By David Gewirtz
Here at Connected Photographer, we like to bring you information straight from leading experts on various photographic topics. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Andy Patrick, a social entrepreneur and CEO of liveBooks, a resource for photographers. In this interview, we'll cover issues ranging from how you can promote your photography to how we can all save the planet. Never say we don't think big.
David:Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background
"...social cause organizations ... a positive impact on the human condition."
Andy:
Well, I would say that there are several themes that have run throughout my life. One is that of an entrepreneur, another being my passion for photography and over the past fourteen years or so I've been actively involved in the development of social cause organizations striving to make a positive impact on the human condition.
I'm currently the CEO and President of liveBooks. When Michael Costuros, the founder of liveBooks, and I first started talking about my involvement with the company, I was taken by our similar passions and commitment to building organizations based on trust and integrity.
We share a vision for building something greater than beautiful Web sites for photographers. Our goals include the building of long-term relationships with photographers that help them grow their businesses, become more efficient, get better clients, and expose their creative genius.
During the initial dot-com era, I led the growth of a company called Adjacency. We built award-winning e-business Web sites for companies such as Apple Computer, Patagonia, Virgin Megastores, Esprit and Nordstrom, Rollerblade and LandRover. Adjacency was acquired by the public company Sapient in early 1999.
On the social activism side of things, I was the founder and Executive Director of the Mad Housers of Chicago which built small living units for homeless individuals, and was a founding board member of the highly successful magazine StreetWise, which has sold over $10 million in copies by homeless individuals, 75% which goes directly to the seller.
In 2001, I founded FiftyCrows Foundation and committed my time and substantial resources to the support of documentary photographers and the distribution of their important photographic essays. In addition, I am a Founding Board Member of National Geographic Society's All Roads photography program which supports indigenous photographers documenting their own cultures.
David:Wow. That's quite a resume. Let's get started on a topic near and dear to most photographers' hearts: getting known. If you're getting started and you want to promote your photography, what are some of your options?
Andy:Before we talk about promoting a photographer's work, I think we need to talk about what it takes to succeed as a professional photographer. With the rise of personal publishing and Internet communications there is more and more competition. This means that you not only need to create good images, but you need to ensure that you know how to run a business, build a brand and, in the end, build equity in that brand through promotion and visibility.
Photographers, like many other business professionals, have several choices and outlets for promoting their brand such as direct mail, the Yellow pages, print advertising, online listings and they certainly should not underestimate the power of referrals.
In most types of photography, it is important when starting out to explore multiple avenues for promotion but the important thing is to provide a clear destination for your promotions. In today's world, having a Web site is probably the best, most cost effective way to introduce oneself at the end of a promotion.
In photography, a photographer's brand is his or her creative vision, and being visual in nature, it is critical for people to experience this vision without distraction. For this reason, it is critical to build a Web site that emphasizes the photography and is easy to view and not cluttered with lots of distractions. A well-designed Web site is something that photographers can use to promote their work, their brand and can serve as a calling card that works on their behalf 24/7, every day of the year.
Years ago, jobs were won or lost through direct interactions between the photographer and their client. Today, most of those meetings do not even take place without the client first reviewing work online. Now the challenge is to reach a more diverse set of buyers without possibly knowing where the next opportunity lies.
This changes the question to become "how many jobs didn't you get because of your Web site?" Without question, a good online portfolio is the best promotional tool and representation of a brand that a photographer can have today.
David:What are the various categories of photographers and how can a given reader tell which category he or she might fit into?
Andy:There are literally dozens of "categories" of photographers (or photography) but I think most photographers have a pretty good understanding of which category or categories they fall into. Some of the most common categories include fashion, wedding, portrait, photojournalism and documentary, food photography, commercial illustration and advertising.
It used to be that all photographers specialized in one category or another, but today photographers have a vision and they carry this out across various disciplines and categories of photography. Many photographers specialize in more than one area and have personal interests in others.
This means that the problem isn't necessarily identifying which category your work belongs in but how you bring all the work together while still conveying a clear message to prospective buyers.
That is exactly what liveBooks does for its clients. We provide custom Web site creation, management and marketing services for photographers requiring a rich, image-intensive online presence. Using our tools photographers are able to control all the content on their Web site allowing them to tell the story that most clearly defines their creative vision.
This includes defining the organization of their work, the pairing of images and the naming and order of their content pages. In addition, the time spent on the custom design and the general look and feel of their site, also aligns to this vision.
David:What are the commonalities that cut across the various disciplines of photography?
Andy:The commonalities that cut across various disciplines of photography have more to do with what most photographers want to share with their audience as opposed to the common aspects of the images themselves.
