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Carol LeFlufy, Getting Started As A Photographers Agent
Several of my readers have asked me how you get started as a photographers agent. I put the question to Caol LeFlufy owner of LA based agency Eye-Forward who handles photographers Patrik Giardino, Sam Jones, Frank Ockenfels 3 and Christopher Wray-McCann.
APE: How did you get started as an agent? Walk me through the beginning of your career.
My brother and father were both amateur photographers growing up and I spent time in the darkroom with my Dad when I was very young. Then I studied photography in high school with an inspiring and encouraging teacher who I am still friends with. After high school I traveled taking pictures and then returned to Vancouver, Canada where I grew up and started working in a camera store and freelancing as a photographer. In that regional market I did a little bit of everything to stay alive but mostly did editorial portraiture. I started to work for national publications and was successful marketing myself as a West Coast photographer that the magazines could hire instead of flying someone out for assignments in the Western Provinces. After seven years of earning my living that way and also teaching photography at a local community college in Vancouver, I moved to Toronto to expand my business but with my sights really set on getting to NYC. I loved magazines like Vogue and Rolling Stone and I figured that sooner or later I would have to challenge myself on that level.
After some struggles in Toronto I started to feel like maybe taking pictures for a living was ruining my love of photography somehow and I started to think that I was a good photographer but not a great photographer. I began to realize that not every photographer is suited to being a working commercial photographer day in and day out. Then I was visiting friends in NYC one weekend and one of them was assisting Steven Meisel. On a Sunday night there was a call that Steven’s other assistant had put his back out and my friend had to find a new assistant right away for the shoot in the morning. I got the job, loved it and got a long with Steven, so he said if I wanted to stay around and assist I could. Being around a photographer of that level and working on shoots for the major magazines thrilled me. For a while I went back and forth to Toronto still shooting and then coming back to NY to assist.
Steven was represented by Art + Commerce and they represented Annie Leibovitz who was one of my heroes at the time. The agency was very small then and two of the three partners came to Steven’s shoots and I got to know them. Annie’s studio manager quit suddenly so I asked to be considered for the position and with their help and Steven’s I got the job. This was one of the most important work experiences of my career. I realized here that I loved the business of photography and could use my organizational skills as well as my other strengths and work with a photographer and not be one every day. I was thrilled and challenged in a way I had never been.
I began to work closely with Jim Moffat one of the partners of Art + Commerce on all of Annie’s jobs. After working for Annie for several years I went to Art + Commerce to be Jim and Anne Kennedy’s assistant. In addition to helping with them with all the photographers I started to produce Annie’ s American Express portrait campaign because there were no print producers in those days. After several years doing that I went to work for Outline Press to run the NY office and start a representational wing for the company. Outline had tremendous growth over those years in both the stock sales and the assignment work. Art + Commerce had been asking me to come back to be an agent so I eventually returned and brought Frank Ockenfels along with me from Outline. I worked at Art + Commerce for ten years as an agent representing Frank, Mary Ellen Mark, Taryn Simon, Ellen von Unwerth, Max Vadukul, Perry Ogden, Max Vadukul and Richard Burbridge. During this time I began teaching at ICP and actively collecting photography and photography books.
APE: What was it that made you realize it was time to start your own agency?
I moved to Los Angeles for personal reasons and that was why I started my own agency.
APE: For aspiring agents out there what are the essential skills to have? What things should they be working on?
The skills I think you need are in no particular order:
-A knowledge and love of photography – the history of etc. (seems obvious but you would be surprised…)
-Be an organized person
-An ability to multi-task
-An ability to solve problems and think outside of the box
-Good people skills and good communication skills
-Be a good listener and not just to the clients but to your artists (Some times you may feel like you are a therapist)
-Be an effective negotiator
-You have to be a pro-active person not a passive person
-You have to be willing to work hard.
-You have to really want to do it.
APE: This is going to sound insane but how do you land jobs for your photographers?
Hard one to answer…
I think I land jobs by representing good artists and developing good relationships with clients and promoting my artists effectively and trying in every job to make sure that not only the client is happy but that the artists has all that he or she needs (support of all kinds) to do a great job so that we continue working with the client.
There is also a huge element of luck and I am not joking.
APE: What advice would you give aspiring agents?
