Fellow music photographer and general good sample of humanity, Chris La Putt pointed out this hysterical and sad post on Craigslist today…
–
I’m a fabulously wealthy photographer / artist making money hand over fist. Here’s what I need:
A mechanic to overhaul my custom ’57 Chevy.
A maid to clean my house on a regular basis
A doctor to perform some minor surgery on me.
A band to perform theme music for me where ever I go.
A carpenter and electrician to build an extra wing on my sweet house in East Austin.
A nanny to watch my spoiled kids.
Of course there will be no pay involved. In return for your services you will get FULL CREDIT on my website, AND you can add all of this work to your PORTFOLIO! If you ask me, this is an absolutely awesome deal!
I hope to have you work for me soon!
–
I receive requests every single week. Sometimes it’s a billion dollar record label. Sometimes it’s an internationally distributed magazine. Sometimes it’s a rock band.
They all have three things in common:
1) They love my photos.
2) They don’t want to pay me for my work.
3) They offer byline credit instead of payment.
Writer Harlan Ellison explains the absurdity of this situation best. (I would love to send this video attached to every work for free request, but of course, I don’t. )
Visit www.dreamswithsharpteeth.com for information on the new film about Harlan.
Related posts:
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Chris Owyoung is a New York City based music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits.
Click here to contact Chris for assignment of commission, or call him at +1.917.572.4499.
Chris Owyoung is a freelance photographer based in New York City. His work has appeared in numerous publications including: Rolling Stone, SPIN, VIBE, Billboard, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Symphony, Domino, Time, and The Village Voice. Chris is available for editorial and corporate assignments in the New York area and abroad.
Subscribe to entries
Subscribe to comments
All content © 2010 by Chris Owyoung
That’s hilarious and like you said, sad. I wish there was a revolution among concert photographers that put a stop to this crap and we all got paid for our work.
Hi Bryan,
There will always be someone who is willing to give away their work for free. That will never change.
I’m afraid the revolution we want will not come until the value of good photography has been demonstrated to new media publications.
Photography and writing (the content) drew advertisers to spend money in magazines and papers. Magazines and papers used the money from ads to pay for content.
Photographers licensed their images to the publication to run a specific size in a specific issue with a specific number of copies. In a sense, the photographer received a share of the ad revenue of the use of his work in that specific publication.
New media like blogs and the like function in the same way print magazine do. They have advertising that pays for content and salaries. The main difference being that new media doesn’t pay it’s contributors. They don’t pay writers or photographers the way that print media does.
All the ad dollars go in, but they don’t come out.
If a blog pays for a photo instead of stealing one from flickr, they pay a small, single use fee for an image that will exist for eternity online. That page (with the photo) will continue to generate ad revenue for the blog as long as it continues to be searchable or browsable. With the current model, the photographer will never see a share of that income beyond the pittance of a fee the website paid for a “low res” image.
This is just a small commentary on a huge issue.
Chris
I tend to think the difference is ad revenue in the intarweb vs. ad revenue in the real world. I think it hasn’t matured on the web on site-specific blogs and I’m not sure when it will. Cramming a website with all the advertisements on a single issue of a monthly magazine is insane. I’m not sure what will make it profitable and that’s what keeps me up late at night.
[...] Comme Christopher, je reçois régulièrement des demandes d’artistes, de labels, de magazines… pour des photos. Ils ont en commun trois choses: 1) Ils aiment mes photos 2) Ils ne veulent/peuvent pas me payer 3) Ils n’oublierons pas de me créditer (En France, le crédit de l’auteur est obligatoire…) (billet librement inspiré de ce post : http://onelouderphoto.com/?p=72) [...]
Oh my god, this is a topic I spent lots of time thinking about it. Nowadays, I only give my watermarked pictures away for web use if the band is small, I’m familiar with them or when I think I would actually benefit from seeing those pics on their website.
