Photography

It’s a hard genre in photography because it’s so niche and narrow and easily affected by circumstances (as an example the pandemic). It’s also not a lot of money in it as long as you don’t get hired by a band/artist to tour with. But! I can give you a great source of information in this darkness, there is a podcast called “No Gatekeeper” by British concert photographer Jordan Curtis Hughes that is great, the podcast really lives up to its name! Jordan is The 1975 official photographer (concerts and other) and he + other concert photographer friends are in these 12 episodes plus listeners who get to ask their questions on these episodes. Hope this helps!

I suggest you get a book instead of wasting time messaging people who don't care to help a fellow photographer. https://www.amazon.de/s?k=concert+photography&__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=1FY05BYW3XMYV&sprefix=concert+photography%2Caps%2C245&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

i am a photographer for a major entertainment brand. i get about 10 of these questions a day. if i met one of them in person and they asked, id talk shop all day.

Probably going to get flak for this.

The reason gatekeeping exists is because anyone can do photography. Some people want to think of themselves as a special person, but the reality is that we're all drops of water in a huge ocean.

I personally hate photography snobs. They're worse than most of the serious clay shooters(shotguns for anyone unfamiliar) and competitive archers I've met in life.

I don't do photography as a main career. This allows me to undercut the competition by offering cut prices and free photoshoots. I took 1000+ photos for someone for a 1.5 hour photoshoot. I only charged $40. I usually do these kinds of things for free because I love photography and pissing off jerks.

The sad realization is that every professional field is difficult to crack into, no matter what you specialize in.

It is not just in photography that you find gatekeepers. All industries have that to some extent. Those photographers who are getting the paid gigs have a track record that, as you are discovering, took time, effort, sacrifice, etc. They are reluctant to "give" away their secret sauce to their competition. I teach photography, my students are not my immediate competition, so I can share and advise. You are literally asking what you need to know so you can put them out of business. Does that seem fair to them? I hope you keep at it, but I don't see much of a chance they will change. They are not being mean, they are protecting their livelihood.

There is a photographer that I respect that is totally out of my market (in Ukraine, actually) who was doing an amazing shot unlike anything I'd seen duplicated that I wanted some details on figuring out.

I found his email, stated that I admired his work, asked for his venmo, and asked if he'd be willing to give me the details of his lighting setup for $100. He was incredibly helpful :)

He probably would have helped me for free, but I wanted the information because I wanted to make money from it, so I felt it was only fair to pay for it.

Photographers aren’t nice on social media. People in general aren’t really nice on social media. It’s really off putting I understand your frustrations all too well. My biggest tip would be to avoid Reddit and instagram as resources and maybe go to a concert and make small talk with the photographer. I’ve only had one unpleasant interaction with a concert photographer in person. Maybe try to find local photography groups. It’s really overwhelming being new to professional photography and having nowhere to start and having in person resources is always the best way to go.

This isn’t gatekeeping or anything specific to photography. I bet if you contacted anyone on instagram (or anywhere for that matter) and asked a bunch of random questions, you’d get a similarly low rate of reply.

Um, you are in a competitive market that is hard to land paying jobs for and you are shocked that other people you do not personally know are being vague or simply not giving you information on how to land jobs? You do understand you are their competition and every job that you land is one that they can not; basically them helping you to succeed is taking money out of their own pockets.

It is not gatekeeping it is protecting their own jobs and paychecks.

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.

I’ve heard this so many times and I shake my head every time.

Oh you shot a whole TEN concerts to build your portfolio and now you want money and respect?

And if you don’t start getting some jobs soon you will whinge on the internet that people are ‘gatekeeping’?

You probably have no idea how entitled, lazy, and frankly detached from reality that sounds.

Kids these days…

I think a lot of photographers are gatekeepers, I see it a *lot* in landscape photography with people talking about how their locations etc are secret, moaning about tourists and instagram photographers etc.

I was a little concerned about it when I started to shoot music regularly, but have found at least in my scene the gig photographers are all very welcoming and friendly and help each other out a lot.

However yeh what you described is not gatekeeping, thats just people not going out of their way to help a stranger who seems to have a misunderstanding of social boundaries. Reaching out is fine but you arent entitled to their time.

What could they tell you, that you can’t find in a YouTube video or a quick search on the internet? It’s not their responceability to teach you anything!! So I don’t get your point of view.

I’m not a concert photographer, but recently retired after many years doing commercial photography. Here are some thoughts though.

