• Skip to content

Primary

  • Portfolio Overview
  • Selected photography projects
  • On Photography
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Back
  • City of London
  • Creative Londoners
  • Henley Royal Regatta
  • Margate – English Seaside
  • Whitechapel Mission
  • Social Landscape of Contemporary Life
  • Street Photography of London
  • Guangzhou, China
  • What is British?

Michael Wayne Plant

Primary

  • Portfolio Overview
  • Selected photography projects
    • City of London
    • Creative Londoners
    • Henley Royal Regatta
    • Margate – English Seaside
    • Whitechapel Mission
    • Social Landscape of Contemporary Life
    • Street Photography of London
    • Guangzhou, China
    • What is British?
  • On Photography
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Follow us

Follow us on TwitterLike us on FacebookConnect with us on LinkedinFollow us on Instagram
AuthorPostedbyMichael Wayne Planton November 16, 2015

Making photography pay

I recently had bit of a light bulb moment in relation to who to approach with regards to making money, when doing my photography. I have for a long time been interested in the way capitalism works and live in London, whereas I know that the City of London, is one of the centres for global capitalism, I didn’t for some reason think about working for the financial industry and making that an aspect of my work. I have for a long time, been looking for a market that I can sell my photography to. I have an area of work that I like but I struggled for a long time looking for a market. In the teaching that I do, I tell my students to look into themselves and work out what there interests are. To find the thing that they love or hate and make that the subject for their photography. That subject, which gives you the photographer an editorial (magazines) market and advertisers who can also become your clients. It sounds easy, yet in practice the finding of the market for an interest can be a little harder. I was struggling for a while but clarity has struck and I now have a way forward. This is going to be exciting, I have been developing a specific portfolio, that will let me get the work that I need, to gain access to the places, where I want to photograph.

I have also been having a think about websites, as not so long ago I removed my portrait website and redirected that domain to this website, I know why I have multiple websites it is about branding and functions. This website is my social documentary website, where I do not retouch images and yet on the other website, a commercial website, I use photoshop and retouch my portrait images, to give them an editorial quality. On this website, I will never put up any retouched images, the only things that I do to images on this site is to manage brightness, colour casts, tonalities, highlights, shadow details, etc.  In other words, what I could have done in a darkroom to make an image look how I saw it, that is when I was making it with my camera. Yet, if I want to attract commercial clients and they want to see polished i.e. photoshopped images, then I need another website to show that work on. It does not have to be a big site, as this website is my primary focus for my marketing and promotion for myself as a photographer.

The third website, that I use is www.photographyworkshopslondon.com on which, I discuss aspects of photography and this website I discuss capitalism and economics from my perspective as a social docmpumentary photographer. So, I have relaunched my www.mwplant.com website, as a portfolio website with one aim, that is to show retouched polished editorial and/or commercial images, which will appeal to people working in the finance industry.

So, back to my subject heading as a photographer for some time now I have struggled with how to make money as a photographer, I do not see how to make documentary photography make much money, but I can see how to combine my documentary photography skills and my portrait photography skills to enable me to use this in an area that I want to know much more about and that is the one industry in London that seems to keep growing and that is the finance industry. I am able to do events, portraits and other things, so if I have put a new portfolio together correctly, then I will be in a great position to enable me to earn enough money to let me live, life in London, while still being able to make social documentary images that are not dependant on money from clients.

 

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Post navigation

Previous
Next

© 2022MINIMAL

Follow us

Follow us on TwitterLike us on FacebookConnect with us on LinkedinFollow us on Instagram
x
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT