Try and make money through a creative endeavor, be it photography, music, design, or art as a whole, and you’ll go through a transitional lesson wherein you discover that some people will present you an opportunity to spread your fledgling creative wings, but financial gain isn’t part of the reward.
Here's a short comedy sketch that creatively sums up what photographers and other creatives often experience: being asked to do free work in exchange for "exposure."
The issue of businesses asking photographers to work for free has been a hot issue in recent years, and now we have some citable statistics that shed more light on it. According to a new study in the UK, 87% of photographers were asked to work for free in 2016, and 16% said yes.
Designer Jessica Hische is fed up with requests to work for 'exposure', so she built a Web tool every creative should take advantage of. It's a "choose your own email-venture" that helps creatives say "no" to free work and better negotiate crappy contract terms.
Requests for free spec work is a big problem for photographers, who lose out when clients demand free photos in exchange for "vague to nonexistent compensation." To show how ridiculous the idea of spec work is, Toronto agency Zulu Alpha Kilo had a guy approach people in other businesses with requests for free spec work to sample their products and services before actually committing to paying. A barista, chef, personal trainer, and architect all responded with indignation; watch their reactions in the 2.5-minute video above.
More than a few articles have been written on the detrimental effects of working for free in the photo industry. Unsurprisingly, the same issue has raged on for years in the writing community. But I didn’t expect to see the issue percolate in my Facebook feed in relation to the circus industry.
Editor’s note: This video contains strong language that is not suitable for some environments. In 2007, famed science fiction …
A strongly worded letter has gotten a surprising amount of attention in photograpy circles recently.
It was written by UK musician Whitey (aka. NJ White) in response to a TV producer who requested to use his work for free, and it's gotten popular because, even though it was written by a musician, photographers really seem to love Whitey's no BS response to a request many of them are familiar with.