Liam Arthur

Some thoughts on the current state of the photographic industry.

Being a photographer is a privilege. If you are genuinely creative it transcends a job and becomes a lifestyle for which you get paid, and despite what many photographers will have you believe, if you are working regularly you are paid well. However herein lies the sticking point, there are now so many photographers that the work is spread thinner than ever. Technology has made it physically easier to take a 'good' photograph, and this favors the businessman over the creative.
It is not enough now to just be a good photographer, there are loads (still very few great) you now need to be a good businessman also.
The lifestyle that I mentioned above becomes more about emails and phone calls, Facebook and twitter, more about networking and promotion and less about ideas, research and shoots.
To me it seems that 90% of the job is getting the work in, but then I am young unestablished and did my assisting time during the transition from analogue to digital (at the same time as procreating 2 lovely but life absorbing children) Have the old school kept their clients, do the new school go to enough of the right parties with the right people? What is a good marketing strategy when it costs £50 for a babysitter for the night? You can question how and why people get work when others don't, but in my experience after being involved in the industry in one way or another for 12 years, the old saying stands true that it is not what you know but who.
I saw a talk by a photographer on the theme of getting commissioned, he suggested that all you have to do is put good work out there and wait, if the work is good enough commissions will come in. I was interested to know what he meant by putting it out there, it seems to me that getting the right work in front of the right people is the battle in a bottle, after all you can only show the work you have, it is who you show it to that matters. Maybe that is easier when you have done the rounds already and have in's, but doing it blind is like trying to dig a hole through a brick wall with a spoon.
Buyers are not being rude, they are hounded every day by hopeful photographers, and need to filter through the rubbish to find the right match for their brief, it takes its toll on everyone involved, and we find ourselves in a sales market hawking our goods.
I am hoping that the industry is like the property ladder - once you are on you can keep building equity and increasing your value (and reduce that mortgage - the cost of projects and tests to put in front of creatives and refresh your book can become crippling when the commissions you are getting are below your output capability) However from the experience I had as an assistant it is clear that the best photographers are constantly re-inventing themselves as the trends and technology change, with hard work and dedication we will get there (and maybe a little Twitter too) Who knows we may even get to take some photographs along the way.

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