It is difficult to find a common "theme" between a news photo and a commercial advertising photo. However, both photographers are creating a "message" with their images. The news photographer may want to convey the need for social change with an image while the commercial advertising photographer is trying to get you to buy his client's product or service.
They both have a common need to share their images in a manner that is exciting and compelling and that is what a liveBooks Web site can do for all types of photographers.
David:You told me a great story about a portfolio and the iPod. What was that about?
Andy:Technology is playing a major role in the photographic industry today. It used to be that technology was mentioned in photography specifically when talking about how a photographer captured their images either on film or digital. Now, with the growth of digital imaging both on the professional and consumer level, there are many other ways that technology is affecting the profession.
We already talked about the importance of an online presence to effectively promote oneself and there is no doubt that this is a requirement. Other technological advancements are also playing a role in how photographers conduct business.
It used to be that a photographer took images for a client but then it was a week or more before the client saw these images based on the time to process the film. Now, clients can see images immediately on a digital back or through quick download to a computer. There are even companies that allow the images to be transferred wirelessly from the camera to the computer.
Lately, we have been hearing of photographers who are using iPods in interesting ways. As you probably know, the higher end iPods also allow photo and video viewing on the iPod. Some photographers are using this as a way to send proofs of their images to their clients.
For proofing purposes, this screen may be ok in size (although small) but you can also connect an iPod easily to a television for larger viewing. This means that without a computer or an Internet connection clients or potential clients have the ability to review your work just from a lightweight, easy-to-use iPod.
David:Makes sense. I carry my entire portfolio on my Treo phone and so everything's always with me, no matter where I happen to be. What other promotional tools might you need beyond a Web site?
Andy:While a great Web site is probably the best promotional tool a photographer will ever own, especially with the Internet being the primary source of information, the more traditional forms of promotional materials continue to play an important role for photographers.
Although more and more photographers are being booked directly from their liveBooks Web sites, especially in the areas of commercial photography and wedding photography, there is still a need in some cases to show printed work to finalize a booking.
This means that fashion, commercial, editorial, interior and other photographers still should have one or two high quality printed portfolios for distribution to the potential buyer who still does not feel comfortable booking from web images alone. Similarly, many couples still want to have a face-to-face meeting with their potential photographer during which they will review not only images from previous weddings but also sample albums and other components to the overall wedding photographer's package.
In addition to these items, photographers need to determine the most effective way to get their name and url out there. This may be through the creation of promo postcards, a newsletter, or their blog. There is no one silver bullet and these other promotional devices vary depending on the type of photography, geographical location and the photographer's existing world-of-mouth.
David:Let's switch gears for a minute. Tell us about "FiftyCrows Crows".
Andy:In mid-2000, at an important crossroads in my life, I visited my childhood home in Ohio. One particularly restless night, I went to bed asking what was next for me. How would my life and career experiences lead me on the right path into the future?
Early that next morning I awoke to the cacophony of cawing outside my window. When I pulled back the drapes to view the commotion, I found the tree filled with "about fifty crows", and they were all staring directly at me. They continued their "message" for another ten minutes.
I knew this was a sign. I could feel the importance of this natural event, yet didn't understand the meaning. My wife, Lilly, suggested we look up the significance of the Crow in the tarot-like deck of the "Animal Medicine Cards" based on Native American traditions.
In Native American ways, "medicine" refers to anything that improves one's connection to the Great Mystery and to all life. With Crow Medicine one must speak in a powerful voice when addressing issues that seem out of harmony, out of balance, or unjust. Crow Medicine assists one in speaking one's truth, and balancing the past, present and future in the now. Crow guides the way by flying a straight path toward a world in harmony and peace. That's what I needed to do.
So, you may wonder, how does the Crow guide the mission of FiftyCrows Foundation?
I find that in-depth photography essays offer insights that a single image cannot. It's harder to stray from the truth, since the evidence presented in a story put together with images can't be disputed. Documentary photography is part of the straight path to the truth, as the crow flies. Powerful medicine indeed.
Like Crow did that morning, FiftyCrows hopes to wake us up to the realities of the world and allow us to come together to find a promised path towards peace and harmony.
So, FiftyCrows acquired the International Fund for Documentary Photography, an annual grants competition for documentary photographers around the world. The Photo Fund, as we call it, was started at Mother Jones Magazine by a great group of journalists and photographers such as Ken Light, Michelle Vignes, Kerry Tremain, Sebastiao Salgado, Marc Riboud and Mary Ellen Mark and many others.
We expanded the competition, started a gallery in San Francisco, have created award-winning short films about photographers, partnered with National Geographic and continue to bring about awareness of important issues from around the world.
Andy has a lot of information to share. Next week, we'll let him dive deep into liveBooks and we'll learn both how it might help you promote your own photography and learn more about the inner workings of the site itself.