EXPOSURE IS NOT A FORM OF PAYMENT. (An Open Letter.)
I have a photographer rant. It's very long.
Keep scrolling before it's too late.
Too late. You're reading it.
My open letter to photographers (and all freelance creatives):
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LET OTHER PEOPLE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU.
You provide a service that has value. Your time has value. Do not punish yourself becuase just because you actually enjoy your job. It's ok. It's normal, in fact. Crazy right?
That being said there are plenty of good reasons to work without monetary compensation: If the outcome benefits you in some other measurable way, invests in future opportunities, brings you pleasure, and/or improves your quality of life. Beyond that, you should receive actual, green, paper, American dollars for the WORK that you are doing.
This post is brought to you by an email I received this morning, which I will quote below, along with my response. I considered simply declining their request. A one-sentence email reply. I have done this countless time in the past. In fact, I usually recommend that to other photographers. Just let it go- don't waste more of your valuable time.
But sometimes, I am overwhelmed by the real danger of letting certain entities go on assuming it's ok to see what they can get away with. Especially when they are benefitting from our hard-earned, actual, green, paper, American dollars for the WORK we are doing. In this case it is a mainstream wedding vendor advertising platform (I will keep them anonymous) to whom I have paid THOUSANDS of dollars to use their services. And they are requesting free services from me.
This post is mostly for my selfish benefit, to air a grievance about a battle am an EXHAUSTED of fighting. If you have not had the pleasure of fighting this battle, my frustration may seem may seem disproportionate. But if you have, you KNOW.
I welcome your thoughts and professional, respectful, productive discussion. I beg you to employ those qualities any time you encounter these situations. The balance between being firm but respectful is essential to ensure our message actually lands when we are attempting to educate other on this very serious issue.
XX represents the company that approached me. Email I received:
Hope this email finds you well! I am with the events team here at XX and am reaching out about an upcoming partnership opportunity! We are hosting a XX Networking Night on [date] at [location] and you came very highly recommended by both [XX employee who I do not know] and [XX employee who I do not know] to be our exclusive photography partner for the event! I would love to further discuss details of this partnership, so please see the information below and let me know if you have any questions:
This free event will bring together more than 100 wedding professionals across 20+ service categories from the area to network with each other and learn more about XX. The event will consist of approximately 30 minutes of mixing and mingling over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, followed by a brief educational presentation [aka sales pitch about the advertising site], and the remaining time will be opened up for additional networking.
XX can offer on-site exposure with the opportunity to really showcase your services, include logo placement on our event website and during event remarks, as well as a link to your XX storefront within the recap post, in exchange for the below from Anna Lee Media:
- Photography services on site at [location], arriving at 5:30pm (general candids and posed photos of networking and the presentation, as well as a XX team photo)
- Electronic access to the images the day following for photo-credited inclusion in the re-cap XX Blog post
I will be sure to follow-up with you later this week, but if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing back!
Hi [Event coordinator name],
Thank you for reaching out, but I will not be in town that day! I would, however, like to respectfully share my thoughts on this matter. Please hear me out.
In this market, photographers are tirelessly fighting a battle to educate others on the value of our time, work and services. It is very disheartening to receive a request from such a force in the wedding industry as XX to trade actual work for “exposure”. I don’t want to be so heavy-handed as to say that this is insulting... but this request sends a very poor message.
This is especially true of an event where, as a local industry professional, I would likely be invited to attend and network without having to work it. Additionally, the nature of this event is clearly, at it’s base, to promote advertising opportunities through XX. So XX stands to gain new vendor clients and make more money, while it requests those who already pay for the services (myself) to work for free, but packaging it as an exciting opportunity that I was hand-selected for.
I’ve been to countless events such as this one, and while it is possible for some kind of work to evolve out of this event, it is very remote. And that’s fine, if you’re attending the event for the sole purpose of networking- not to work. Not to mention, party photos are not a productive way to sell the very different skill and art of wedding photography. If this event has proven to be an exception to this statistic, and your photography partners have received substantial, paying work as a result, I would certainly welcome that information and evidence!
That being said, I know this does not fall on you personally, but please bring this concern to those at XX who are spearheading this event and these decisions. I also don’t want to express my frustration without offering a reasonable, productive solution: You could offer advertising credit with XX in an amount comparable to a fair pay rate, which for this type of service is usually $300-500. This would build good will with your vendors, and cost you only the bandwidth on your site rather than event budget dollars. Personally, I’d be happy to take you up on such an offer (if I was in town).
Let’s raise the bar of our industry together. Promoting the truth that our services have monetary value is good for everyone, including XX.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
amandla
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
2087
izzy806
germansingergirl
blakekathryn
turnnoffyourmind
areudirty
prguitarman