To carefully research and select the artists that they decide to work with and understand it is a partnership and hopefully one that will last a long time. I would also give the advice that it may take a while to build your business and that you have to be patient. A lot of your time will be spent planting seeds with clients and sometimes the results are not as quick to come as you would like. The whole business is about forming good relationships with your artists and your clients.
Stephen Mayes – On Photojournalism Today
Lens Culture has published audio interviews with 38 photographers (here) that I discovered via Gallery Hopper.
I remember a few months back some very provocative quotes coming from a speech Stephen Mayes gave but I’m not sure if the full audio ever made it out. Len’s Culture has it (here) along with those wonderful quotes:
“I wonder if World Press Photo is peeling away from reflecting the media as it is, and is rather reflecting the media the way we wish it were. Of the 376 images awarded prizes this year, I would be curious to know how many have been published in a paid-for context. Maybe all of them. Maybe. But the overall impression that I’m left with from the 470,214 images that I have seen entered into the contest in the current decade, is that they reflect a form of photojournalism that is now more romantic than functional.”
“The overwhelming impression from the vast volume of images is that photojournalism (as a format for interpreting the world) is trying to be relevant by copying itself rather than by observing the world.”
“As one juror said this year, ‘90% of the pictures are about 10% of the world.'”
Stephen is the Managing Director of VII Photo Agency and served as Jury Secretary for the World Press Photo Awards from 2004-2009.
UPDATE: It was originally published with the audio on Notes from Nowhere (here).
photography is just not good for storytelling
I’ve become increasingly nihilistic about photography… photography was much more interesting 50 plus years ago, and now there is just this overabundance of photography. It’s like saying “What type of art do you do?” “Oh, I do Twitter.”
— Alec Soth
via Too Muck Chocolate.
Print folks have lost confidence in their printed product
It is not the first time that I say print is not dying, just the folks who owns it are committing suicide. I firmly believe that our salvation is going to be in ensuring that each and every product, we media people produce, must be necessary and sufficient.
via Mr. Magazine.
Anthony Suau – 2008 World Press Winner
Spanish Newspaper Claims “Iconic Capa War Photo Was Staged”
A Spanish Civil War photo by Robert Capa that shows a Republican soldier at the apparent moment he was fatally hit in the back by a bullet was in fact staged, a Spanish newspaper claimed on Friday (here).
“Capa photographed his soldier at a location where there was no fighting,” wrote Barcelona-based newspaper El Periodico which carried out a study of the photograph taken in September 1936, the third month of the war.
The so-called “falling soldier” photo was not taken near Cerro Muriano in the southern Andalusia region, as has long been claimed, but about 50 kilometres (30 miles) away near the town of Espejo, the newspaper said.
via Yahoo! News thanks Mike.
UPDATE: Great narrated video from the Guardian (here).
Sotomayor and Photographers – Lens Blog
It was recently revealed that Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor was one of the judges that ruled on the Chris Usher case where the court awarded him $7 per image for the over 12,000 images Corbis lost. The Lens Blog has interviews with Chris and the lawyers who argued the case.
“’Judge Sotomayor did not get that this is blatantly absurd: to treat one of the top photojournalists in the world as if he was a child who lost the snapshots he’d brought into CVS or Walgreens,’ Mr. Greenberg said in an interview on Tuesday.”
“Following up in an e-mail message, Mr. Greenberg said, ‘It was the impression of my entourage — consisting of clients, witnesses, staff and interested parties who attended the oral argument — that Sotomayor had no understanding of the historical context of the photo business.’ He continued: ‘She viewed — in my crew’s opinion — the case as the last in a line of cases concerning the loss of analog materials, an anachronism. While arguing, I personally could not read that, but others did.'”
UPDATE: Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua sees it differently (here).
“As I mentioned in my previous post, it sucks for the photographer. However, and note these two things: 1) the court found it impossible to value the images otherwise because of the lousy record keeping by the photographer IN THIS CASE; and, 2) the ruling clearly states that it is a summary order and is NOT precedential, so other cases do NOT have to follow the ruling and so not all images will be valued at this low level.”
Brit Artists Stage National Art Hate Week
“… Participants are encouraged to be honest about work they find boring and hateful, especially if curators consider it stimulating and interesting. “
“This past Monday saw the launch of National Art Hate Week in England, the brainchild of painter Billy Childish and two collaborators. The idea, he says, is to give the U.K.’s art institutions “a necessary kicking” by calling for the public to stage a silent revolt and visit a local gallery, take a closer, more honest look at what’s being shown, and then actively hate it.”
via artinfo.com.
Was Warhol Ever Sued?
Patricia Caulfield, the photographer whose work was used as the basis of Warhol’s flower prints sued in November 1966 and settled for cash and artwork.
via Rich Nolo’s Patent, Copyright & Trademark Blog and Photo Attorney.
Concert Photographers Asked To Transfer Copyright To Jane’s Addiction
Filed under WTF? I’m told some photographers are asked to sign this document and some are not. “…I hereby grant, transfer, convey and assign to you all right, title and interest throughout the universe in perpetuity, including, without limitation, the copyright…”
Seriously, you need the copyright!? What’s the point of coming to your stupid effing show and taking your picture then?
Guess times are tough in the music biz.
Selling Stock Independently
I think for many photographers the ability to license their images as stock without paying a huge commission to some middle man is the ultimate dream. And, to be honest I don’t think it matters a bit to buyers whether they get the image from Corbis/Getty or directly from the photographer as long as the transaction is fairly seamless (e.g. prices are fixed, high res download available, images are captioned). Photoshelter has a solution with a new feature that allows photographers to form virtual agencies. Art Wolfe, David Doubilet, and Thomas Mangelsen formed a new agency called Wild (here). Art thinks the big agency model is dead and you can read more on that in a story he wrote for Outdoor Photographer (here).
The big hurdle of course is figuring out how to get your material in front of buyers if you’re not 3 of the most famous wildlife photographers in the world. PS has a Q&A with photographer Randy Santos, who now makes a living independently licensing his images as stock (here). He uses SEO and direct marketing to reach potential buyers. Here’s his tips from the piece on how to sell stock independently:
- Listen. Talk with your potential customers, listen for the void, and then fill it.
- Show the client you understand their perspective. Art buyers certainly care about quality images – but their favorite photographers also provide assurance and convenience.
- Specialize and build a full collection. My work may not be groundbreaking, revolutionary, or even the best photography in the world. But, there is value in that this is well-defined, well-organized, searchable collection of images.
- Differentiate yourself. Set yourself apart from the masses. Clients need to remember you for something special.
- Learn and practice good business. Professionalism is essential in every aspect of the how you conduct business.
- Work really hard on your website and SEO. Sure, you want to be creative and get personal fulfillment, but you need to get your work out there in a way that buyers will find it.
When I worked as a photo editor I competed with other publications for advertising and readers. I always needed to run the best unpublished stock photography I could find. That usually amounted to calling photographers directly and cajoling them into sending me outtakes from a shoot I found on their portfolio. I see no reason why solutions like this can’t be the future of high quality stock.
Why would you be a photojournalist today?
“I have always considered being crazy as important to a photographer as being curious.”
— Dirck Halstead
Mannie Garcia Seeks Intervention in AP v. Shepard Fairey
“Manuel Garcia — has now moved to intervene in the action, claiming that he — and not the Associated Press — is the owner of the copyright in the photograph.” (here)
Link to the filing (here).
Really a fascinating and important case to watch.
fairey_ap_090709GarciaInterventionMemoLaw –
Thanks for the tip Ellis.
The September Issue
Flashes Of Hope
Photographer Kevin Brusie sent me a link to this amazing organization (he started the Maine chapter last year):
“Flashes of Hope is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating powerful, uplifting portraits of children fighting cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.”
It’s all staffed by volunteer professional photographers and a donation (here) goes towards processing and framing of the portraits for the family. What a wonderful gift.
The Making of Dan Winters’ Periodical Photographs Book
Over on Grids Scott Dadich talks about the process of concepting, designing and editing Dan’s book (here).
“Dan and I didn’t want a photograph on the cover, but Aperture wasn’t seeing the wisdom in that (I wonder why!). They wanted a celebrity portrait cover.”
Thx, Mark.
Brent Humphreys’ Tour de France Project
I’m so used to flying wherever to shoot whoever and I say stand wherever for however long etc. This has been a huge growth experience for me as a shooter. My grip has become too damn tight in many ways and the tour makes me go “velvet glove”.
More on WTJ?
