Types of Photographic Practice

Do not copy this

AKA "Operational context"

One of your important learning aims involves researching Photographers at the start of your Tasks and identifying Industry aspects such as, what kind of work it is that the Photographers produce - what genre is it? How do the Photographers earn an income producing this work - who do they sell it to, who are the clients? You should try and name companies/clients that might typically use this type of photography - try and use photo's showing where and how the work is used/seen. What kind of people might like the images and be interested in them - discuss this in terms of demographic groups. See the links below...

What Are Examples of Demographics? (chron.com)

Demographics classifications – BusinessBalls.com

The learning aim this address is...

“AC1 Explore & develop investigation skills for informing ideas”. This involves identifying the ‘Industry’ aspects of the work…  

Once you've completed your research and you start to plan your initial shoot in response to you research you should try and be clear about the operational context of your work e.g. what kind of photography you're going to produce, who might the client/s be, where the work would be seen and used and who is the audience/user of the photography you use?

At the very start you might be vague about these aspects? If that's the case, name a few scenarios (Operational contexts) your work might fit as it develops. As you produce the work and your idea becomes clearer - discuss this in your reflections, clarifying your decisions and the operational context your work suits. 

"AC5 Explore and develop communication skills". This involves clarifying and communicating how and why your work is fit for purpose communicating meaning, purpose and function in relation to audience. A key part of which is showing an intention and purpose for your work at the start of the project reflecting on whether your work is fit for purpose as you develop the project. 

Social Photography - Weddings, portraits, pet pictures, children, social events, school photography, baby showers and so on. The common factor is that you're generally dealing directly with the public. Unfortunately, in this field you're constantly being under-cut by someone who has a partner with a real job who pays their bills. This means they'll do a wedding for virtually nothing - a couple of hundred quid. They have no idea about the business side of it and do it for pin money 

*Note: There is though, potential to make a lot of money if you know your market and demographic and target the right social groups and have a good USP

Anyone can be an Social photographer, so generally in terms of your research, the ones that are of more value to you are those that are recognised for another aspect of their practice, e.g. they're relatively famous for their work already in another sphere of photography. If you're researching someone who is relatively unknown, you may have to find their contact details and email them or ask them direct questions using social media to complete your research in any depth.  

Editorial Photography - The definition of Editorial Photography is photography that is produced to accompany a written article (Most of the time). See this article here The Photographs that you see in magazines and on websites that accompany written content are editorial. Often professional photographers when they start out they will initially shoot editorial work. Fashion Magazines often use editorial Photography - there will be an article that sometimes has a theme and the over-arching purpose of the article will be to showcase and advertise and sell clothes, but not from one brand or designer, but a range. Elle magazine and Vogue for instance have several editorial 'Sets' within their pages. Editorial photography doesn't pay that well and is often used as a way of getting your name known and advertising yourself and building up your portfolio. You often collaborate with other people involved in bringing the shoot together and this works well in terms of net-working and being seen and available to shoot.

Celebrity interviews as editorials; See this example here David Beckham: 'I’m proud that I’ve come so far' | British GQ (gq-magazine.co.uk)

This type of editorial is probably reserved for photographers with good reputations and are well established and they're almost certainly commissioned rather than being speculative submissions.

Beckham and his agents would have been at the forefront of this type of commission and been involved from the outset. They may have been involved in decision as to who the photographer might be.

These types with the written interview would also feature a freelance writer normally or you'd write the article yourself in conjunction with the features editor at the magazine/website.

Anyone can be an editorial photographer, so generally in terms of your research, the ones that are of more value to you are those that are recognised for another aspect of their practice, e.g. they're relatively famous for their work already in another sphere of photography. If you're researching someone who is relatively unknown, you may have to find their contact details and email them or ask them direct questions using social media to complete your research in any depth.  

What is Editorial Photography? (With Salary and Job Outlook) | Indeed.com

Stock Photography - This is one of the more interesting types of photography. Once you've reached a certain skill level and you become either a Specialist or a skilled all-rounder with an excellent understanding of light and visual language, combined with being creative and an excellent communicator. Or, have access to things that are rarely photographed you have the chance of being a successful stock photographer. Stock photography involves you shooting things of your choice in a way that is original and done exceptionally well, to the point where other people... 'Stock libraries' will market your work on your behalf.

For instance if you had the skills and equipment to capture surfing images such as this above by Ryan Miller  you would have the option of selling the images as an editorial shot to surf magazines and websites, but this will have been shot using motor-drive and there would have been several very similar 'Spare shots' or extras. These images could be potentially uploaded to a website like 'Getty'

See the Wikipedia page here

Stock Photograph/Agency "Stringer"

Stringer is a description of a role in photography where if you're an established and trusted photographer who submits work on regular basis for a stock library for instance, you maybe asked to shoot specific images by the agency with a guaranteed sale as they may have a client who needs the images. I worked for Friends of the Earth in the 1990's, supplying them with images and I was asked to travel to Indonesia during a volcano event to Photograph the economic impact on the country and the people. FOE explained that none of the Photographic image libraries had images of the event and said that if I flew out there they'd buy the rights to the images direct and pointed out that I'd be able to submit other images to Getty, Image Bank and other big Stock Agencies at the time and make good money out of the trip.

