When you read a lot of “Best Business Practices For Photographers” posts you will notice a number of reoccurring messages. The one that stands out most to me is this: Don’t market to other photographers, they don’t buy photographs.
And it’s true for the most part, from my experience. A lot of my connections on social media platforms tend to be other photographers, both professional and amateur. Often when posting photos I see feedback from other photographers, or re-tweets or shares. These are great for the ego but don’t often relate to more business.
The mantra from those marketing experts is to ignore the other photographers in your pack and market to the buyers. And I agree with part of that manta, about marketing to the buyers.
But I also have made a personal effort to buy work from other photographers, sometimes to my wife’s chagrin. She tends to like photos on our walls of places we have been or experiences we have had. I like this too and enjoy walking around our house to look at the art on the walls.
And yet, I understand what the gal in the booth at a Saturday market is going through. I know how good it feels to receive an email from my website stating someone made a purchase. I know the backbone of a lot of photographers’ income is from print sales.
That’s why I try, as often as practical, to purchase other photographers’ work. I recently posted about a number of photographers whose work I thought you might enjoy. I’m going to go a step further and encourage you, today, to make a purchase from a photographer you enjoy.
It certainly need not be me, but if you are inclined, my work can be found here and here. Some others I would suggest, who weren’t covered in the link above, include: Russ Bishop, Michael Russell, Alex Noriega, Gary Crabbe, Alexander S Kunz, Anne McKinnell, Pete Miller and Patrick Gensel, just to name a few.
These photographers are people I follow and whose work I admire. They put out quality iamges and I am now going to go make a purchase myself. I encourage you, fellow photographer, to do the same.
(Note: As a point of transparency, I receive no commission on any sales from these photographers. They are just good people making great products. They don’t even know I have crafted this post including them.)