Finding Direction

Attract the right rep

What with the closing of agent doors in some cities and the opening of new ones in others, there’s been a lot of shuffling around recently, and you might be a bit daunted by any suggestion of finding representation. But when there are two of you marketing (and one of you knows just about everyone

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Divorce?

We’re now into the second half of a year that has been tough for many, so let’s talk about divorce. Not divorce from your partner, but divorce from your agent (or rep, or production house). Many photographers contact me saying they’d like to leave their rep and make a new start. But if you’re blaming

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What motivates you?

As a freelancer do you sometimes dream of having a job, anything, even something menial, just so you don’t have to think; about all the decisions, finances and stress of every single bid, treatment, production and negotiation? I know that when I owned The Collective Force & OPTNZ I had moments where I dreamed of

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Let’s talk treatments

Let’s talk treatments. They’re possibly your biggest cause of overwhelm, anxiety and exhausting all-nighters, but I have to say as an agent I found they were super helpful. When you sit down and think about the result you want to achieve you get much more clarity. Working through the various aspects- mood and feel, compositional

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Are you being bullied?

Do you sometimes feel bullied or railroaded by your clients? I often hear from photographers who are exhausted and overwhelmed with clients changing dates, time allowance with talent, adding shots, and sometimes the entire brief can become something else. The fact is that jobs change. The brief can change. Locations, timing and talent can change.

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Sowing inspiration

In just a couple of days I’m flying to Hanoi, Vietnam. I’ll be joining a group of photographers from around the world who have spent the last 5 weeks (between juggling jobs and kids and life) on The Series Project program, researching and identifying stories they want to tell. As requested (by me!) they’ve already started

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They’re all closing down

This past week I’ve been bombarded with messages from photographers in Australia wondering about the mass closure of some of the industry’s most established studios, agents and printers. If you’re elsewhere in the world, you’ve probably seen many companies like this close down in the last few years. I have to admit I don’t think

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