I went to school with a guy who became the biggest rock photographer in Australia and when we last met he told me his story. I’m not surprised the photographers you contacted didn’t want to share their secrets. It’s a paparazzi type job and competition is fierce.

My friend left school a long time before you were born. He became a cook on a cruise ship. As he was traveling the world, he decided to buy a nice camera to record his travels. He was also very interested in rock music so he took the camera to concerts. I think he must have placed his pictures with an agent, because one day an agent said he had sold a picture. So, he just kept shooting and selling pics. It was so easy then to get access to bands. There were no contracts and none of the bands were bothered about what images he produced. Later, when promoters started demanding photographers sign right of approval and limited access contracts etc. he said he signed them all and just ignored them.

He became very successful, toured the world with top name bands like the rolling stones and shot album covers and publicity. When digital came out, he was able to digitize his library and improve a lot of the previous rejects he had through editing to expand his commercial library even more. He ended up as something of a celebrity himself.

If you asked him the secret of his success he would say being in the right place as the right time, just doing what he loved, and luck. I think his career formed back in an easier time, before social media and less competition.

Can you just not do a hausbildung with a local pro photographer?

You'll support their work, understand the craft, their methods, and access their network.

The key thing is that they'll get something in return, too.

The entitlement in this post is real.

Why would they help the competition? This is capitalism, you sink or swim.

I completely understand where you're coming from. It might seem frustrating, but look at it from the perspective of the people you're contacting. They're spent years developing their craft, figuring out everything they need to do to make it in that very niche genre, and this new photographer comes along and wants all of their knowledge. What are YOU offering them? Are you offering to shadow them for free, and do assistant work? Are you offering them money for coaching? Are you offering them ANYTHING at all other than a 'thanks!'? Knowledge in the grand scheme of things may seem free, but someone's time and talent isn't. Reciprocity is also very much a huge thing. Given the current economic climate everyone in the world is dealing with, it's hard to do things for so little, or for free, without something beneficial in return.

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Also, I'd suggest that you reach out their their email, not IG. Explain that you would love to shadow them, work for free for them, or pay them. There's valuable lessons learned when shadowing a professional. There's also the option of contacting the management of bands you might like, local first, then move on from there. Offer to shoot for them during local concerts. Talk with venues, and promoters as well, they may be able to help you with getting a pass to shoot.Also look into people like Jeremy Saffer, who offers workshops on this. Or, just get out there and keep shooting. Set up an amazing website and blog, and showcase your best. Gear isn't as important as understanding the situation you're in, the lighting, and how to tackle it. You have to develop a keen eye for this sort of thing, and grow as an artist.

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With that said, concert photography may or may not be sustainable depending on how well you put yourself out there, and make yourself known.A lot of bands choose to stick with the same photographer for tours. So, if you could get in tight with a band that tours, and they want you for said tour, awesome. But personally, find something that you want to shoot that will sustain your business overall, and leave the concert photography to a side gig, or hobby.

No one needs to gatekeep in photography. It's a hugely over-saturated field.

I’m not even someone with a huge insta following or anything and about every other month I get an account that purports to be a young female photographer who wants to chat about photography and it’s inevitably spam. I might reply if it looks like a real person, but even then, it’s usually some variety of scam. Basically every time I’ve had a worthwhile interaction with someone I don’t know on there, we’ve known a mutual person who we’ve connected through.

Like, just two days ago I got a message from someone saying she was a photographer and asking me to check out her portfolio—with an onlyfans link. I’m just not going to put a ton of effort into reading or responding to stuff from folks I don’t know, and I’m not gatekeeping photography so much as my time.

The German concert industry is very insular regardless of which angle you try to probe it.

Not all but many photographers feel they have to protect their contracts and clients from being poached. Its a shitty phobic way of life but if the difference between me paying my rent and helping a complete stranger... well, you'll probably do the same if you manage to get a pinkie in the door.

Trotz, ich drucke die Daume.

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?

So many good comments here. One small thing to add is that the folks who reply may be giving you vague answers because the answers really are vague. Some of the things you want to achieve don't have a simple or direct formula, and those who succeed do so in part by being attentive to and seizing on idiosyncratic opportunities. There is no way they can tell you how to replicate that, because not even they could replicate it. Not to say that there are not broad strategies (lots of experienced folks here have described some of them), but there is no simple and precise trick that will get you what you want. Most fields involving creativity or entrepreneurship are like that. Think of it like this: what if you pmed folks and asked them to tell you "how to make great art." What if someone asked you that question? Probably, your answer would be vague. It would have to be, right? So it is with these kinds of career questions.