PhotoPlus Seminar: Making a Good Impression on Clients

If there was a unifying theme to Mary Virginia Swanon’s “First Impressions: Selling Yourself in 20 Minutes” seminar today, it was Do Your Homework. Before you approach a photo buyer, photo editor, or gallery owner, Google him or her. Study the publication or ad agency they work for to figure out what photography they're looking for, and make sure your work is a good match (because clients are never impressed by photographers who waste their time).

Panelists included Debra Klomp Ching, co-owner of the KlompChing Gallery in Brooklyn; Andrea Kaye, VP and manager of art production at McCann-Erickson in NYC; Nadja Masri, New York bureau chief and photo editor for GEO magazine, and Mary McClean, a photo editor at Random House.

Klomp Ching says she finds photographers and starts developing relationships with them at various portfolio review festivals.

“Photographers pay a lot of money for the reviews,” she said “Do a lot of work before you come and meet me. I’m impressed if you already know who I am, and about my gallery. Research carefully, and choose your reviewers—don’t present to people who don’t show the kind of work you're making.”

She’s looking for portfolios “that have a good level of focus”—preferably with one well-formed project the photographer is able to explain in an articulate way. “If you’re able to talk about your images and you understand what it is you're doing, that impresses me.”

Klomp Ching is not only judging the work at portfolio reviews, but the personal impression the photographer makes.

“Have confidence,” she said. “ If you’re not confident in your work, why should I be interested?” Other advice: don’t be overly familiar when you introduce yourself, never present your portfolio to a gallery owner at someone else’s opening (a cardinal sin, she said), and be discrete about your professional relationships (eg, don’t bad mouth other galleries).

Andrea Kaye advised photographers interested in presenting work to her staff at McCann to be persistent, because agency art buyers tend not to answer their phones or return calls from photographers—so don’t expect them to. Instead, send an e-mail message, and make it short and sweet: one image, with a link to your URL. “If I like the picture even a little bit, I go right to the Web site.” But, she warned, the pace of agencies is “fast, faster, fastest. Anything that slows us down, we close the book, or delete the e-mail.”

Nadja Masri said the best way to get magazine work is to identify those magazines that you really want to shoot for, and build relationships with the photo editors.

“Go to a news stand, pick up 10 magazines you’d love to work for, and that your work is a good fit for,” she said. But don’t call until you’ve researched them thoroughly. “Look at the magazine, look at the web site. I expect you to have idea of who we are and what we need.” GEO is after stories with a strong narrative, and strong editing and sequencing, not single images. Show up with a 20 image story, she advised, “and be able to talk about it in a structured, informed manner: why you chose the topic, why it’s newsworthy, why its relevant for a general readership.”

Masri says personal contact is critical for her. “I get a lot of promo cards, but I never got in touch with someone I don’t know because of a card I got.” Send e-mail instead, she advises. She wants to know when you win awards or get exhibits. And don’t be afraid to call her to ask for a meeting to show your work. “What’s the worst thing that can happen if you do?” she said. “For me, personal relationships are the most important. Stay in touch.”

McClean said she is looking for strong single images for book covers.

“I don’t need a photographer to present his work to me. We don’t see many portfolios. We ask people to contact us with a Web site,” she said. “We rarely deal with reps. We call them reptiles. We’d rather work with photographers [directly].”

But book publishing doesn’t pay much, she warned. “A regular trade book with a print run of 15,000, You might make $1200, plus maybe another $300 if it goes to an audio book.”

Comments

[pam]

Since you were in touch with these people and the article deals with submitting work to them contact information would be helpful. Here is the information that I dug out of the Random House site.

"Sorry, but Random House, Inc. does not accept unsolicited submissions, proposals, manuscripts, illustrations, artwork, or submission queries at this time.

If you would like to have your work or manuscript considered for publication by a major book publisher, we recommend that you work with an established literary agent. Each agency has manuscript submission guidelines. You may wish to refer to The Literary MarketPlace (the LMP), a reference guide that contains a listing of literary agencies. It can be found in most libraries. Another excellent source is The Writer's Market, which you should be able to find in a local bookstore or library. You can also visit their Web site at http://www.writersdigest.com for more information."

um, thanks?

[timg]

Thanks for the post. Some great insight for those of us not able to attend.

[David Walker]

pam, pam, pam! The "Writers and Photographers--Keep Out!" sign on the Random House Web site is meant to scare off the faint of heart. Google Mary McClean, and you'll find her e-mail address.

[Doktor]

I'm a bit sick of this "DO your homework" approach. Am I really here only to make your life easier? Sorry but is there anything to publish or represent when or buy if you don't have photographers. Should you not ne here for me (= the photographers).

I realize that there to many photographers and everybody has only so much time but the basis of the relationship has to be differnt then the cynical "do your homework" thing.

Nadja has given at least some concrete advice what it means.

I woudl liek to ad that a lot of photographers who have gotten exhibitions , books, representation and jobs have at the right moment NOT played along the rules. I listen to their experience - much better advice.

[David]

Every person has different and often conflicting advice. Just get in and wing it! There's more luck involved these days than anything else.