My criteria for recommending you

I haven’t been a rep for 8 years now but I’m immersed in the photography and review world so much that I am still asked to recommend photographers.

Even some of my old clients contact me now and again for guidance when they’re stuck.

Here is my criteria which you might find useful as I’m pretty sure art producers and editors are of a similar mindset:

Do I know you?

Have you been in touch with me? Have I met or chatted with you, or had a strategy call with you? Have I helped you build your brand? It all helps, because I want to know what you’re like to work with.

I want to know you’re a good communicator, you have a professional practice, and you’re a decent human being.

I have consulted to hundreds of photographers over the last 9 years, and repped at least a dozen before that. Some fit that bill and some don’t. It’s important.

That’s why personal recommendations mean a lot.

Is your online presence up to scratch?

No matter how good I know a photographer is, if the website is not showing this, or it’s scattered and diminishing your brand magic, I tend to hold off. I know this will be a deciding factor to my colleagues, and their client(s).

There are several hurdles to cross when getting a job- the website can help you jump a surprising number of them.

Is your work unique?

There are many ways to skin a cat, so they say (that’s a horrible expression- who thought of that?), no matter how predictable the shot is. Ten photographers who know their own uniqueness could shoot the same subject very differently.

Ten photographers who shoot the same way will be fighting on price.

The one that stands out has no competition.

I cannot list the number of times in the last few years I’ve been asked for ‘lifestyle’ photographers. Guess who always gets the job? The one that stands out, with a strong and unique style of their own, with their own twist.

For the record, I like helping people, so I do not get commission for recommendations (that would make me an agent and I don’t do that any more in case you were thinking of asking). But I get tremendous joy from seeing the photographers I work with get hired, and in helping my friends and colleagues find great photographers they didn’t previously know.

It’s a win-win.