#17. Beyond the Brief: The Work Without an Invoice
We all have to start somewhere. I got fortunate enough after college to land a job with a studio as a full-time assistant to two great photographers. One of them became a mentor and a really good friend that I still talk to weekly. I had full access to all the gear I could imagine and this is where I started to build my first real portfolio. That portfolio of work got me my first real commercial job, and it wasn’t built with paid work.
Hours and hours in the studio staying late after jobs and even coming in on weekends to learn how to shoot drinks, bottles, splashes and food. No one was hiring me to do this work, no client waiting for final files. Just me, the studio and a drive to figure it out and build something I was proud to show.
This all eventually led to a spec shoot with an agency. That spec shoot ended up landing a national holiday campaign for Bacardi. I was still really green, but I had put in the work to land the gig. Experience is the greatest teacher and man did I learn a lot on that one.
This did however convince me the importance of personal projects for us as creatives and how important they are to our business.
Over the years my focus has naturally shifted. Early on it was exploring, figuring out what I liked, what I was naturally pretty good at and what kind of photographer and creative I wanted to become. I have thousands of images that have never seen the light of day and that’s fine. It’s all part of the process. Where I am now is nothing like where I started. I also know that where I am now is going to change and develop to what I will be in the future. It’s all part of the natural growth and development as an artist. The personal, or self assigned, projects I am doing is the thing that keeps that progression moving forward.
When I started the Ground Glass Project, it came out of the need to reconnect with people after all of the lockdowns during COVID. It was also a great way to reconnect with the large format cameras I cherished during the early years of my journey as a photographer. I tell you what, photographing 99 people with this camera slows things down a lot and teaches you about working with people that no other job would. This also produced a body of work that was very different from anything else on the website, and that was a good thing. It showed a different side of creativity and a glimpse into another side of who I am. It also opened up conversations with clients and the possibility of how we could incorporate this style into their brand.
When we started the project for the APDA, it was more of a way to give back to the organization that had been so helpful to my family over the years. Somewhere along the way it became something with a real purpose and real impact for those living with Parkinson’s. It also gave us the portfolio to start the conversations in areas we would have never been able to before we did this project. For me it was a win/win scenario.
I know I’ve mentioned it already, but we’re in the final stages of the documentary about a close friend who had a heart transplant and his recovery through cycling. This project is us pushing into a longer format documentary form of storytelling. This will again push up into new rooms with people we couldn’t have been able to talk to before.
The point of all of this is these projects that never had a paycheck associated with them are worth more than a paycheck. Just like my portfolio has changed over the years, I’ve also changed how we approach this type of work.
Setting up a portfolio shoot used to mean dabbling and exploring. Let’s see if this or that works and what happened. Now don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty of room for that, that’s the whole point of these projects, but now there is way more thought and intention poured into them. They now have scope, direction, and most importantly…deliverables. Just now instead of delivering to a client, we are delivering to ourselves. We treat every step of the process like it is for a client, because that’s the goal, to eventually be doing this for a client. This is one of the best ways to get there and prove we can do it.
Early in my career I was told that you have to go create the work you want to do. Sounds simple enough right? The freedom to build whatever portfolio you want, then completely change it and push into a new category that no one has ever hired you for, is one of the great things about running a creative business. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.
Do you like cars and automotive? Go build that portfolio and start finding the companies that could hire you. Maybe your thing is luxury hotels? If so, go build that portfolio, nothing stopping you from getting there. There will be challenges along the way, but we are a creative bunch and building these portfolios takes some creative problem solving!
What I’ve really found over the years is these projects aren't something you do when you have some free time or when things get slow. For me they are mandatory. They have opened so many doors that would have stayed closed. Just because there isn’t an invoice at the end of the project doesn’t mean it's not worth it, most of the time it’s the opposite.
You gotta put the reps in, they matter.