In addition to Stock Libraries, there are also "Photographic Agencies" who use stringers almost exclusively. Some of these deal with new stories and have a fixed rate for working. In the 1990's I was paid £100 per job + costs doing this work. They would ring me and others offering jobs all over the country. Some people would take on 7-9 jobs a day travelling everywhere doing quick news or publicity work for national and local newspapers. The costs are taken on by you initially and then you invoice the agency on the upload of the work to their site for use. 

Anyone can be a Stock photographer, so generally in terms of your research, the ones that are of more value to you are those that are recognised for another aspect of their practice, e.g. they're relatively famous for their work already in another sphere of photography. If you're researching someone who is relatively unknown, you may have to find their contact details and email them or ask them direct questions using social media to complete your research in any depth.  

Advertising Photography - Also known as commercial photography covering all sorts of genres and subjects. Once you become established and get a name for yourself (Possibly by being an editorial photographer initially) and have a presence e.g. you advertise and promote yourself and your business, people will start contacting you to commission you to shoot their products or business. In terms of magazines or websites these will be the images of specific products and brands. The bigger the name of the brand/designer the chances are the more you'll be able to charge. Think adverts for cars, perfumes, clothing brands, shoes, trainers etc. 

In terms of explaining and identifying advertising photography in your work - use examples of magazine (hard copy scans) adverts and also adverts used on-line. Screen grab adverts on sites such as Vogue UK, as adverts are used as banners across the tops of the website and possibly down the side of adverts. It might be worthwhile looking at a current (In the shops now) edition of Vogue and compare whether the advert is the same when used on-line as the full page version in the magazine? The magazine version would normally be a full page or more, whereas the on-line version is a banner (Narrow strip). 

A great deal of commercial photography is not seen by the general population, Photographic Assignments who set your work experience produce images for catalogues. These catalogues are for companies that you're likely to be unaware of or have very little to do with.

As a result, the majority of advertising campaigns are shot by photographers who have no profile or significance to you as a student looking for photographers to research. Unless, of course you contact them directly and have a 1 to 1 discourse. That process can be very valuable. 

Anyone can be an Advertising photographer, so generally in terms of your research, the ones that are of more value to you are those that are recognised for another aspect of their practice, e.g. they're relatively famous for their work already in another sphere of photography. If you're researching someone who is relatively unknown, you may have to find their contact details and email them or ask them direct questions using social media to complete your research in any depth.  

Art Photography - This may be argued to be the very pinnacle of photography, the type of Photography that we all aspire to be successful at and to be able to make a living from. Generally, you choose what it is you're taking pictures of and you do so in a way that certain types of people sit up and take notice e.g. your target audience is wealthy middle-classes; Art collectors, buyers, people looking to buy photography as an investment. 

It involves you being at the top of your game and being a master of aspects of your skill sets. It's also the case that the majority of the photographers that you research that sell their work as 'Art Photography' are well-established 'Celebrity' Photographers that are well known and in the public eye to some extent. People therefore buy the Photography as 'Art' not simply on merit or aesthetics but in part due to the fact that the photographer has some status as a celebrity. This is to say - that if you produce photographic work as 'Art Photography' it will be far more difficult to sell the work as 'Art' without this additional status aspect. As an unknown it will be difficult to sell your work especially if the content and theme is challenging.

The idea is often key, as this is what catches the eye of critics, writers, reviewers, academics, gallery owners, art organisations and private buyers and collectors. You either have to work hard promoting yourself and net-working in these circles or you get lucky, but more often or not it's hard work, high skill levels and a unique idea combined with being in the right place at the right time that makes the difference. 

A useful exercise in looking at what might sell is to look at design magazines that show-case the houses of the rich and wealthy (Elle Decor, Tatler and archictecture/interior publications). Look for clues as to what might sell. In these situations the work tends to be less challenging and more aesthetically pleasing. 

If you're producing Art Photography. You generally finance and promote your own gallery shows or get sponsors to help with the costs of doing so. A part of this process would be to publicise the work as it comes together, promoting it through Photography websites and magazines e.g. images of the work and interviews with you the photographer, so there maybe income generated at that stage through editorial rights (See editorial above). 

Another income stream that many 'Art Photographers' tap into is an accompanying book. These are sold at the gallery usually at a modest cost and are published in relatively short print runs. This means the first 'Batch' of books known as a first edition become very collectable if the show is a success and the photographer gains a level of recognition from critics and peers. 

