Hey folks,
We’ve done an internal revamp to refocus what we want right now. To make us stand out even more from other sites, we’re adding a few other positions to the staff. Women make up half our staff, lots of our staff are internationally based, and we’re still growing. To that end, Women, POCs, and anyone else are very encouraged to apply. Want a steady gig? Take a look. Want an internship? Take a look!
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How many of you do your jobs as photographers for free?
If you’ve ever been told you should be doing a job for free, then this is an absolutely special ad just for you. When you’re starting out, or even later on in your career, it’s not uncommon that someone may ask you to do a photography job for free. It’s also fairly common that folks will do it for free and will most of the time do nowhere near as good of a job as you would. And so this special ad recently shared on Writing on Writing’s Facebook wall will relate to photographers oh so much.
All images by Pete Barrett. Used with permission.
Photographer Pete Barrett has created imagery for a virtual who’s who list of creatives, advertising agencies and clients on a national level. He’s been shooting for two decades and has won a large number of awards. His work includes people, lifestyle, sports, and trying to get scenes in the most natural and organic way possible.
So it comes with no surprise that his project “The American Worker” is making the rounds right now. Pete tells us that it was a branch from another project; and that it really came about during his travels. The main idea, to Pete, is to meet loads of different folks and document all walks of life.
In some ways, you can call it a blend of photography and sociology.
If we can believe the statistics, then the professional photographer is a dying species. With “professional” gear being available even to the amateur, less and less professionals are being hired. And with the ever growing inventory of stock photography, fewer and fewer companies are willing to pay the price for individual photographic jobs. The guys from ImageBrief, a website that uses crowdsourcing as a means to deliver imagery to paying customers, have created above infographic exploring the various forces that are driving the professional photographer towards extinction. If you look at the trends, it becomes clear that it’s increasingly difficult to make a living from photography.
Can you believe it? Everyone and their mother thinks that all we do is push a button and we make loads of money–but in fact, we don’t! Go figure!!! A Photo Editor linked over to a report from Career Cast, which still ranks us as higher than a Newspaper Reporter. From former internships, I can tell you first hand that it’s a tough gig. In fact, Newspaper Reporter ranks in amongst the top 10 worst jobs of 2013. If you Google, “Photographer layoffs” the first thing that comes up is the infamous round of firings that CNN did of their photo staff in their decision to go with user generated content which they specifically coin their iReport. As controversial as a decision as that is, the Boston Marathon Bombings show us that there is a true need for the photojournalist according to another report from the Chicago Tribune.
More analysis after the jump.
Some of you reading this blog may get your gigs off of Craigslist in addition to referrals and usual clients. Take a look at this one posting. It’s been copied above for you as a screenshot so you can click it and read even when it dies. Analysis after the jump.
