Industry and Enterprise - main takeaways
My main takeaways from my interviews with the industry professionals are the answers that I got from them that seem to overlap or be roughly the same advice from more than one.
Q1: how did you make contacts ?
the consensus seems to be just finding a network of people that you surround yourself with, not just in the photography industry but any creative industry, friends will help you make contacts and share jobs with you if they know that you'll return the same favours.
Q2: how to discover style
researching different photographers and emulating the way they shoot, teaches you small techniques that pile up and build your own unique style. also having exposure to lots of different genres the way you get at higher eduction makes your style change drastically as you find new styles that you never knew about before. having mentors or lecturers who will critique your work constructively will also help you to develop your craft considerably.
Q3: how to diversify income
the group of photographers I talked to had a range of different incomes within photography, selling prints, commissioned work, teaching workshops, selling images through stock websites like alamy and self initiated work that is then sold licensed. Finding a balance of incomes like this is very important. it was also suggested that having another job entirely while establishing your photography career helps a lot.
Q4: Getting published,.
from what I've learned from speaking with these photographers there's a few ways getting published happens, you can self publish your work by way of phonebooks and exhibitions, you can also get published by magazines and journals which happens in a number of ways. you can reach out about getting published, they could reach out to you if they find your work on their own or you could enter competitions. competitions are the most common route I think most people starting their career would do it but the comps that you choose to enter matters a lot.
Q5: working with a collective
from the answers I got from two of the photographers one who was a founder of one of Scotlands largest and one who has been thinking about starting one the answers seem to be constant between them. You can get many advantages from working as part of a collective such as increased success getting funding, exhibiting as a group is also taken more seriously and it increases the whole groups exposure. the downsides are as with most things about how well the group works together and how much effort is put in by each party. money is also a factor with things like this so finding the right people and a balance between the group with things like money and work is very important.