Notes on a Work For Hire Photographer, Part 3

Over the past month I have been writing about and reflecting on my work for photography business, Studio Stratus. In this 3rd and final installment, I will be writing about some rudimentary interconnections of social networking, marketing, and non-profit/volunteer work. In addition, I will reflect on my own curiosities about the line of art and commerce.

Running a photography work for hire business is ceaseless process of networking, connecting, marketing, and promotion, followed by the repeated cycle of networking, marketing, promoting and connecting. Just pick up a magazine like Photo District News for example, and you quickly learn that a good part of a photographers jobs is generating new work through targeted add campaigns, flyers, e-mail blasts, reputation, press releases, etc. In many respects, being a successful photographer is about creating relationships. 

Cover Photo for the Orcas Center, a local performing arts center Studio Stratus. Design by Wade Campbell

I consider Studio Stratus on ongoing laboratory of experiments in which I apply the craft of photography with creativity. Equally, Studio Stratus is reflective of the adage of thinking globally while acting locally, since most of my current clients are part of my local community. The Studio Stratus laboratory is quite  different then my practice of making fine art photography. There is something satisfactory in both processes, though for very different reasons. For example, Studio Stratus allows me to often work with people collaboratively and in a high energy setting, while my fine art photography is contemplative and created in solitude.

Photos for Treehouse Pediatrics website, Studio Stratus. Design by Kim Van Arsdale

While I personally distinguish my fine art from work for hire, over the past decade we have seen the convergence of different genres of photography mixed up. It is often hard to distinguish what is what because the old labels don't seem to apply. Think Gregory Crewdson's work for the HBO show, 6 Feet Under. As a Photography Professor,  I would often struggle to explain to my first year students why some kinds of photography were art and other kinds, just photography. I always explained the distinction in terms of context, which was quickly dismantled when students returned to popular culture.

Photo for Orcas Mandala web site and print. Studio Stratus. Design: www.ebendesign.com

In terms of marketing and social networking, I have found that both approaches to making photography-fine art and work for hire-inform my craft and feed my soul. As a work for hire photographer in a small, rural community, I have been able to develop partnership and relationships with clients in unique and creative ways. In many respects, Studio Stratus is teaching me about my fine art photography. It is teaching me that photography is about relationships, that marketing is done through real connections with real people, and that social networking is literally being social, be it via Facebook, face to face, or as perception.