CRITICAL PHOTOJOURNALISM

Barry Schwartz is a documentary, portrait, architectural photographer and educator. A former national director, as well as longtime and active member of the American Society of Media Photographers, Schwartz leads popular classes and workshops on the business of photography. He is generous with his knowledge on best business practices for photographers and has countless resources available on his website.

The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Understanding business really is about understanding the culture. If you're going to photograph weddings, there's a different kind of presentation and expectation on the part of the client than it would be for photojournalism or for architecture or for advertising. There's a certain way that you're expected to behave, and a certain understanding that you need to have of what your client wants. So, thinking about it in terms of culture, I find for me makes it easier to get a handle on it. What do I need to learn? Particularly if I'm doing something I haven't done before, or dealing with a new client that I haven't worked with before. Think through the eyes of the clients. You gotta give them what they want. And really it’s all about marketing. Everything becomes marketing: how you look, how you behave. The standard that I like to talk about is let's say you get a project where you're going to go interview a skateboard manufacturer. If your normal dress is you’ve got your tattoos out, you're wearing shorts, you’re in flip-flops, etc. (certainly this is routine in California), then they're gonna feel more comfortable with you because you look like them. When I go to (meet with) an architect, I would wear a button down shirt. I wear clean clothes. I would shave. I would certainly not wear flip-flops. It's all just theater. It doesn't impinge on your ability to do your job or any of that. Just think of it as theater.

At the beginning of your career, you're gonna work really hard. If you get farther in your career, you're still going to continue to work very hard. That's the nature of being in a creative field. It doesn't matter whether you're working for yourself or you're an employee. Hard work is the deal, and it will set you apart from the people who are moderately good. Everybody wants to charge as much as they can, and that never changes. At the beginning of your career, you're just going to be able to charge less, but not necessarily too little. It just means less and as you have more to offer, or at least the perception that you have more to offer, you can charge more money. The bottom line is, what are your personal and business expenses? You're not going to be in business long unless you have those lined up. You gotta have enough to live and potentially buy equipment, especially if you're a freelancer.

But, this part is super important. Somebody really is always cheaper, but they're not going to provide the same quality and service as you. And the someone who is cheaper will also be you sometimes. You see people who are just like yourselves or even people with less experience than you have, who are heading off into a situation of shooting food, let’s say, but they didn't know anything about food. But you're never going to get hired to shoot something unless you have proof that you already know how to do it. So how do you get that? How do you develop and provide that proof? It's got to be on your portfolio, on your website and on your Instagram. So, if nobody is going to hire you to do it, you have to do it for free or cheap.  

When you hear particularly angry middle aged photographers complain about the degradation of photography by people who work for cheap and free, it's ruining everything, etc. etc. They all did it! They all did it, and if they say they didn't, they're lying. This is what everybody does when they're coming up, and it's also what everybody does when they have an established career but they want to move into a new area. I know because I wanted to shoot landscape architecture, so I just went out and photographed a bunch of stuff for free and cheap, and I'm now working for landscape architects. It's not a long term business strategy to work for free and cheap, but it's something that everybody does at the beginning. Whatever you gotta do to get that portfolio, you gotta do it. If you're doing portraits or fashion, or beauty or any of those kinds of things you can tag team with models and stylists, and just do it. That's how it's done. There's no shame in it. It's pretty typical.