How do you get yourself known

AshleyC

AshleyC

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Simple question, difficult answer. How would you go about getting your name out there and known. I have absolutely no idea but think it's time I started really giving it a go.
 
Well, I'm in the same situation here. I feel like I can finally start earning some extra money on photography so that means I had to start kind of advertising myself. I refreshed my website, I created facebook fanpage and I advertised myself on some websites... but I could use some ideas as well :) I know it's gonna take time and we all had to start somewhere.
 
As Sara says above, website, facebook and targeted advertising are good places to start. You have to engage with your target audience as well, whoever they may be, rather than just shouting randomly from the rooftops though. It doesn't happen overnight and you have to be in it for the long game - keep plugging away and keep yourself in the forefront of peoples minds for whatever it is you're trying to punt. In my opinion, persistence is the key.
 
Known for what......... ;)

If its weddings, put yourself in their place. How do they network with friends and suppliers?

If it is something else then the process is going to be similar but different if you know what I mean.

Starting from scratch is never easy, but create yourself a plan. Review it weekly and don't get downhearted over lack of success. Just beware of the advertisers and marketeers who will promise the earth, empty your pockets and fail to deliver.
 
I also use plugin called StatPress on my website so I know where the clicks come from. It shows all the traffic on the website. Plus, facebook is quite powerful, I didn't expect that it will have so many options and stats and you can also buy targeted ads there.

I mostly do pet photography, so I prepared some posters and I want to hang them in pet shops, vets etc. You think it's a good idea or waste of money? I have to pay for the prints after all. For now I focus on building kind of a network around dog and cat lovers, posting on dog groups etc. I think if I do a couple of sessions people are gonna post it on facebook, instagram etc. ad it will be the best advert I can get.
 
AshleyC said:
Simple question, difficult answer. How would you go about getting your name out there and known. I have absolutely no idea but think it's time I started really giving it a go.
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I am absolutely no expert so can can only say what has worked well for me as someone who only went full time a couple of years ago.

I have two photography businesses one for weddings and portraits and one for commercial work.

For the wedding and portrait side of things I do all the normal what you would expect to need to do stuff.

The things that have worked well are:

Other Wedding Vendor recommendations
Google Adwords
Paid Facebook Adverts

The things that have had no impact or haven't worked very well are:

Paying for online directories
Print advertising in magazines and local newspapers
Paying another company for SEO

For the commercial business I do absolutely no advertising at all of any description. I don't even have a website although will prob get something put in place soon. This business is far more successful than the other one though. I guess I was lucky in a way. Before going full time I worked in retail for many years but only dealing directly with other businesses. This helped me build a network of relationships with many local small businesses. In my first couple of months of trading I contacted all of them who I thought would offer me an opportunity and to make them aware of my new business, they in turn provided me with work and recommended me to several other local businesses and it just snow balled from there and it really has just looked after itself. The only proactive thing that I do at the moment is a attend a monthly breakfast meeting with other small business owners which is arranged by our local enterprise centre.

The only advice I can give is that for me building relationships has been key to both businesses.
 
AshleyC said:
Simple question, difficult answer. How would you go about getting your name out there and known. I have absolutely no idea but think it's time I started really giving it a go.
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Well they say there's no such thing as a stupid question...

But you've got close here.

Seriously though - some people above have dived in to guess what you meant (they might be right and I now look like a pedant). But what do you mean by 'getting your name out there'? Are you looking for Qudos, prizes, fame or to promote a business?
 
Facebooks getting useless for me unless i pay to boost each post,

Pinterest and Instagram are becoming very popular and having a good base on there can get decent exposure,
 
yes my bad for not expanding on things in the first place, sorry. although as i pressed the send button originally, i could hear Phil's knuckles dragging across the floor as he trudged towards the thread, and he didn't let me down :)

But i'm talking about galleries, the more high brow magazines, the arty side of the business rather than wedding photography. How do you get yourself known to them, how do you get your name up there to the point where they would want to know about you. So yes, as more helpful people have mentioned, good PR, advertising maybe? I dont know, thats the question.
 
Submit work to magazines, get your work in exhibitions and galleries, attend portfolio reviews, build a really good website, submit to online magazine / galleries (art / documentary based, not 500px unless that's your cup of tea) find out who you need to influence and start to network. Rinse and repeat. @Pookeyhead knows more about this kind of stuff, I'm sure he'll be along shortly.
 
I object to the knuckle dragging comment, I might have short legs, but I've got matching short arms (and short arse)

As above, it's a case of networking your arse off, submitting to the right journals and making friends with galleries that match your profile.
 
