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How to market photography – Part 2

Published On Tuesday, March 16, 2010 By Mark. Under: Photography Tips. Tags: 35mm Slides, Art Form, Cover Of A Magazine, Creative Work, Darkroom Techniques, Film Camera, How To Develop Black And White Film, Kodak Brownie Camera, Letters Of Inquiry, Little Kid, Nikkormat El, Personal Issues, Photographic Work, Photographic World, Photography Career, Plain Dumb Luck, Professional Photographer, Screeching Halt, Submission Policies, Unity Magazine

I’m by no means a newbie to the photographic

world, as I’ve been involved with this art form in one way or another just about my whole life going back to when I was a little kid and using my mother’s old Kodak Brownie camera.

It wasn’t until 1977, however, when I got my first 35mm film camera, a Nikkormat EL-W that the idea began to circulate in my mind that I would love to make a living out of photography. I took a number of classes at The New School here in New York, learning darkroom techniques, that is, how to develop black and white film and to develop prints. Now I was really hooked…there was no question about it now, it was full steam ahead in going after a bona fide career and profession as a professional photographer.

It took me about three years, but once I had a fairly adequate collection of images, I decided to approach a number of magazines by sending out letters of inquiry for submission policies, and to inquire also, if there were specific images they were looking for at that present time.

I don’t know what it was, perhaps just plain dumb luck, since I had only been just starting in the sending out my portfolios of my 35mm slides, and of course keeping my fingers crossed all the time to hear of any good news, when I learned that my one of my photos was to be to be published on the cover of a magazine (April 1980 issue of Unity Magazine).

From there on, I was regularly published, that is until roughly 1996, when several family and personal issues came up and my photography career came to a screeching halt. Well, it was only a few years ago, even though some of the issues that stopped my work hadn’t been resolved, that I could no longer put my creative work aside. I wanted to work again! I started to reach out and contact my former “contacts” that had published me in the past, as I figured this would be a great place to start.

Well all I can say is that those number of years that I wasn’t involved with my photographic work has cost me dearly and I was in for some rude awakenings. It’s like, here I am, needing to learn the business of photography all over again from squat.

I’m writing this this article, in a sense, for all of you who want to embark on the endeavor of marketing your own photographic work, and just exactly what you’re in for. Like all the artistic endeavors, photography was every bit as competitive when I was actively involved years ago. However, back then, it was much more likely that a photographer