Best Business Practices for Photographers [254]
Whether to a high school, community college, or university class, taking the time to share with others your experiences can give prospective photographers an idea of what life is like as a photographer. They might have watched a Hollywood movie or a documentary about the life of a photographer, but hearing from a photographer—you—firsthand and being able to engage you with questions is invaluable. Young photographer Douglas Kirkland attended a lecture in 1964 given by Life magazine photographer and legend Gordon Parks. This lecture moved Kirkland to recognize the enormous influence that photography can have and resulted in Parks becoming Kirkland's mentor and friend. In an April 2006 article by Kirkland on the website DigitalJournalist.org, Kirkland honored Parks by saying, "Gordon made me a different individual than I would have been had I never known him. He showed me that I had much greater possibilities that I realized."
One of the well-traveled paths of today's photographers has included internships or apprenticeships. I have maintained an intern program for more than a decade, with dozens of students and recent graduates spending time observing and asking questions—many for academic credit, and others for the experience and insights. Most have ended up as photographers or working in the photographic field.
Interns that you bring into your sphere of influence should not be expected just to sweep or file receipts. They should be exposed to as many facets of the realities of being a photographer as they possibly can during their time with you. Encourage them to ask questions, but set limits to these when the client is present. I advise my interns that they can ask any question they want, but that they need to be sensitive to asking questions when the client is present. Instead, I ask them to save the questions for my standard debriefing after the shoot. At that time, I encourage questions and prompt for them if there are none to begin the dialogue.
The worst thing you can do is to consider an intern as cheap labor to do only the grunt work around the office or studio. Instead, look at interns as people hungry to learn and to whom you owe an education in exchange for their assistance. Well-known photographer Gregory Heisler apprenticed under Arnold Newman in the 1970s, and the legendary Yousuf Karsh served as an apprentice first to his uncle in a photo studio in Canada. Karsh's uncle saw his promise and sent him to apprentice under photographer John Garo of Boston.
An open and respectful dialogue among colleagues can lead to inspirational experiences that can make a difference in the local community, as well as the world. Ansel Adams was first financed by a small insurance agency owner in San Francisco when Adams was 24. At 28, legendary photographer Paul Strand, on self-assignment in New Mexico, took the time to share with Adams his own negatives, which in turn convinced Adams of the potential value of photography as a form of fine art. Sharing positive and negative experiences among photographers can bring a group of photographers together, and each can grow through the encouragement and insight of the others.
Pay It Forward
I didn't write this book because I planned to become a writer. I didn't write it because I expected to be able to live off residuals. I wrote it as a vehicle to continue to be able to pay forward the knowledge that I learned, was given, or that otherwise came to me through osmosis. I did so because I made a karmic commitment to help whomever I could, and this book is one embodiment of that commitment…and certainly not the last.
In Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Back Bay Books, 2002), he writes about how small, sometimes, imperceptible things can make a big difference. He cites the tipping point for the shoe brand Hush Puppies as occurring sometime between the end of 1994 and the first few months of 1995. Their