Its a great question to ask @AshleyC, I'd be interested to know others thoughts on it.
David, @Pookeyhead dropped into one of my project threads with a few suggestions on getting the work known. He suggested to me that I self published a book on the project.
There was a caveat on that in so far as he said that most work is slow burning, if at all, but someone may see it and like it.
I can't find his actual post where he listed some other avenues of getting your work out there. Hopefully he will drop into this thread and offer some suggestions.
 
I presume having your own style/different from the norm would be a good start? (I've no idea tbh, just my thought on it)
 
AshleyC said:
yes my bad for not expanding on things in the first place, sorry. although as i pressed the send button originally, i could hear Phil's knuckles dragging across the floor as he trudged towards the thread, and he didn't let me down :)

But i'm talking about galleries, the more high brow magazines, the arty side of the business rather than wedding photography. How do you get yourself known to them, how do you get your name up there to the point where they would want to know about you. So yes, as more helpful people have mentioned, good PR, advertising maybe? I dont know, thats the question.
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Most of this is luck. The right person seeing the right photo at the right time in the right place. It's getting all those elements together that's the hard bit. Oh, and then add some more luck.
 
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AshleyC said:
Simple question, difficult answer. How would you go about getting your name out there and known. I have absolutely no idea but think it's time I started really giving it a go.
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Known in what way, and known as what? If it's a commercial practice you wish to promote, then you just need to literally advertise and once you can afford it, advertise more widely - if you have a unique selling point beyond the others people will notice.

If it's a "name" you want to make for yourself, then you have to publish in some way. By publish I don't necessarily mean a book. I mean you need to publicly disseminate the work.

Publish. Here's the problem though, as most amateurs don't take images with that in mind, so they have nothing to publish. This is why you need to start thinking about a portfolio, or body or work instead of taking images one at a time with no relation to one another. Look at any well known photographer's web sites, and you'll see they are split up into separate projects or bodies of work. Not "Landscape", "People", "Cars" or random sh*t like that... but projects that are ABOUT something. Taking random images means you can't really publish anything or have an exhibition, as these tend to be themed. Working this way means that A) You're making work that is more likely to have an audience beyond other photographers, and B) has a greater chance of fitting in with the work of others for collective exhibitions, folio reviews and themed competitions. It also means the work is ABOUT something instead of just being a collection of pretty pictures.

Getting work reviewed by websites and magazines that showcase new work is the easiest way. However, those that offer the most exposure are also looking for contemporary, fresh work, and that tends to be the kind of work that gets a good kicking on here. I've no idea what kind of stuff you produce Ash, but if it's conventional stuff most amateurs take, then that's going to be your biggest problem. No matter how great amateurs think their images are (and many are excellent) there's just no interest in them beyond showing them to other amateur photographers.

Lens culture is probably one of the easiest to access review sites that is taken seriously and has a large audience.

Part of the problem is being isolated from the people who can help you. Start looking for, and following people and organisations who you would like to network and work with (Twitter and Instagram are good for this). Many will follow you back, and then you start getting news feeds for interesting things like exhibitions, shows, magazines and other platforms that can help you promote. Collective exhibitions are a good way too, and when your social media feeds are full of the right people and organisations, you'll start to get all the call to entries for the right kind of competitions and exhibitions. Getting work into a collective exhibition is a really great way to start, but you're not going to see the call for entries in here.. you need to develop that social network that has the right people in it.


It all boils down to the work though. If you've nothing worth publishing, then no one's going to care about it if you do. This is where once again the difference between the amateur and professional/Artist rears its head, and the thread will no doubt sink into a bitch fight... I'll just warm you all now, that is NOT my intent here, so if anyone is planning to start one of those "emperor's new clothes" arguments, just **** off, ok? I'm serious here... Unless you are VERY clever at marketing, and happen to tap into a market at the right time, you're probably never going to get known by producing the same stuff other amateurs do simply because there's so much of it out there; people are sick of seeing it. Sure, Peter Lik has done OK taking decorative stuff, and so has Cornish, but they were in at the ground floor, and were very clever at branding themselves. That's a hard act to follow, because the world doesn't need another Lik or Cornish.. one per continent is usually enough thank you very much.

If you do take amateur fodder... let's say for argument's sake, pictures of steam trains... you need to hit the specialist markets hard and get something published that you can advertise and push in those specialist markets. Maybe approach heritage railways to host an exhibition of your work or something. Start small, and off the back of each success, capitalise on it when you pitch for your next. The more you get published, the easier it is to get published again as your artist CV grows. Specialist markets are smaller though, for obvious reasons, but in the UK the market for photography is small any way, as we tend not to buy photography unless its a canvas portrait of a child. Photo books are a growing market however, but again, they're a market for those who think of imagery as art, not decorative art. Think Paris Photo... it attracted a couple of million people this year in one form or another, but look at the work on display there. A bet a fortune was made in photo book sales there, as there usually is. You gotta get your head out of the world forums like this promote and start thinking about what you shoot, not how good you think what you shoot is.


