I work in the office of one of the top artist management agencies in the world and I find that all but 3 of the 10 photographers they represent are based in Paris or London. Most of their editorial work is in Europe or Asia aside from V, VMan or W here in the U.S.

I guess my question is, even though I prefer the culture/lifestyle and the very present art community in London, do you really think it is better to be in New York? Even when the great photographers I would like to assist are in London?

what do you think about a photographer with two websites or a website that trys to appeal to different markets???

Im working on my fashion portfolio & of course putting it on my site but I do not live in a major city so the only things in my city to get paid for is wedding,portrait,small commercial type stuff..

If doing one website I don’t want to scare off the family/wedding people with cool cutting edge fashion stuff & then I don’t want to scare off fashion people with boring wedding/senior portrait stuff…. so is the answer to have two websites? but I don’t want it to seem like to much, is it common.

Thank you.

Testing with an agency is the proving ground of an emerging photographer, it means they are able to grasp the concept of marketing, and how to use their style of work to market a product.
The product being the Model. It is something I go further in to, in one of the articles I mention above on the Lexar Site.
The faces in your book as well as the ‘freshness’ while being able to maintain one’s style is a juggling act not many can maintain. The same goes for the other side of the coin.
The side you mentioned.
I have former assistants who are emailing me , asking me for advice, how do I update, where do I go from here, etc. NOT EVERY assistant gets the photographers’ leftovers, (so to speak) and not every assistant is going to follow that path, many are strong enough to strike on their own, but just aren’t aware of how or what step to take next. That’s when I get the emails.
I recall one Surface Magazine surface magazine Avant Guardian contest winner whom I had an email correspondence with for 2-3 yrs, just couldn’t adapt. He just couldn’t crack the needed code to make the transition from His ‘Vision’ to His Vision ala Marketability , he couldn’t handle not being able to NOT hit on the models or advance from his own methods and habits in to a professional and profitable system and manner of working as a professional, he disappeared …. His site disappeared one day, he stopped emailing and my replies bounced. It happens such is life.
I hope this sheds light on some of the gaps that I noticed in your article.
Thank you again!

Building relationships, working with small consistent groups of specialized talent. Overall, this article is useful for any photographer who is building a brand/business in a major city. The “greats” don’t get their by sheer creative talent alone.

Surely, this creative talent is not what keeps you at the TOP of your game. Combining the right place, time, skills, passion and love is seemingly the best recipe for success.

This article helped me to see how easily our egos (my own included) can get in the way of this quality of success. Thank you again for sharing.

PLEASE get your own handle.

APE – you can verify this by the faux-dude poster’s IP address.

Fashion is not for anyone who needs a secure outlook. The slots are filled and it’s gridlocked. To be frank, who cares how many image makers it can sustain when you’re going to make sure you’re one of the best?

Luck is hard to come by in such a competitive industry so instead, you need to arm yourself with blind optimism and a thick skin.

Yes. Call up the model agencies, either meet them or send them some work and ask for some models. Build a relationship with the agency. Don’t expect or try to do this in one conversation or email. It takes years of working with them.

What you have to understand is, THEY are getting something from it too. So don’t be shy as you’re bringing something very valuable to the table.

I consider my self very lucky to have found my calling. To have a path. Your path is your dreams.

My art and my dreams pave my path to self discovery and shows me who I am, who I am not. It’s a give and receive of energy and from that comes a great feeling of strength. It not only opens doors, but gives me the strength to look for those doors.

Passion comes from the excitement of walking your path and seeing your dreams manifest.

Haha, as harsh as dude’s words are, that was also the first thing that came to mind when I saw your images. I think part of the issue is recognizing editorial girls compared to commercial/lifestyle girls. While a girl may look attractive or pretty, it takes a certain look to be editorial, which is what high-end fashion is really about.

Your location makes it very difficult to shoot editorial models…however there’s nothing wrong with shooting lifestyle girls well to start. Don’t fall into trying to editorial style shoots when you don’t have editorial models, it only reflects poorly on your casting.

I think in your case, the best thing to do is to do a tighter edit on your images and keep only a handful of your strongest work. If editorial fashion is what you want to do, I highly recommend taking out any of the girls with fake color hair, piercing, tattoos, rounder features/faces, curves, etc…what you may find is that you only have a portfolio of 10 images but it would be far better than showing a wider range with girls who do not look like professional models.

