September 28, 2009

Photographer Solutions for Difficulties in the New Economy

A photographer friend of mine was recently bemoaning the difficulties of bringing in work in the “new economy”, and I was of course joining in. This is a classic case of “somebody moved my cheese” – the conundrum of what to do when the business model you have been working under for most of your life begins to dissolve or change into something that no longer interests you.

Letting go is hard, and the slower the ship sinks the easier it is to not run for the life rafts and search for some other land (or cheese, if we want to keep the metaphor running).

The thing is, sometimes the places you find when you jump over the railings (Hopefully you haven’t waited until you’re under water and find yourself underwater) are a far better place to call home. (OK, now it seems that I’ve taken us from being mice with cheese to a bunch of people who live on boats.)

This month marks a year since I started actually doing (not just promoting) my family portrait studio business, Halper Fine Art, and in that year it has grown to become as strong as my commercial photography business was two years ago, before the recession took hold. Halper Fine Art has its highest grossing month in August; a very healthy month even by the standards of the commercial world - I can’t wait to see what it does post-recession. I had no idea that creating a single piece of art for one family would be more gratifying that magazine covers, or that building this business would bring me an my wife even closer together.

The drastic change has also made me really re-evaluate my long terms career direction(s) in the field of photography generally. When you do something for two decades, you tend to loose sight of it in the big picture, even when you think you don’t. For the number of years, I’d really been unable to answer many of my long term goal questions beyond simply doing what I was already doing in a more creative and more lucrative way.

In creating my portrait business, I made an agreement with myself to strive to only do what I considered good photography, and the photography I wanted to do. For instance, I work exclusively in black and white. If a client wants color, in most cases I suggest they look elsewhere. If they want families on the beach in white shirts, those are completely off the table (I know many of you love those, but they aren’t of any interest to me).

To be candid, I still have some fear associated with being a portrait photographer. I’m finding that there is a natural inertia in the field that is always pulling towards some version of Sears photography (well tested poses and setups that consistently work for everybody). What scares me is loosing sight of being an artist instead of a technician, and without the daily and weekly stream of commercial work to always add new situations and challenges that becomes ever more likely.

My answer to that has been my decision to use the far greater freedom associated with doing portrait photography to build a career and reputation as a fine art photographer.

My new personal project is a series of portraits of Santa Barbara County winemakers. My wife Jen and an assistant (so Jen doesn’t have to run for my camera) come along with me, so I can do what I love and she can meet all sorts of great new people (which she loves). I’m photographing other artists who create what they love, and in doing so am doing what I most love. We’re finding that doors are just opening up for us in completely unexpected ways – a great sign that we’re on the right path.

There is a lot that is scary when somebody moves your cheese, but unless you go looking elsewhere you may never know that the best stuff usually isn’t found in a supermarket, but is hand crafted and made by somebody who does it with love and passion.

Written by Los Angeles and Orange County Photographers, Mark Robert Halper

Technorati Tags: Los Angeles Photographers, Orange County Photographers, photographer new economy