You got a link to your work? Website? Blog?

odd jim said:
Most of this is luck. The right person seeing the right photo at the right time in the right place. It's getting all those elements together that's the hard bit. Oh, and then add some more luck.
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No. It's not. You build your networks so you deliberately put your work in front of those most likely to be able to offer you something. The idea that it's pure luck is a nice thing amateurs like to believe in, as it gives them hope that its serendipity, not work that matters. Believing that means gives people hope that "any day now" they'll get "discovered". It's a myth: NO one's looking to "discover" photographers. Generally, no one gives a **** about photographers. We're not film stars or even vapid reality TV stars... no one cares about us, OK?

Oh.. one more piece of advice: Stop taking work to try and impress other photographers and to get likes on photography forums. You need to start MAKING work with all this in mind, and that's where the friction starts because most amateurs want to get "known" for taking what they're already taking despite whether it's publishable or not. When you tell them they need to change what they make, and go out of their comfort zone, and start thinking about what they shoot, they get a bit arsey and spit their dummies out because the world isn't fair. Look at what contemporary, cutting edge photography that IS getting published looks like, and understand where your work fits in that world.
 
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This ^^^ A like alone wasn't enough, a very well reasoned and honest bit of advice I couldn't agree with more...
 
fantastic advice as expected there from David @Pookeyhead ...

just with my Staff hat on for the moment - i'd just like to add a little re-inforcement to this statement...

Pookeyhead said:
This is where once again the difference between the amateur and professional/Artist rears its head, and the thread will no doubt sink into a bitch fight... I'll just warm you all now, that is NOT my intent here, so if anyone is planning to start one of those "emperor's new clothes" arguments, just **** off, ok?
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Okay folks - here's the deal - anyone who decides to try and take this discussion along those lines in the view of the admin team, will be removed from the thread and quite possibly get a few points on their posting licence to boot. Anyone who spots this happening, feel free to hit the report button and let US deal with them, rather than start arguing with the trolls please. We're getting sick of the fact that it seems every thread that mentions ART ends up spiralling to the inevitable thread-lock.
 
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I'll post more later with links to stuff that's helpful.... just a bit busy today.
 
dude, thanks. The like button just isn't enough for some of your posts. And as TBY mentioned, please anyone , don't drag this down. I know i'm being a bit vague about things but that's simply because i don't really know what i need to do so i don't know what questions to ask. Having a bit of time on my hands right now for various reasons im just trying to think what i can do with my photography. While i think i take some pretty good "pretty" pictures, that's not enough. I'm tired of just shooting something "nice" and having it rot away on my hard drive forever more. My goal between now and say 5 years is to get a body of work up on a gallery wall in London, I've ideas in my head but no idea how to get them out there and under the noses of people who count apart from rolling up to the Saatchi gallery with a bag full and asking them to put them up :)

It does seem, when you compare photography to painting, that photography needs a body of work, a story/message, to get noticed. The old masters didn't have to paint a set of 30 images to get known. I think there is a market for one off "pretty" pieces of work but that's for the man on the street to buy, by all means call me an arrogant so and so but i want recognition as an artist. If i crash and burn in abject humiliation then so be it, ive rhino like skin, but i want to really give it a go now. As mentioned, im just sick of shooting the same old thing, nice though it is, getting nowhere and doing nothing with it. Its a waste of time and life. And money, as large format film aint cheap!

So yes, social media needs to be a mantra it seems. Set up a website, set up a twitter account, follow big names and post work so it appears on their feeds and follow through with ideas. Im sure there are people out there now typing "well, duh!" And its all pretty obvious advice, but i guess sometimes it just needs to be told to you. Thank you again.
 
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Have you considered running your own exhibition in a smaller local gallery ? This would hopefully get your work out there and some feedback plus it would make you focus on putting together a coherent body of work
 
Absolutely, there is a small gallery locally that is accepting submissions now for next year so I will be putting some work forward for that soon.
 
Don't be afraid to ask galleries or other venues. My local bookshop has a small gallery area upstairs so I asked the owner about using that for my first exhibition. I publicised it on Facebook and an old work colleague saw it, went along to look and recommended my work to a museum he has links with. So I followed that up, and got a 20 picture exhibition in the museum. I then asked the curator of she could refer me to anyone else, which she did and I subsequently got another exhibition at another museum. Luck or boldness? I think the latter. But you have to have good quality work to back it up, and be prepared to put time, effort and money into it!
 
