The new Photographer

From 19 to 21 June I have participated – in representation of QUAD Derby and Intellect Books Bristol, at the first UK National Photography Symposium in Manchester, organized by Redeye – The Photography Network, in collaboration with the University of Bolton and Arts Council England.

Paul Herrman, the Director of Redeye who brainchild the symposium, held an interesting session in relation to the figure of the ‘contemporary photographer’. First, he highlighted the big changes in relation to photography occurred in the last decade:
- camera ownership – digital imaging
- internet
- education
- photography in the art world

Along these changes, a transition happened also in terms of old photographer / new photographer:

The old practitioner:                         The new practitioner:

- primacy of technique                        – primacy of ideas
- specialization                              – complementary range of works
- selected audience/circles of admirers      – international audience/virtual circles

Today’s ‘top photographers’ present therefore the following features:

1. Interest, knowledge and reading in relation of the photographic economy and the world at large: ‘if your picture are not good enough, you don’t read enough.’
2. Marketing, talking and writing
3. Development of ‘the voice’, that is, differentiate oneself (the famous line ‘I can/can’t see you in these pictures…’ often heard in portfolio reviews)
4. Building relationships in time with curators, buyers and other professionals
5. Work ethic and good business (with the right balance of copyright and free licence use)
6. Long terms commitment (minimum of five-six years of practice before ‘getting’ anywhere), and motivation: both clients and professionals need to know that a photographer is going to be there in ten years time
7. Craft and ideas – research opportunities and deliver results.

Furthermore, Herrman listed ’twenty things one can do to get closer to be a top photographer’ (beside talent and commitment, I’d guess…):

1. Going to openings – where people want to hear your ideas
2. Going to festivals (only three or four in the UK, but many abroad)
3. Business link (GVA – Great Value Added is not the only criteria)
4. Gettting some trading (agencies, galleries, etc)
5. Social media (internet at large helps to know people)
6. Metadata, absolute crucial to caption and keyword the work
7. Project making: a strong enough project to get teeth onto, something that resonates with people
8. Partnerships/collectives such as getting together with a writer, or a musician, etc. to realize a project
9. Website/blog, using to get ideas out and update regularly
10. Slideshow; collaborating with someone else, like sound people and through a narrative structure, to create a slideshow and show in programmes and venues such as BBC Big Screens around the UK (desperate to get good content)
11. Preparing portfolio
12. Marketing material such cards, etc.
13. Writing, important aspect
14. Giving a talk; it helps to get your ideas together
15. Applying for a grant; criteria to assess proposal are published on the Arts Council website; core matter is the audience development and which bits of work will accomplish that. Writing a good grant application is part of the job as photographers
16. Print sales
17. Exhibiting wherever one can (not whenever, I’d say…); getting used to the idea of exhibit
18. Entry and checking competition
19. Email/newsletter every 6 months, to let the network know what one has been done, etc.
20. ‘You have to be burning and you have to have your shit together’

In photography, but possibly in all arts disciplines (and non-disciplines), if one has to say something, it’s got to be said in a manner that is a) accessible b) that matters and c) that adds something to what have been said before. Question, transform, exchange. To be interested in photography, one has to be interested in the world.

Cats and creatives

David Parrish posted recently an interesting compariso between creative people and cats, the sort of things makes you smile but then – in the end – has some strategic potential.

You can find the complete post here; what below is an excerpt. Enjoy.

In an article in the Harvard Business Review on ‘Leading Clever People’ (details below). The researchers make several interesting points about leading creative people (and other clever people including scientists and academics). Before my own presentation I was musing on the conclusions of the article and the analogy of ‘herding cats’. I couldn’t help thinking of some similarities between the article’s conclusions about leading creatives and managing a pet cat.

