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!!
I worked with a guy who toured with a bunch of bands back in the late 90s/ early 2000s. To hear him tell it, when Napster came about and the music industry had to reorganize itself, the money/demand for anything outside just the music dried up. That was kinda the last hayday for that sort of gig, at least full time.
Now it seems to be more about connections. For example, the few concert gigs I've done over the years came from referrals from corporate events/headshots. Granted, the people I work for never explicitly marketed for concert photography, so take that as you will.
I'd say it comes down to doing your craft well, getting in front of the right people through connections, and marketing yourself well enough that you get your work seen by the people you want to hire you. Music photography is kind of like fashion in the sense that a lot of people want and do that job but only a handful make a living doing explicitly just that one thing.