Notice: This post is made out of frustration and you can leave your thoughts and anger here too.
I am 25, female, german and a freelance photographer. Since a year I am trying to get into concert photograpy with pay. The first 10 concerts I did of course for free to build my portfolio but now I reached the point where I want to get real jobs and some respect for my work.
But as many fellows know it is a hard world out there and you have to give 200% effort to get 2% chance on landing a job. So one of my strategies were writing pm‘s to concert photographers on instagram with the question if they could be so kind and spill the tea about experiences in the business.
Guess what? The answers were vague and short or you would get ignored. Further it would stop at telling the simple thing of which lens they used. I get it that everyone has their own style and tries to protect it but you can nit be replaced that quickly by just helping one out with some info.
Can someone tell me about similar experiences?
Is there someone who is not afraid of giving informations about this photography sector?
I would really like to not feel alone anymore with this behavior.
Thanks guys!
Summary: Freelance photographer trying to get into concert sector but struggles to get paid jobs. Succesfull photographers won‘t have a conversation about their experiences. Hence their the biggest gatekeepers in my opinion!!
Concert photography is probably the worst sector if you want to get paid. Here in Belgium it's almost all voluntary work. Even people I know from organisations like 'Concert Photographers United' and 'Dansende Beren' don't get paid.
There are exceptions like if the band pays you to tour with them. A newspaper pays you to shoot a concert. Or become a paid in-house photographer for a concert hall. Selling prints is probably your best bet. They might not be gatekeeping, they might not get paid themselves.
Probably a very similar situation all over europe. I have been doing photography professionally for over 10 years in 2 countries and during my career I have met a total of 0 freelance concert photographers, who have got paid for it. The exceptions you mentioned do exist, but even for them the concerts are usually just a fraction of what they actually do for work.
Concert aftermovies can get you pocket change occasionally if you're good at making videos, but the concert photography market is absolutely saturated with free shooters, so there's practically no demand for paid work.
Thanks for your inside. I have lived in Belgium , Antwerp for a couple years as a matter of fact. I did not know this about the organisations… I know it is the worst sector for earning money but it is a the most fun to do in my opinion.
As for shooting for free: There were some comments already on shaming ‚us‘ free photographers because we make the market even more competive as it already is. There is no right way to do it haha…
This is probably the rule almost everywhere with some exceptions and indian classical music can be one of them. The debut concert or first time a student does a full length solo performance can be a big deal. Sometimes parents will go the whole nine yards and pay for lobby decorations and a catered dinner for the guests. In this case where the parents are paying for it as a mile stone event they will pay for studio photos for the fliers and the invitations before the event and then also pay for a photographer to shoot the concert event itself. This is an even bigger deal with indian classical dance schools for debut full length solo performances. So getting connected with a school that has a lot of students can actually work out pretty well if you are the photographer the teacher or the director of the school refers to the parents to hire when their students reach the level to do this. This isn't the only source of income for me but it is a considerable part of my business.