An anecdote
Written on December 5, 2007
Had the pleasure of meeting a photographer last week who was looking to shift agencies.
(Side note - Poaching is, believe it or not, very much frowned upon in our business. There are certain scenarios where it can be consider ‘ok’ but it really, really depends. However, when the photographer comes looking, anything goes. This may be a post in the future.)
Anyways he came by, we had a pleasant meeting, talked about why he was looking to leave his current agency and what he was looking for in a new agency. He was interesting, a good speaker, had a great client list, made very good money and knew the business of photography.
He didn’t bring his portfolio.
Now, I had checked out his personal website and while I consider myself to have a decent visual memory (pretty useful for our business), I do not have a photographic memory (no pun intended!) and the lack of a portfolio kind of hampered our discussion of his work. It was hard to discuss where he wanted to go without seeing where he had already gone.
So, please bring a book to meetings…always. Agency, magazine, ad agency…never turn up empty handed. And a laptop with a slideshow is NOT a suitable replacement. You might as well have stayed home.
Filed in: Talent, Photo Agency.
“And a laptop with a slideshow is NOT a suitable replacement. You might as well have stayed home.”
Could you please expand on this idea from your recent post…..
Bring a book. Don’t bring anything else in lieu of a book. A PDF slideshow is no substitute for good prints.
Just did an interview with a photographer who didn’t bring a book with them. Brought a laptop with a slideshow, to thier ill fate, the laptop crashed mid-slideshow. He was a nice guy, had nice conversation, but without looking at his work, there’s only so much you can talk about…. We told him we’d be in touch.
A printed portfolio says more about a photographer and his business than the images on the pages.
I went to a network meeting the other night for various local businesses to meet up and speed pitch to each other in groups of 5 or one to one. Even though I had my two snall folios with me, I elected to use my ZenW instead to quickly flick through a selection of images [I’d only prepared that day] as I was talking about what I do. This method seemed to work very well and people were quite taken with my images.
So there are times when prints are good [seeing an agent]and times where something that fits in your pocket [and is always with you] is way better, especially if the lighting isn’t too good either.