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!!
If you think there’s gatekeeping your brain would have melted trying to get information in the photography industry 15 years ago. As with practically every industry, there has never been more access to niche information than THIS. EXACT. MOMENT. Photography education has been commoditized to the point of inducing eye rolls and in depth-discussions on every photography topic are available in blog, podcast, and video format. People not responding to your messages (that are probably largely landing in the often ignored General folder) isn’t gatekeeping, it’s people avoiding spending their time responding to questions from strangers. As someone who has produced 300+ videos on photography, responding to comments on those videos with paragraphs, and detailed photography concepts and camera settings in thousands of posts across social media - if I don’t feel like responding to your message on the basis that you’re not entitled to my time…Deal. With. It. As for information on the concert photography industry? I remember being appalled at the lack of value associated with photographing a late 2000’s Warped Tour, and now all those bands are at the “When We Were Young” tour. The industry of live music photography blows and has blown since I’ve been a photographer (circa 2008). Honestly I wouldn’t be shocked if a large reason that you’re not getting responses on how people succeed in the industry is because none of them are actually succeeding in the industry. That being said, looks like Todd Owyoung of Ishootshows.com still blogs to this day. Bless his soul. Maybe you could find some valuable insight from someone who’s been blogging about the business of concert photography since 2007?