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Career Tips For Street Photography

Is anyone mad enough to do this is a job for you, huh? You're crazy uh other any questions about turning this into a career? I think I mean yes and as you people definitely, um want to know is this something that you couldn't make money off of? Is this something that if you work hard enough it's something that you can do for money yeah, just just like it's a shrinking industry and I think that what's I think there has been a time in the past in which we could rely on assignments and working really, really hard, you know, being up there for long periods and working ass off, but today I think it is still working very hard, but you're working on a variety of different things now it's not all assignment work, you know, you might be doing a commercial assignment one day you might be doing some private assignment for like, a citizen another day then you might be doing an editorial thing that doesn't pay very well except you want to do it. You know, I think, um a lot of us do jobs in order to...

do what we really want to do, which is our passion and photography is great except I'm still doing that, you know, like I do a little bit of work for the devil in order to pay for the photo journalism that I adored doing so it's manageable except you need to approach this like I don't call myself a photojournalist very much anymore usually call myself a photographer because it means that I could do the weird commercial jobs for like the wine company or the haven't sold cigarettes yet but you know who have a shooting for whoever you can do all of these other jobs if you're photographers if you are walking around as a photojournalist it's pretty rather you get any other sort of work outside of that people don't know what to do with this um that was a question I had had for my mentor um well what if I dabbled in photojournalism how could I do that part time especially as a mom and my husband travels is not an option for me toe go and be away for a long time and she had mentioned she she told me how much the newspapers the magazines pay and I said well that might not even be worth my time but let's say that that's what your hobby and you not being you went out and took those pictures of seattle who would you submit those two would you submit didn't somewhere if they're just photos you've taken um be personally probably not I mean this is the cool thing about where we are today like I'm not doing it for an assignment I'm just doing I'm doing it for you know, out of interest and curiosity of the people um what's really interesting about the way we live today is that we can publish we don't need a publisher anymore we don't need new york magazine of the times magazine of new yorker behind us you can publish on instagram you can write to like a street photography you know a bunch of different collectives on instagram of street photographers in public or I mean there's a lot you guys know about them umm you could start using that as an out but you know it's unpaid except you want to show people what you're seeing on dh the internet is an amazing place to do that where you can actually author your own work but also author how it's how it's being presented to the world which is really pretty like I think it's inspiring amazing I love it. And so, um how do you go about becoming established with a group like seven uh, well, you working by working a lot but also by working on the photographer's radars? Um I mean, I I definitely set out to like I looked up to all of the photographers in the agency that I'm in now um so I would be seeking them out any way to try to have a coffee with them, to swap ideas with them or to learn about them, you know, so it was a question being on their radar, but also doing work that they respected like I tried to get into this agency. It goes three times in total. In the end, in the first two times I was showing like war work, I thought was a war agency, and I thought all they would want to see is my conflict, and they said no twice, and then finally I showed my what? My work from wall street like you here, this is more like it coming in. So curious? Um, how many projects do you generally have going on at one time, as we've talked through sort of, oh my god, all the different all the different pitches and stories and ideas are you? How are you managing those? I don't know, I really don't know, uh, lots of coffee really early mornings? Um, lots of lists it's really hard, like there's a few projects that I that I put a lot a lot of work and energy into, and then there's some, you know, as they get closer to the actual shoot day, I'll spend more time and energy on focusing on them except there's certain things that I'll be doing a lot of research on, and then we actually get out in the field, you know, that translates into actual photographs. But there's always a lot of projects going on like I've got a folder on the computer just filled with different proposals and pitches, and so if I find myself with a free morning, which just doesn't happen but shoot at the should that happen in the next year or so, then I would I would re jiggle those pitches that I'm interested in sea, what you will still have life in them and like sending new editors so there's, always like the hustle of being a freelance photographer is insane, but in the end it's worth it it's always with it, but the hustles really it's pretty intense is something else. Is there any particular of all the people in stories that you've shot? This's has many votes on it online. Is there one that has changed you the most of all the people of all the people in the stories and everything