Be smart about street
Written by John MacphersonThere’s a very informative and insightful article by Nick Turpin on his blog about how to translate your street photography success into an income stream. Well worth a read, and of course accompanied by some of the very very clever images that Nick is renowned for. One caveat: don’t expect to get rich quick by this particular career route.
“I have often stated that I consider Street Photography to be the least commercial form of image making and yet I have made a good living for over twenty years from having a portfolio of Street Photographs. I thought I would explain a little about how I have managed to translate what I do on the streets into a commercially applicable form.
The main issue with Street Photography is that it deals with the ‘real’ and very little commissioned photography portrays reality in the raw. Most commercial photography deals in retouched fantasy or specifically polishes reality to make it into an aspirational ‘super reality’. The commercial photographer typically employs the dark arts of photography and post production to make the world look more colourful, more beautiful, brighter and purchasable.”Where can we fit into this as Street Photographers?
“I won’t lie to you, very few of us do fit in, if you exclude doing workshops, I can literally think of three Street Photographers who work regularly doing observational photography for commercial clients and that is worldwide! This means that if you aspire to joining this small group you are going to have to have a very special and unique eye as well as being able to handle the business side that all photographers have to face, promotion, quoting, understanding a brief, production, working with an agency team and meeting a deadline. You will need to be able to adapt your personal work to the legal, technical and creative requirements of the Advertising and Design industries.”
Discussion (2 Comments)
John, you are a star. Thanks for the link.
Cheers Tony. A good read and worth sharing.