Making Money in Photography
There is no photography question asked more often than how to make money at it. And as I see it, this can be answered in two ways.
The first way is to list out all the things that the professional photographer has learned to do over their years of keeping at it: build a great portfolio, do all the business aspects of it (accounting, advertising, etc.), get repeat business, find a niche, diversify your income, and on and on.
In my experience, all this advice has very little effect on an amateur photographer and feels, probably accurately, like the result of making money, more than a roadmap for it.
There’s a second way that making money at photography can be described, but most people avoid talking about it. Because it has to do with talent. And talent is complicated business.
Let me tell you the story of how I landed my first three big gigs after I left advertising to pursue photography full-time. They’re the same story. In each case, someone told someone else they should hire me and the deal was done within minutes. The commonality between all three was that I was part of an exchange in the business of talent.
To understand how talent works, and makes you money, you have to look at the business of talent. One of my clients is United…
