This is a reprint from
American Photo on Campus, February 2013.
I did it because I feel it is very important to understand what Ms. Leuchter
is saying.
Editor’s Note
“Reluctantly, Some
Advice”
We don’t usually
offer much advice in American Photo on
Campus, hoping to teach more by example than by prescription. But I couldn’t resist asking three of the
photographers profiled in this issue to share their suggestions for students
looking to launch a career in photography.
Matt
Eich, who fuels his photojournalism and fine-art projects with commercial
assignments (see “Triple Threat,” page 38), turned pro just a few years ago
while still an undergrad at Ohio University.
“It is strange to start working while you’re still a student,” he told
me when I asked about what that was like.
“I feel like ‘school’ really only began after I graduated – I was still
in a bit of a bubble until then. The
best thing I did when I was in school was to pursue personal work and put it
out into the world in its best possible form, then to go back and keep
improving it. That is how I first
started getting work and exposure.”
And
that personal work should be truly personal, says Marc Asnin, who started his
seminal project Uncle Charlie when he
was at the School of Visual Arts in the 1980s.
“Whatever you go to produce, it has to be something you really believe
in – don’t let the marketplace affect your own vision,” he told writer Lori
Fredrickson for her story “Document of the Lifetime” (page 16).
That’s
not to say that the work you get hired to do isn’t important. In fact, it will do more for you than just
help pay the bills. Asnin urges students
to think of every job not as a stepping stone to something bigger but as an opportunity
to lean. His own internship at the Village Voice toughened him up for
future work: “Getting thrown down a set of stairs the night of a state election
and being chased down the street by a member of the Genovese crime family
taught me to be fearless.”
Artist,
teacher, and writer Tema Stauffer emphasizes the importance of participation in
the community of photographers both in person and online. As an emerging pro, she wrote to artists and
writers whose work she admired, in the process developing lasting relationships
with many of them. We asked her to record
a conversation with one of these mentors, Victoria Sambunaris, which you can
read in “On the Road,” page 8.
One
last piece of advice from the trenches: “The sooner you can start treating
photography as a business, the better,” says Eich. “Don’t rely on one client; diversify your
sources of income. It’s not enough to be
talented or creative – you also have to be creative with how you manage your
business.” Echoing a mentor of his own,
he adds, “As one of my college professors, Julie Elman, would always say, ‘Dare
to suck.’”
Miriam Leuchter,
Editor-in-Chief
February 2013
