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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Photography Culture

What Photographers Shouldn’t Do When Contacting A Photo Editor

Chris Gampat
No Comments
11/09/2015
3 Mins read

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All images by Jeff Wasserman. Used with permission.

Jeff Wasserman is the Photography and Multimedia Editor for the National Post; one of the major newspapers in Canada. He’s one of the rare editors who walks the line, by day he’s an Editor but by night he shoots stock food photography. Considering the position he’s in, he understands both sides of the editor/photographer wall quite well.

And from what he tells us, it’s all about honesty.

Phoblographer: What are five things that any photographer shouldn’t do to an editor the first time around?

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Jeff:

1. Do not send me an email with a bunch of images unless requested.

2. Do not call me cold. Always email. I am simply too busy to be fielding these calls.

3. Do not lie. Don’t make up things. This will always catch up to you.

4. Do not try and show me your entire life’s work. Your portfolio should always be a tight edit.

5. Do not use Facebook as a professional approach. My email is easy to find.

Phoblographer: What do you feel is the most effective form of communication when trying to pitch to an editor: setting up a meeting in person, email, snail mail, or the phone?

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Jeff: I always prefer first contact to be via email with a link to a website. My time and the photographer’s time are valuable and we both don’t have any to waste with phone or personal contact unless there is the possibility of working together in the future. Someone may have a great portfolio or experience, but not be the right fit for us.

Phoblographer: When making a pitch to an editor and besides having their portfolio ready, what do you think a photographer should have prepared?

Jeff: It’s always great to have a story to tell. By this I mean your professional story and how you came to be here today. Any interesting bits about your background or experiences shooting are always a nice touch. I want to get a sense of the kind of person I am dealing with and need to be confident that they can handle the situations they will be in. Our assignments range from celebrity portraits to hard news and it really does take a certain type of photographer to be able to handle a such a wide range of shooting situations.

And please, have a business card. A surprising number of people I see fail to bring one.

Phoblographer: When photographers pitch themselves, how can someone show that their project or them personally can help provide value to your readers?

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Jeff: Be relevant to the publication you are pitching. So often, it becomes clear that the photographer does not read the publication or has not done any research on it. It’s important to understand the publication you are pitching to and who their target audience is. A photo editor does not select solely on the basis of personal taste, although this does play a role. We need to be thinking of what works for our publication and think in this broader scope when assigning and selecting images.

business card editor food photography Jeff Wasserman National Post photographer
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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