A New York Rep

Top 5 things to do to piss off an agent you want to impress

By Kristina Snyder

Inspired by Photshelter's recent post about pissed off photo editors.

1. Be way to familiar. If you think striking up a familial tone is helpful in establishing a level field, you are wrong, so wrong. True example - “Hey Kristina, how are these hard scrabble economic time treating you and what marketing strategies are you using to reach your clients?” I replied that I thought this email was rude and to please not contact me again, after which the photographer ranted at me via email.

2. Don’t do your research. I get countless emails from photographer all around the world that think I work with fashion photographers. I think this means they are not really looking on my site very carefully. And that wastes my time.

3. Send over-sized and not requested portfolios. I got a huge FedEx package that contained a large metal film reel case, which in turn contained a fabric slipcase with two books featuring not very interesting photography. I have no idea why the photographer chose me to receive this gem, a phone call in advance would have saved him money and embarrassment.

4. Become indignant when asked to remove from email list. Needs to explanation I think. It is annoying.

5. Make a time-wasting cold call. Email with link to website that has PICTURES is the best way to reach out. A breathlessly delivered and hurried (because the caller knows I want to hang up) phone call is not.

A Good Book

 

I recently took part in a portfolio review at Contact Photo Festival in Toronto. I saw a photographer there who signed up to have his book reviewed. He is established in Canada, but I did not know about him.
He presented his portfolio, your generic black book, and showed me what I thought was a sort of mish mash of all kinds of styles.
It is a month ago so I can not remember exactly what he had in there, but it ranged from say, corporate portraits to a bit of interiors to moody portraits. The expression “all over the place” comes to mind. That is what I told him. My advice was to spruce up the presentation a bit, and make the content more cohesive, present a vision, how he sees, to make people want to hire him for his unique view.
He then pulled out another book, a beautiful presentation in a custom made binder, and some of the work was part of a series that he had been working on, other images were from a different body of work but matched perfectly with the overall. The work was strong, and showed of a unique photographic expression, and it was memorable and made an impression on me. I still think about one of those images. It was the kind of book that would make me want to hire him for a campaign (if I had one that matched) if I were an art director.
I was kind of surprised and asked him why there was such a difference in the two books. He said that he thought presenting a lot of different styles would be good to show the reviewers what he could do. I could not disagree more – and I felt bad about being negative about the first book afterwards.
This whole experience highlights what I see a lot when I look at books, and I call it The Wedding Singer syndrome.
When you are a wedding singer you sing songs other people want you to sing. When you  join an original band, you sing your songs.
Often photographers put things in their books that they think people want to see, or things that back up the notion that they have a lot of experience (..and I have done This, and This, and This..). When it really is about inspiring a thought, a spark, and giving creative people ideas by showing them a body of work. Showing your credentials is important sometimes, but I would like to think that people will trust a strong creative mind and that is what you need to show.
Here is my advice.
* Ask for help to decide what your strongest work is, and weed out work that may be impressive but is shot in a style that is not your thing anymore. Often photographers put in work that is a few years old, and I find that it invariably shows. I can almost always tell what work is the most recent, it has the most energy and therefore it is better. Beware of mixing really great work with not so great – I find that it weakens the overall.
* Select work for your book that presents your vision, your unique style, and gear it toward the kind of work you would like to in the future somewhat. Think about inspiring somebody (an art director, a photo editor, a creative director) as opposed to impressing somebody.
* Keep your head clear. Everybody will have a different opinion about the direction your book should have, but it is most important what you think and what you like.
* If you don’t have enough work – then shoot until you do. You must shoot new work.
* Know thyself. Think about your portfolio as a whole. Let the outside match the inside and ultimately, let it match you. Beware of overstating and embellishing too much, trust the image.
* Take your time. Putting a book together can sometimes be a long process. But if your expression is strong it can be easy on the other hand.
* Do your research. If you can, look at what other photographers have done with their books for inspiration. Portfolio reviews can also be inspiring, and get you information on what other people think. Be prepared to take some critique. Most often the reviewers are people that see a lot of work.

Think about quitting the wedding band. When you are ready to do those original songs hopefully people will listen.

E-promotions

Jeanine Fijol at Photo District News has a post about e-mail promotions on the PDN blog here.

Jeanine looks at the daily crop of promo emails and chooses her favorites.

How to approach a rep

I am amazed at how hard it seems to be to strike the right tone in soliciting an artist rep. I get a lot of email from photographers and illustrators, a few most every day, and sometimes the work is not right, but most if the time something in the way the email is written just lets me know not to bother to go to a website. If you can't spell celebrity correctly it is a huge tip off.

Here is the best "cold" email I have gotten:

"I am a Swedish illustrator looking for a rep. I have looked a lot a lot of websites and I find them all very boring.
Your website is like drinking a tall glass of water after 10 martinis.
Would you like to work with me?"

Amazingly, I did. I said yes on the spot, not only because I loved the work, but also because it summed up how I feel about most illustration out there. I don't know, maybe it was just flattery, but it worked.

Here is another great email - it helped that the work was great.

"Dear Kristina

My name is XXX and I am a Swedish born photographer working in XXX and currently relocating to New York.
I am only looking into seeing a select few Agencies for representation and would appreciate 15-20 minutes of your time to show my work.

Your roster is impressive, and I see you have quite a few Swedish artists some of whom I met many years ago.
My work could hopefully add to that mix."

This photographer told me he had an art director from New York help him formulate this email. Most importantly, he did his research. He spelled my name correctly and went to my website and had a look. We did not end up working together in the end, but we became good friends.

Yes, I know, the examples are both from Swedish artists, but that is a coincidence.

Here are a few tips on getting in the door.

1. Sit down with a source book like LeBook or even Workbook and go to every single reps website, weed out the ones that do not have work in your vein, and the ones that you don't like. If you shoot fashion, approach the reps that clearly have fashion clients and photographers that shoot fashion. 10 strong leads are better then 50 weak ones.

2. Be realistic, don't fish. If you are a photographer mid-career living in Italy or India, chances are a New York rep will not be remotely interested in you. Reps are interested in talent living abroad only if you have a strong advertising or editorial career that can warrant a similar career in the US. Sure, it costs nothing to send an email to see what happens, but it is probably a waste of your time.

3. Craft a polite email, addressing the rep by first name. Point out your achievements like books published, recent campaigns and personal projects. Include a link to your site.

4. If you do get in the door, and you do get seen, realize that we may always look but we don't always buy. That does not mean that a spot opens up later, the rep may not have space in the roster or may feel that you need to work on your book a bit. Ask if it's OK to keep in touch with sporadic emailed images, a friendly hello now and then. Then remember to follow up if you are interested.

5. Be prepared to take criticism. It is human to hope that you have enormous undiscovered talent waiting to be mined, but chances are you can be better with a bit of work. Reps often have the commercial perspective that you don't.