that you shot? Is there one that has changed the most there's a man called william miller, who was a lance corporal in the marine corps? Um and in two thousand four he died in fallujah, iraq um while he was protecting me and there's, not a day goes by that I think about him there's, not a day that goes by that I don't look in my life and recognize how lucky I am to be experiencing the things that I do to have the family that I do because billy went first up is minaret and died as a result of a decision that I made now if there's any single person has affected me more in my entire life it's billy there's no question about that um and that is I think a part of being not just a photographer but a person make bringing this stuff bringing these difficult moments that you have in your life and trying to turn them into something like I tried to live is honorably as I possibly can a cz happily as I can on account of partially on account of the fact that billy died um and and I survived so that had a profound effect on my life on going every day that every day of my life and as far as people go there's been some really inspiring people that I've been lucky that sort of reigned me in over the years you know, my mental has been amazing with me but there was a guy called eric kuka who was an albanian refugee in australia and I went over the cost of all when I was when I was really young like ninety nine souls twenty one um the fighting and just finished and it came back and I was so angry I'm so angry that these cost of refugees have been sent home from australia into this awful god awful shitty environment possible it wasn't fair and I was angry. Um, and I still get angry today, but I didn't know how to express it is a twenty one year old, so I was drinking really heavily as getting in if I was being a jerk and I sat down with this guy are kuka who was albanian himself, and I said, I'm so angry it's, so unfair. Why can we sit here and enjoy the football on these these dinners and coffee in the morning? And like, we had this life when these people are suffering, um and eric said, my people want the same thing when people want what these people have. My people want to be able to enjoy football and enjoy lunch outside in safety, insecurity, they wanna be able to have families and safety and security, and I always remember that and it's, it was a short conversation, except it's affected me throughout my whole life, like it's. True, we all have the same hopes and dreams. Thank you. Um, so as you might guess, from what I just said, this is not a job, you can make enough money just to get by on it, especially if you broaden yourself out, but this is absolute commitment and devotion to this, like you have to be so so excited to get up in the morning, go out and meet new people and go out and challenge yourself on dh be in the moment and constantly evolve is a human being and that's like that's the commitment, you know, the commitment is not just a photography is to bettering yourself as a human being and believing, and I think those people around us, um, I love this, you know, even for the two hundred dollar day day rates, um, this job, it's still, I have the opportunity to turn every single day of my life into an adventure, which is a dream come true like this. There's, nothing better than this. When it's, when it's working, when you're in the moment and you're you're on the high seas, you know, off the filipino or the chinese coast, some crazy muslim smuggler's ship about to jump onto, like, beached vessel in the middle of the ocean, life doesn't get better than that. It's absolutely magic. Um, and I, um I'm supposed to give advice at this point about inspirational advice of being a photojournalist. I mean, I hope the whole thing has bean inspiring that if you need advice to get into this industry, you're probably not gonna make it. You were born into this you have a drive and a fire in a passion in your belly that like makes you want to do this it makes you so hungry like nothing will stop you nothing will get in your way like this is your driven in yourself motivated like some of these lessons you can learn but to turn this thing into a korea to turn this thing into a life there's no question it's like it's it's it will it will be already happening um no one's going to be pushing you to do this no editor is gonna push you they'll hire somebody else you know it's you've gotta wake up before everybody else you're gonna be out there shooting when they're still drinking coffee you work longer through the day you get back after dark with an old drinking beers in the bar you're still shooting you work harder you worked longer you engaged deeper you know you try to be the best photography you possibly can be I never know what I'm going far enough but I know that I'm getting close when I stop feeling sick sick from exhaustion sick from mental exhaustion I could barely keep my eyes open and I'll be in the car between jobs I'll be taking I'll be falling because they can't stay awake but we have to see somebody else I'm pretty extremist characters you might have guessed after this eight or so hours together but this is what I think pushes us to be great, you know, there's, a lot of really, really good photographers out there. I'm sure that you all are but there's, not very many great photographers. I'm not a great photographer, I'm still learning. I would love to be one day and I'll keep trying. But I think that we all have the capacity to go from good to great, and it'll take commitment and hard work. But I believe I believe that eventually it'll be worth it, and I believe that we all have that capacity, so I'm thanks for having me. I hope it's helped.