfgang Tillmans, Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Roger Ballen.

Prints and limited editions

Selling prints

There is an increasing market for prints by new and famous photographers. Prints are bought by public galleries for their collections, by private collectors and by investors, in the same way as galleries and collectors buy paintings. The print market is particularly established in America and prices can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.

Print sales are such a new phenomenon that until recently much of photography’s history had been carelessly treated. There are sorry stories of huge archives being consigned to bonfires and of historic glass negatives being used to re-glaze greenhouses. One photographer interviewed for this book remembers Diane Arbus’s prints – each now worth the value of a large house – being stuck up on a pinboard among the chaos of The Sunday Times art department for anyone to take home, so little were they valued.

Limited editions

The value of modern prints is maintained by producing limited editions of them. A photographer produces a small number of hand-printed pictures from a negative, maybe ten or twenty at the same size at the same time. The price of each print is decided with the gallery or dealer. There is nothing to stop photographers from creating another edition at a later date or, indeed, from making as many further editions as they please.

Limited editions of digital images can be produced in the same way, with the guarantee that no further prints will be created in that edition. Digital images are created with archival dyes or inks designed not to fade.

Vintage prints

A vintage print is worth much more than a modern one. Vintage prints are those created by the photographer at the time, or soon after taking the picture. They have often been printed on kinds of photographic paper that are no longer available.

‘Vintage prints can have a fantastic feeling when the image has relaxed itself into the paper.’

Nicky Michelin, curator, The Photographers’ Gallery, London.

The vintage prints of famous photographers are much rarer and are much more highly valued by collectors than modern prints, especially if signed. Owing to their rarity, the value of vintage prints can be enormous. There are only three known vintage prints of Man Ray’s Tears picture, for instance: each is now worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. After the death of a photographer, his or her family or estate will often continue to issue modern editions of their photographs.