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“It isn’t just what you know and it isn’t just who you know. It’s actually who you know, who knows you and what you do for a living. ”
This past weekend I went to Photo LA (a local trade show), where many photographers hold booths in the hopes of selling prints to local photo enthusiasts. The biggest benefit of an exhibition like this however, is self promotion. My purpose was no different, although I did not have a booth of my own. I went with a pocket full of business cards and the intent of pushing my name; which actually comes as a bit of a challenge to me. My whole life, I have never been very good at socializing. I prefer to hide behind my camera or my computer because I am infinitely more comfortable with a machine than a real person who can judge me. I have to say that I did a decent job at networking, despite my handicap. I rid myself of a good hundred business cards over the course of a three day weekend, and took home some cards of photographers interested in hiring assistants.
Before this becomes too much about me though, lets step back and discuss why networking is so important to a working photographer. Not to be offensive, but there are some talentless people out there making a killing. And some people who are exceedingly talented that make no income. Don’t take my word for it, check some of the art communities popping up around the web. There are many factors at play here but the biggest ones are networking and marketing. It is all about making sure that the right people know about you and you know about the right people. With todays online professional and social networking sites, this is becoming easier for everyone; but you still have to put effort into it.
My first goal is to assist some and begin shooting on my own to earn an income. I figure that the benefit of assisting is twofold: firstly you get to learn how they run a business and secondly they have a well established network of clients and art buyers that are currently looking for talent. That is not to say that you should steal their list or try to underbid them; but, that they may know of work that is under budget for them or just not what they are looking to shoot and they will pass it along. I know that at first it seems unlikely that a photographer in this day and age would pass by any job, but I have seen it regularly enough while in school to trust in the photographer / assistant relationship. My desire to shoot commercially makes assisting at first almost a necessity to break into the market.
There are other types of photographers and other ways of forming your personal network. A photographer that is going to shoot events and headshots for example has no real need to assist and is not looking to make contact with art buyers. These people would be better suited with a good online social-networking system and an incentive for their clients to advertise for them through word-of-mouth. A photographer who wants to sell fine art may or may not want to assist, but is more interested in making contact with curators and gallery owners. The trick is to know who is interested in hiring you or buying your work, and making friends with them.
This week I am contacting all my new friends and trying to get my foot in the door to commercial shooting. Which means that my next entry should be full of success, failure, and intrigue. We shall see, but before I leave you I would like to share some of my favorite networking sites.
LinkedIn – networking between professionals (I use it to get in touch with editors and art buyers)
Facebook and Myspace – social networking between friends and a good way of passing information around
Twitter – a micro blog that allows for people you know to keep up to date with you.
Deviantart and Flickr – both art blogs for getting people familiar with your work
This is nowhere near an exhaustive list. There are many sites for specialties, and also many local guilds that are out there to help you get in touch with the people you need to get in touch with.
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