Stop talking about your technique

How do you describe your work when someone asks you about it?

Do you go to great lengths to describe all the difficulties and challenges you overcame?

Or the complex processing technique you invented?

Do you share your secret recipe and tell us how easy it was, and not at all as magical as we thought?

I’m currently judging some international photography awards and after looking at hundreds of images (and reading their artist statements) I’m once again amazed that so many photographers describe their work by explaining the technical process.

As if the hard work put into making the shot makes it better.

More worthy somehow.

Or the trickery must be revealed to show how clever you are at making magic with nothing.

If you’re sharing your work with a visually discerning decision maker, like an advertising creative, a designer, a creative director or a photo editor, they really don’t care how it was made (they really don’t. Honestly they’re just making conversation).

In fact telling them the ‘how’ can destroy the magic.

But they do care about why it was made.

Your story, the narrative and the idea. What you’re trying to say, and how you relate to it.

They’re interested in YOU. Not your gear.

In her interview with me last November at Creative Asia Plus, Director of Photography at Bloomberg, Donna Cohen, talked about some ideas that had been pitched to her, and were subsequently published.

That interview was voted the audience favourite and has just been released by CA+ to the public for a short time. I highly recommend you have a watch. Here’s the link to access it.

Meanwhile, practice honing your pitch.

Talk about why you made it, and how it made you feel to create it.

It could seriously make a huge difference to how you’re perceived.

If you’d like more help understanding your brand voice and how to pitch as a photographer, you can book a free strategy call with me to discuss the next Bootcamp mentoring programme here

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