If you really want to take your work to the next level, you need to come down to the city and shoot agency girls. Start with smaller agencies like Red, Click, Q, MC2 and VNY…from there, work your way up to Elite, Ford, Major…after a year or two and a book of only editorial girls, get your foot in the door with Women, Supreme, IMG, etc. Models.com has a good list of top agencies in NY. Cold calling worked for me when I first got into the city. Ask for their development board and send them your portfolio. Like I said, make sure it’s tight with no fillers.

Good luck!

How do you do Ms. Sosa-Stone, we’ve not been introduced, but I’ve had previously exchanged dialogues with Mrs. Sease and I am grateful for the simultaneous opportunity to inquire and pick your brains.

If you look at my work, does it remind you of someone’s elses? Does it isolate and associate to a certain geographic region?

Hey buddy! You’re NYC, have you considered approaching stylist agencies? Emailing and/or cold calling….

Summer 2009, I worked with Andy Salmen @ ArtMix Beauty in Los Angeles. http://www.artmixbeauty.com/artists/salmen/02_01.php

We were commissioned to shoot for cover and feature editorial for DNA Jan 2010 and we all drove to Palm Springs and I scored my team free night and food (breakfast) at this fancy resort and spa there.

Anyway…I was introduced to stylist Marc Sifuentes in Los Angeles by Interior Designer Jordan Carlyle. You could approach Marc (now in NYC) and see if your styling tastes are similar.

How do you do Mark and I am also pleased to recognize you on this post.

I was wondering what you were up to…I recalled a thread on MM which you shared about your experiences in NYC.

You’ve shed some light on those contests and/or awards. I’ve often thought about entering those contests–you know actually coming up with the funds to produce the project and/or suggest a collaboration amongst the talents.

Thank you for the past advice and thoughts you’ve shared with me. I’ve internalized them.

Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger! Kung hay fat choy…I’ll privately disclose my Paypal account so you could deposit unpao money at your convenience. Hehe.

;-)

Not the ‘clothing’ industry, but “fashion”.
Support = earning a healthy living over an entire career: including savings, healthcare, retirement, etc. – not just paying rent, or having a great year or two.

NYC, Paris, Milan, London, and Tokyo. The majority of *fashion* images are commissioned from these cities even if some are produced elsewhere. There other regions with small fashion publications too: China, Latin America, SE Asia, Russia, etc.

I’m willing to bet the number of slots (opportunity) in professional sports, -or even the US senate- are comparable or more than the slots for image makers in fashion . The NBA alone has 450 players.

I think, at least for me, a gray area that arises when starting out in trying to emerge as a working fashion photographer is when your book rides that line between fashion and lifestyle. I know I have this dilemma when showing my work because I end up with comments like, “your work is too fashion for our publication” and then showing the same work to someone else I get “your work is too lifestyle for our publication”. I get this same sort of response when contacting photo reps in New York as well. I know some of this is the nice brush off response but it also gets me thinking and overworking my book to try and fit expectations and then this ends up influencing my work when trying to pad my book.

I feel some established/working photographers seem to be able to ride this fine line between fashion and lifestyle but does one who is trying to get notice have to really focus on one of these when starting out? Should one really focus in on one selling point of view in concept, style, composition, etc if trying to break in to the fashion world?

I think I fit the bill as an emerging fashion photographer and I feel Jonathan’s woes. Last year, I won the Surface Avant Guardian Project’s grand prize, an award I only dreamed of getting when I first started. I thought that it would help open some doors and put me on the radar, but no one called or emailed so it’s now back to square one. I’m still hopeful that one day, this will all pay off.

I have two questions:

Question one: Just how important is style to an emerging photographer? Based on interview of two of the photographers I respect most (Nick Knight and Solve Sundsbo) always stressed don’t worry about style and try not to define their work in one style. However, I’ve been told by others that it’s critical to have a style. I find that it’s difficult for me to fall into a style, and I find that different looks fit some stories better than others. Is this detrimental to my career and reflect poorly on me as a photographer?

Question two: At one point in my career I was a photojournalist for the Washington Post and the NYT and learned that promos, cold calling, and good ol’ story telling gets your foot in the door…but with fashion photography that doesn’t seem to be the case. Outside of networking with stylists and emailing magazines, what else can we do to get our work in front of editors and art buyers? Are they as open to cold calling because e-mails almost certainly never get replied or looked at.

Thanks!
Mark