New Work: FCB Magazines

I was asked by an agency (Schrijf-Schrijf) to take portraits for 3 different RuimBaan-magazines from FCB. FCB Magazines are aimed at either professionals working in Child Services or parents who are dealing with Child Services for various reasons.

All 3 magazines have a similar series called ‘BaanBrekend” wherein a (different) professional is interviewed about their ground-breaking work. I had to shoot 3 different images per person. It was a really great job; the creative briefing allowed for a lot of freedom, plus I got to meet people who are doing something revolutionary in a very difficult field of work. Pretty cool:)

Levi van Dam, Claudia Doesburg, Veronika Nab

Examples of the 3 articles and the way the images are used

Listening to some old PJ Harvey and new Palace

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Towards the end of summer

How do you know when it is time to push through just a little bit longer or to face facts and say this isn’t working? Where’s the line separating determination, knowing what you want and faith in your own ability from plain stupidity? If you know, let me know cause I sure as hell don’t know anymore.

I have got emails to editors, submissions to magazines, introductions letters, entries to competitions, tweets, likes.. you name it, coming out of my ears. I do get published, and I do have work coming in, but I am still not making a well enough living.

Non of the online magazines I have submitted work to, pay for the content you provide. Yes, it’s cool to be published but I also like to get paid. And yes, it is my choice to enter my work in the first place. The thing is, that I feel that something is wrong in this whole set up. To illustrate my point, consider the following.

I personally believe that in order to create a high quality and healthy online culture business, magazines should pay  journalists and photographers for the work they do, and magazines should be paid via subscriptions and through selling ads.

Yet, I just came across an online photography magazine that charges photographers $35 to submit their work to that magazine. Wait a sec.. you are charging me to provide you with free content for your magazine? That is wrong. Isn’t that kind of like biting the hand that feeds you? OK, fair enough, the one that feeds you are the readers buying your magazines and the money you make from the ads on the site, but you can not charge the one who provides you with content. And you do not pay them in return when you do publish their work. Boo..

To be continued.. I need coffee.

Press Enter

As you probably know, I have been scouring the net for publications, submissions, competitions and whatever -ions one can find. I even entered a competition a few weeks back. Uh-oh:) The deadline only passed yesterday and have  nothing to report just yet.

I came across two calls for entries that seem really interesting, and they maybe something for you as well:
– The British Journal of Photography’s International Photography Award 2011
One can submit singles and series. The deadline is September 15th, at 9 A.M.

– Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award – this years theme is Zimbabwe.
The deadline is September 30th. I would love to enter this and collaborate with some one on this. Send me an email if you do too.

Speaking of collaborations, I would love together with some bloggers/writers on a few project when I get back to Cape Town. Perhaps we can do a feature on Cape Town fashion or music send it off to magazines in SA or elsewhere? Sounds like fun to me, anyway. Please, let me know if you’d be keen.

And yes, I did finish writing the Business Plan the other day. Will fine-tune and print it later today. It was the first time ever that I made a SWOT analysis, and must admit that I find it “clarifying” to say the least. There’s something about seeing your strengths and weaknesses listed like that.

And apparently, the gay bears are totally catching on 🙂

Stats and Dirty Skirts

I totally intended on writing a business plan today but got side-tracked. In all honesty though, writing the business plan itself is already an act of procrastination. A wise one though and one I should have done a long time. Writing the BP is taking my focus away from writing another proposal of which I have finished 60% of the work and perhaps I need a bit of a break before I finish.

The week started with good news; I sent some work to a South African magazine and was contacted by an Italian magazine and will now be published in both next month. I will reveal more when the publications are up. I keep a list of all the magazines I submit work to and I have come to the following conclusion;

– 20% of submissions is successful.

– 30% receives positive feedback but leads nowhere in the end for different reasons: magazines go belly up, editor likes it but editor in chief decides “no”, subject is too far removed from readers, sometimes literally so seeing how I am a Dutch photographer shooting SA artists etc. I must say all feedback is highly appreciated as it teaches me how editors look at the submissions they receive.

– 20% of “no” do send an automated reply message saying they received the work. I like this, at least I know I don’t need to re-send.

– 30% of “no” don’t get back to you in any shape or form (no automated replies, feedback etc).

I am wondering if a 20% success rate is reasonable or pathetic?

All I can compare it with are the design competitions (for new jobs, not awards) we entered when I was sill working at design studio Taluut. We aimed for 1 in 4, I’m hoping my 1 in 5 isn’t all that pathetic after all.

Speaking of statistics and the likes, I am highly amused by the site stats provided by WordPress relating to this blog, especially the search terms that have led to this blog. Now some make sense, like my name for example, or bands, photographers and exhibitions I blogged about. Some are understandable like “photographer Cape Town music” “kommetjie kite” or  “fashion shoot Bo-Kaap Cape Town” but how one gets here by entering “kid set up dinner table” or “dresscode Polana” I’ll never know.

And I am so not mentioning the “gay bears” 🙂