Everyone has some variation of a smart phone that can take relatively ‘good’ photos. Photography has become something of a commonality and is difficult to find a niche to make photography work for you as a profession. I want to explore what it’s like for someone to make a name for themselves and set themselves apart from everyone else who can take a cool picture on their phone. I want to see how it is still possible to be a successful photographer with such grave competition.
I don’t know exactly what my angle is. One idea I have is below:
I know a photographer who just graduated last semester and landed a job working for a magazine, who is one person I could focus on. He is from the Bronx and went to Baruch, not a school known for photography at all, and has now landed this job. This angle could be a story about how is is, in fact, still possible to make it in the photography world, even when you did grow up in the twenty-first century and don’t know anyone in the industry.
Alternatively, I know a middle-aged man who worked as a business man his whole life, and a couple of years ago began taking photographs (he has actually been featured in a few newspapers and recently had a show at Pratt Manhattan’s photography gallery).
The relevance of this piece will stem from the upcoming week-long photography festival in Brooklyn Bridge Park (at the end of September). The location of this festival also makes it a local interest story.
I will interview the main photographer who I choose (his friends and family as well to find out more about the person and what led them to photography). I will also interview photography students to get their viewpoint about their hopes/dreams for being a photographer and also what challenges they expect to face in the real world. I want to know what these students have in mind as a kind of ‘game plan’ for making it in the real world.