1. ‘Creatives’ do not want to be led. Neither do cats. Try putting a lead on a cat.
2. ‘Creatives’ like to do their own thing. So do cats. Some companies allow their employees to use 20% of their time to pursue personal projects. I call this the ‘80% loyalty’ philosophy. Some cat owners accept that their cats sometimes disappear for days to do their own thing. They probably have another human who also feeds them.
3. ‘Creatives’ have a low boredom threshold. Cats soon get bored with you.
4. ‘Creatives’ expect instant access. Even if they want you to keep away from them most of the time, when they want you, they expect to get to see you. Similarly with cats. You can’t find them but they can always find you when they want you.
5. ‘Creatives’ won’t thank you and will be unwilling to recognise your leadership. Cats might get friendly  when they want something, but after they get fed they just walk away.
6. Even though they don’t acknowledge it, ‘creatives’ need you and the organisation as much as you need them. Despite cats’ aloofness, like ‘creatives’ they do depend on the shelter and food you provide.

I won’t try to push the comparisons further but it does seem that there are some amusing similarities!
Let me know what you think – I’d like to hear your views.

The HBR article is ‘Leading Clever People’ by Rob Goffee from London Business School and Gareth Jones from INSEAD, who have studied leadership for 20 years. Their article was published in March 2007 and is available online from Harvard Business Review.

Other Motivations/2

Values

This is a further article in the “Motivations’ series published by Mark McGuiness; you can find it here.

Manager: “I just don’t understand it. I’ve tried everything, but he still doesn’t get it. He just carries on doing the opposite of what he’s supposed to do.”

Coach: “Well I’ve heard a lot about why you want him to do it, and a lot of reasons why he ’should’ do it. But the question I haven’t heard the answer to is ‘What’s in it for him?’”

(Long silence.)

Manager: “That’s a very good question.”

The basic problem is one of empathy. It is partly down to the situation – because the manager sees the big picture clearly and is under so much pressure to deliver results, it’s easy to forget that others may not have the same understanding or urgency. But it’s also down to a fundamental blindspot of human beings – it’s so easy for each of us to assume that everyone has the same values and priorities that we do.

Because we all have different personal motivations – otherwise known as values. Or rather, we may well share many of the same values, but may not rank them in quite the same way. Recognising and respecting other people’s values is often the key to happiness in relationships. And it’s critical to success if your job involves managing or influencing people.

Each person – continues Mark -  has made a fundamental decision about what is most important in life, and acts accordingly. And the weird thing is, other people have made different decisions to you. This is why they don’t always ‘get it’, no matter how many times you tell them. Once you realise this, a lot of the apparent weirdness about other people disappears. It becomes a lot easier to get on with them.

Get to know people
Look at them (without staring). Listen to them (without interrupting). Notice what brings them alive – when they become enthusiastic, animated, productive. What does this tell you about their personal values? And what about the times when they shut down, withdraw, give you lip service or start complaining? What does that tell you about their motivation?

Assume that everything they do and say makes complete sense
This frees you to look at them as they are, instead of as you think they should be. And once you do that, you can start to notice all kinds of things you didn’t see before.

Don’t stick labels on them
We’ve all been there. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t find yourself labelling people, especially when problems arise. It’s easy to see others as ‘difficult’, ‘lazy’, ‘obstructive’ and so on. The trouble is, this makes life more difficult for you. If someone is just plain ‘difficult’ then there’s nothing you can do to influence them, short of rebuilding their personality. But if you take the label off and ask yourself ‘what are they motivated by?’ Then you have an opportunity to use their personal motivations to influence them.

Trade in their currency
Think of personal values the same way as monetary currency. Why bother praising somebody who just wants to work on an interesting challenge? A pay rise won’t compensate someone for having their ideas blocked at every turn.
Try ‘trading in their currency’ by speaking to their personal values.

Experiment
Treat people the way you’ve always treated them and they will respond the way they’ve always responded. If you get stuck, ask yourself ‘What does this person least expect me to do?’. Try doing something new – and notice the results. Be creative.

Other motivations

That’s another snap at Mark McGuiness’s blog, which you can find here.
Extrinsic factors may have limited value as motivators but you can’t afford to ignore them — because they make excellent demotivators. Below some of these factors, which you – as a creative person – need to bear in mind, and possibly to implement in your profession.

