endless efforts
in an effort to attract new clients and move forward, been reaching out to reps and pe’s again in anyway i can get attention (again or still, depending on the month as this obviously should never stop). this is of course a daunting and seemingly frivolous effort, but nonetheless needed and desired and kinda oddly joyful while quite painful. this has led to an interesting 24h in that it has been made painfully obvoius from different sources informing me that dan winters and chris buck are the only two photographers worthy of work. now i respect and admire both of these guys obviously, as yes, they are quite amazing.
still, in the past 24h, 2 different sources unknow to each other referenced me to dan as example and 2 different sources did the same with chris, go to any lecture or event or siminar or ask for feedback, these are the yards sticks of photography, nothing else will do, to anyone in a position of power over photographers put on the spot to to offer up their thoughts on what they want in a photographer, it is chris and dan, deservedly so but really, just those 2….. ?
wow, this is such a news flash, thank you person in position of power over photographers.
so with the hundreds of magazines, hundreds of ad jobs, hundreds of design jobs, at the end of the day, if dan or chris are busy, maybe you’ll get call, i may not after this post, but maybe you will….. now i am spoiled in that my first job ever wasn’t through a rep or because i knew someone, all the rest have been, but not my first and not one since. this is our business, sure, you must work a camera decent enough and not be completely incompetent, but the key is know someone or have a rep that knows someone, this is a golden ticket to new work and cleints…. or be fortunate enough to be dan or chris.
(altho i do know a photographer or two that seem to get a check in the mail each time they fart, or so it seems, they are under the radar, but their bank accounts aren’t, they just have that nack for falling ass backwards into random cash for what they already did, maybe your lucky to be like this as the amounts are astonishing and often make me laugh out loud when i hear the stories, ideally i want to be the combo, dan or chris talent AND the ability to fart cash).
example 2, now i honestly appreciate the response i got from this person below, i would agree with parts of this and this came from a person with a level of experience that i respect as i was after all asking this rep of stature to give me some thoughts on my work, they were kind enough to do so:
“No problem, Jonathan.
The critique I have about your work is that there is nothing overall that differentiates it from the hundreds of other editorial portrait shooters out there.
One of my favorite portraitists is Dan Winters, who you may be aware of. His work not only has a strong signature look to it, but he consistently captures the essence of his subjects in a conceptual way through what he does with props, environmental elements and poses that is fresh, smart and unexpected.
We already have a number of good solutions for clients looking for portraits, so it would be tough to add you anyway. We also concentrate on advertising clients, so the strong editorial leaning of your work makes it less applicable in that arena.
I hope that this helps.”
my only immediate unspoken thought on this really when i first read it, “odd, this person doesn’t represent dan winters. why not an example of one of yours and why you represent them?”