Andreas Gursky - Rhein II 1999

This version of Rhein II is the Tate Galleries version, but a private buyer bought one of the versions for over $4,000,000.00 see here 

Because of the significance of this type of work and its importance in the world of historical and contemporary photography, there is a plethora of books, articles and videos made about the work and the artists. This means this type of work is easy to research and find out about.  

When trying to establish if a photographer earns income as an art practitioner, there are a number of prompts that you can use in conjunction with their name...

Remember to save your links and use as a bibliography 

If you do enough research, you'll gradually get a sense of the world in which this happens and you're likely to recognise that this isn't your world and this is a very different set of people to the ones that you know. This will give you an insight into their "Demographic" make-up and allow you to write about the 'Audience' for the work you're researching. 

Sub genres and specialisms

• Industrial Photography
• Fashion Photography
• Wildlife Photography
• Sports Photography
• Medical Photography
• Forensic Photography
• Ariel Photography
• Under-water Photography
• Reportage
• Car Photography
• War Photography
• Landscape Photography

Operational context: If you look on-line there literally millions of seemingly high-quality landscape images there with no indication of whether they make the photographer any money. So how can you make money from landscape photography? Here's some ideas and examples. 

Stock Photography 

This might be one way, but if you're realistic can you compete with the fact that there are literally thousands of people who have good 'Proper jobs' that can take a picture and can afford to travel all around the world taking photos of the most beautiful locations on the best cameras? Look at how many images Getty has already on file and there are 100's of other stock agencies.

Posters

This may be an avenue that you could explore. There are numerous companies that sell poster art on-line.

Where do they source their images from? You could research and see if they deal direct with the Photographer or whether they deal with Stock agencies and buy the rights to images to then sell on to the public? 

Posters (prints)  are also sold via retail outlets such as Ikea and Habitat. I've heard that it's nigh on impossible to deal with Ikea, but similar retail outlets might be worth looking at to deal directly with? 

Ikea might be worth checking just to establish why they're so difficult to deal with. 

Books/Publishing Again this might be an area that is wholly supplied by Stock libraries and difficult to break into. There may be scope if you're established in some way or just have a massive back catalogue of specific niche images e.g. Scotland in Winter to approach publishing companies with a view to publishing your work - this might also be increasingly viable if you're able to work with a writer. 

Self-publishing This is a fairly popular approach especially if your work is more contemporary. Companies like Blurb will enable you to design and fill the book with images of your choice and write the copy. This approach allows you to produce high-quality 'Coffee table' books and price them yourself and sell as limited editions. They can be made in small runs, to see how well they sell and if they sell well, bigger print runs can be printed off. There are lots of companies that offer these types of deals. 

Art Photography One of my mates Xavier Ribas who shoots contemporary landscapes produces big projects over a series of years examining landscapes and the human condition, one of which I attended the private view for Xavier Ribas - Photographer - Sundays . In this scenario, you produce the work, promote it and pay for a private gallery (His show was in Mayfair), have the work made on high quality materials and then sell it via the gallery to private buyers. This is a high-risk approach where you have to know your audience and have a good idea of what's going to sell. If you get the marketing right, produce work that has a concept/idea that is original and the work is executed to a high standard and presented exquisitely, this can pay off big time and lead to you being discovered. 

You can also do the same thing with more conventional prosaic approaches out in the province's. Again knowing your audience is essential. Most seaside towns as an example have art galleries and these will cater for the tourists - so producing seaside theme images and selling at the 'Going rate' might be a way in which you could earn income. 

Interestingly if you look at Youtube  you'll find situations like this. The first minute this bloke gives the game away. He was in the financial market business. So I think its relatively safe to say he made his money in finance and now he's a landscape Youtuber. The key thing here is that he's already financially safe and he's a Youtuber more than a photographer. If you research him his income stream comes through - doing workshops (teaching), Youtube and he sells prints, seemingly through Facebook. It might be interesting to ask a wider range of Youtube landscape Photographers how they sell their work and make a living through landscape photography. 

If you're looking to make it big, you almost certainly have to work with a concept and produce contemporary approaches. 

See Andrea Gursky  ‘The Rhine II‘, Andreas Gursky, 1999 | Tate

       Ed Burtynsky Oil Photographs: Oil — Edward Burtynsky

       Stephen Gill portfolio » Portfolio (stephengill.co.uk)

Once you're established and you've made a name for yourself as a landscape Photographer you might then start to be commissioned specifically to shoot landscapes - for more commercial purposes, but because of the fickle nature of light, this strikes me as being a very unusual niche within photography and a difficult one to break into.

Commercial Landscape Photography - James Grant Photography (jamesgphotography.co.uk)