I receive many emails asking me to recommend photographers from people who need photographs for their businesses. Probably at least one a week. They come from different people asking for different kinds of work but they all have one thing in common.
That is their elevated pitch that suggests that the job they are offering, but cannot pay for, will be ‘good’ for the photographer’s portfolio. I have had people looking for wedding photographers, to photograph social events, create images for social media and photograph live bands all using this tactic.
My response is similarly consistent. I explain that their suggestion is not only disrespectful to photographers but also an indication that they, the client, are not recognizing the importance of professional images to their business. This will come as no surprise to many of you reading this but it obviously does to those sending me the emails.
Occasionally my responses are ignored. Sometimes they are met with a polite thank you and nothing more, but I am also regularly met with a sense of indignant incredulity.
How could I reject such a great opportunity on behalf of others? How dare I suggest that such work should be paid for at a reasonable rate? Surely photographers would jump at such a chance. Who do I think I am to get in the way of their business plan? In short, they often get angry, aggressive and defensive. At this stage I stop responding.
You might think that I am acting as an unappointed gatekeeper who should let the photographers make their own decisions, but I respect the photographers I rate too much to put them in that position. People often contact me on the basis of the A Photographic Life podcast or this site. It is on this basis that they assume that I will help them. They don’t research my background as an art director (this is not hard to do) or find out that I am also a working photographer. A lack of care and respect that also indicates to me that they would not be a good client.
Over the years I have developed a well tuned antenna when it comes to clients. I can spot a bad one in a matter of minutes. They may as well be carrying a big banner stating ‘This Will Not End Well!’ My experience tells me that any client that begins with this kind of pitch is to be avoided at all costs. So, if you receive the kind of email I receive so often, I recommend that you take the opportunity to inform the sender of the reality of employing a photographer whilst making it very clear that you are not who they are looking for.
Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.
Scott’s next book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on pre-sale.
© Grant Scott 2024
Thank you, on behalf of myself alone. I was lured to such sites by queasy doublespeak, often by family and friends who meant well. Unfortunately, I am not a writer nor a statesman for what I do. Nor is anyone under any obligation to agree.
I will say thanks for being a “wave breaker” against the rising sea of information and data scouring for images. It is good to know you (and many others!) are holding fast. Keeping a harbor where people can at make an attempt to create something before the inevitable hits.
T’was ever thus. Why can we not get that respect…? I’ve seen no change in 50 years.
I have. It has got worse.
Certainly, I really meant that in 50 years we have failed to improve matters. Does the answer lie solely in our hands, how many photographers come out of college or think “self-taught” is enough ?
They are start-ups, hungry for any experience and and a chance to demonstrate they can be trusted. Those who assisted in the beginning will have learnt how to deal with the demand for freebies.
I think the problem may vary depending on the area you work in. Nîche is likely to suffer less as sources are limited. I remember royalty free killing off my work with certain clients. I think you pointed out the root problem in editorial as being a decline in design standards, the fudging of authenticity, and occasionally basic ignorance and time pressures.. .
If your designer has limited time and budget he goes to Alamy and gets a poorly key worded option and who will complain ? Not just the designers are ignorant.
All true which is why I teach photography as a language based on specialisation not generalisation
Specialisation is the source of our viewpoint and passion 🙂
Well done, Sir!
Thanks