A litany of issues

The photographer sat across from me sipping his espresso. He was a good photographer. His work was solid; he had the chops as they say. And he wanted me to rep him.

‘Why did you leave your last agent?’ I asked, sipping my Earl Grey tea. (I can’t drink coffee. I get palpitations, the shakes, and you can’t shut me up. It’s not pretty.)

He proceeded to list a litany of issues he had with his previous agent.

She didn’t call him often enough.

She made mark-up on production.

She ‘nagged’ him to make more personal work.

She wouldn’t share her entire database with him.

As he listed them I knew I couldn’t rep him, because many of those ‘issues’ would have applied to me too.

In fact they would apply to most agents.

To be honest, the real issue may not have been any of those things. They were probably symptomatic of a bigger problem. One I see all the time.

Communication (or lack of).

Lack of clarity up front.

Lack of communication about those things DURING the relationship.

When agents approach photographers I work with (It happens quite often) I ALWAYS insist that we run through a bit of a checklist before they meet with them.

Because it’s so easy to be dazzled by the fact that an agent wants to rep you, and key considerations can be overlooked.

Like who YOU are, what YOU want to make more of and what YOU need help with.

And that’s the most important place to start when you’re considering getting a rep, or even when you already have one and you’re starting to get resentful.