It is so ridiculous that everybody, the security guys, the artists, the promotion companies and so on, should and wants to be paid except of the photogs. What could we buy from promotion ? New equipment or gas to drive to the shows ? Hell no. I don’t get anything if great record labels know my name, they wan’t to have them for free like everyone before them.
If somebody contacts me, then I’ll make him an offer and tell him, why he should hire me/pay me for what I’m doing. But I would never give away my pictures, just for being noticed.
Will there be a change ? I’dont think so. There will be always some guys giving their pics just because they are happy someone likes them, we’ll just have to convince with quality.
Thanks for taking the time to comment Andi. I’m glad that you’re sticking to your guns and explaining why you should be paid. It’s sad that you/we should have to explain things in the first place, but it’s reality.
You’re exactly right in that we’ll have to do the convincing with quality. The only problem with that is when you run into someone who wouldn’t know a good photo if you hit them over the head with it.
Chris
I think this is a really important topic that too many people don’t think about enough. I am just starting out working on projects or covering events but I am surprised how many people except a “entire disc” of photos to do as they see fit. One of the problems I have is that so many people treat “giving you access” to their event or whatever as a reason to receive free photos. Clearly, the digital age makes this all the more tricky. Chris, would what your tell someone though who is an amateur trying to get access and make a name for themselves? Isn’t some work worth it to put in the portfolio or resume? I am wondering where people draw the line I guess.
Sometimes you just have to stay hard and accept, that someone out in the industry may have no clue about what you’re doing and what it is worth.
There will always be amateurs (my gosh, since I don’t make a living of photography I’m still one, too) that give away their work without thinking about what a company would have to pay if they buy it from a pro. To be professional, show that you know what you do, is the real key to be noticed by the potentional customers. But you may have to dump 9 of them until one comes, who respects your work and accepts a fair deal. And if someone else is doing the same quality for nothing, we will just have to encrease quality once more or accept, that this is the way the things are rolling today.
@ Keith,
To someone just starting out, I would say that a strong portfolio can be made the following ways without giving away a thing:
1) shoot at venues with no photo restrictions.
2) start contacting blogs and ask if they need someone to take photos of gigs.
The shots that result from these two options should be good enough to build up a decent body of work from which to approach larger publications/PR/Bands/Management.
I started out by shooting my friend’s bands at local dives.
Chris
@ Chris.
Thanks a lot for that response. I am always curious to hear people’s opinions on how to begin establishing themselves. I am constantly in a state of learning and trying to develop myself whether it be as a photographer through vision or technical knowledge, OR as a businessman in a variety of ways. I can’t believe how often photography doesn’t JUST involve snapping that shutter. Other issues pop up all the time!
@ Keith -Things pop up everywhere. If there is one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that the business of photography isn’t a talent show!
That. Was. Amazing.
So Chris — what do you and Todd do about this? You said you started off shooting dives (holy CRAP I have been doing that and it’s HARD! — stupid lighting..), but now do you set the rules for the places you shoot or what? I mean, do you contact them and say, “Hey, I’ll do this and give you this many photos for this amount of money” or do you just go to shoot for fun and put up photos? I guess my issue was when I shot with Todd at the Chaifetz arena, I was approached afterwards and asked for a couple shots of Chingy. I asked them why they wouldn’t ask Todd, being a great photographer (this was my first ‘gig’), and they said, “Oh, well he’s a little more established, and he’ll want money… and all that..” I mean, I felt offended after that, especially as they shoved us out the door and still expected me to email them the photograph!
I just don’t know where to draw the line myself either — I like just getting my name out there, and I’m afraid if I push it too much I’ll get the reputation of, “Yeah, don’t go to that guy — he charges way to much and his stuff is only so-so,” especially when I don’t even know what the going rate of photography is. Anyways — loved the video and craiglist :)
[...] grâce à ce billet-ci et celui-là : Harlan Ellison dépeint tout haut et tout bien notre triste époque artistique [...]