A couple more points I'll add are if you are approaching galleries, don't pitch up with an armful of prints and expect the manager or curator to see you there and then. Galleries and museums tend to have an applications process to go through which is often on their websites. Also, larger (and sometimes smaller) venues have exhibitions planned for 1-2 years in advance, so my advice would be to start small and local to get your head round things, build a portfolio and maybe do some projects if you don't already have a cohesive set of work. Think about other alternative venues for showing work as well.

Finally, spend some time visiting all your local venues to get an idea of size, layout, type of work being exhibited and the standard of printing and presentation. You should also visit the larger venues that you have in mind longer term with the same idea in mind.
 
eh ?

and I thought to get noticed you just had to shoot fabulously for a lifetime, and then get dead...

lucky eh.........whoda thought it :)
 
I think dropping dead has clearly helped some people.
 
As an example.... here's my "following" list in Twitter. Bear in mind some of these are just mates and colleagues, but it should be obvious which are, and which are not... It's not even that massive a list... just relevant (to me).

Based on this, my trends, and lists, I get suggestions to useful people and organisations to follow all the time (ringed in red)... so I am constantly refining and updating this list.

Most follow me back, even some of the more well known names.

I now get the low down on most things happening in my area of interest: Gallery events, competitions, calls for entries, folio reviews, talks etc. That would, and could never happen by being in forums like this alone. You can, and should, do the same with Facebook and Instagram too. Most of the Twitter feeds here will list instagram and Facebook IDs so it's real easy to join the dots.

I go to as many as I can... I talk to people. I just keep myself on some people's radar, particularly those who may be in a position to display or publish my work.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2in9fkr9lrdt5mc/followed.jpg?dl=0
 
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Pookeyhead said:
As an example.... here's my "following" list in Twitter. Bear in mind some of these are just mates and colleagues, but it should be obvious which are, and which are not... It's not even that massive a list... just relevant (to me).

Based on this, my trends, and lists, I get suggestions to useful people and organisations to follow all the time (ringed in red)... so I am constantly refining and updating this list.

Most follow me back, even some of the more well known names.

I now get the low down on most things happening in my area of interest: Gallery events, competitions, calls for entries, folio reviews, talks etc. That would, and could never happen by being in forums like this alone. You can, and should, do the same with Facebook and Instagram too. Most of the Twitter feeds here will list instagram and Facebook IDs so it's real easy to join the dots.

I go to as many as I can... I talk to people. I just keep myself on some people's radar, particularly those who may be in a position to display or publish my work.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2in9fkr9lrdt5mc/followed.jpg?dl=0
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Thank you for this link... as someone who is on Twitter but struggles to get to grips with the whole thing, this has been really useful to get an idea of what's about(it was useful following some of the links to find out what's in my area anyway). Also though, it's made me realise just how much work, and time(as well as the social aspect) is involved in 'getting yourself out there'. Dunno if it put me off a bit lol .
 
There are basically two kinds of customer Those that buy what you already have on offer and those that commission you to take photographs for them.
A majority of those that commission are are relatively close to you, at least within a few hundred miles. Most come from Knowledge of your work and from recommendations. Even if you contact them and they love your work the chances of getting a commission then and there is minimal. ( but you must still make the effort, Next time they will recognise you at least)
Reputation and recommendation are the two strongest factors for success in gaining commissions be it weddings or commercial work.
You must see even the most basic job as the entry into the next, It is vital to keep people both happy and enthusiastic about your work.
Real people buy real photographs using one to one communication.

This is far less true when selling stock or "Art" photographs. If people do not see what you have on offer they will never buy at all.
While Exhibitions are important in the "Name" context, probably more sales will come out of the Digital aether. And all the online methods become essential.

Your web face will be the first port of call that people will actually search for, and it is an expectation that every one who is seriously offering a service has a web presence. It should be as open , inviting and as easy to use as possible. People will give any site a few seconds, but if their attention is not immediately captured they will move on. Every one who is searching is a potential customer. If you do not sell to them it is your fault not theirs.

This is as true today, with On line communication, as it has always been face to face in a studio or shop. You very rarely get a second bite of the cherry.
If people spend time coming to see you, they are serious customers and they have a need of your services. Every one should be converted into not only a sale but a regular client.

You must see your self as something of an evangelist of your own work. If you think it is ordinary and uninteresting so will every one else.
 
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