Money: it is a clearly defined way of ‘keeping score’, measuring how highly regarded you are by your employer or your audience. Violinist Nigel Kennedy writes in his autobiography ‘I think if you’re playing music or doing art you can in some way measure the amount of communication you are achieving by how much money it is bringing in for you and for those around you’.

Recognition: the term ‘egoboo’ is used within the open source programming community, referring to the ‘ego boost’ you receive from being publicly credited for good work. So even though there’s no money involved, it’s not strictly true to say that open source programmers work ‘for nothing’. Poetry, or literature, is another creative medium with very little cash on offer, but which operates on a kind of ‘reputation economy’ — the higher your reputation, the more prestigious your publisher will be, the more magazines will want to take your work, the higher up the bill you will be on readings, etc.

Deadlines: as soon as you make a promise to someone else, you have an obligation to fulfil. Sometimes this can be just the push you need to get you through the wall of resistance that would otherwise lead to procrastination. ‘I know exactly what I need to do, but I’m more likely to do it if I’ve promised you do it by a certain date’. To get you going in the first place place, you sometimes need the extrinsic motivation of ‘deadline magic’.

There are probably other external motivations that come into the picture, but I believe the three above are the most essential ones. Also, very often they are those we encouter first, and only along the path other types of motivation may reveal to ourselves. (Such as those intrinsic, described in the previous post.)

Motivation

Managing Intrinsic Motivation. That’s the subtitle of a post that Mark McGuinness published here.

The article is for those who need to manage creative people, not precisely for those who are. But – here comes the twist – it’s precisely what a creative professional needs to apply to her/himself too, no matter if you are your own boss. Even more effective, I’d say.

There we go:

By definition, intrinsic motivation works through spontaneity, pleasure and fascination — none of which can be served up to order. No wonder managing creative people is often described as ‘herding cats’, notoriously wilful and independent creatures. But if you can’t control it, you can coax it to some extent. Here are a few suggestions:

Set them (yourself) a challenge

Remember, creatives love a challenge. How can you make the brief more difficult? More inspiring? More extreme?

Define the (your) goal clearly

If there’s one thing worse than a boring or easy brief, it’s a vague one. ‘Write a story’ is terrible. ‘Write a superhero story’ isn’t much better. ‘Write a Batman story’ at least gives me something to work with. ‘Write a Batman story in which his identity is exposed’, or ‘where he lets himself and the city down’, or ‘where he loses all his gadgets and has to rely on his wits’ – now I’ve got something to get my teeth into.

Eliminate distractions and interruptions

Help them concentrate. Don’t interrupt them — or let others interrupt them — unless it’s important AND urgent. As far as possible, help them ‘batch’ meetings, conversations, and day-to-day tasks so that they don’t keep interfering with focused work. Whatever distractions arise, remind them that the work itself is their primary responsibility.

Match the (your) work to the worker (yourself)

Make it your business to know everyone on the team, including the kind of work they love to do. Whenever possible, give them tasks that suit their talents. Their reward will be more job satisfaction. Yours will be better results.

Let them (yourself) get on with it

This is a tricky one. Creatives hate being micromanaged and told what to do every step of the way. But ultimately you’re accountable for the work, so you need to make sure they are delivering on brief. If you’re a creative yourself, you’ll have to deal with the added temptation to show them how you would do it, and the fact that they may approach it in a very different way. There are no easy answers, but it helps if you’re very clear about what you are asking them to make, and your criteria for success, and then leave how to do it up to them.

Reward (your) behaviours, not results

At the US software developer SAS, managers are trained to reward those responsible for new initiatives before it becomes obvious whether the initiative has succeeded or failed. Why? Because their aim is to foster a culture of innovation. If they only rewarded successful projects, employees would be much more careful about proposing and acting on new ideas. This way, the company benefits from many more ideas and people who are more prepared to take a risk and try things out.

What makes a business successful?

This is an article by Tracy Pepper you can find on the CIN website here (thanks Patrick for the kindness):

The question I am asked most often as a coach is what makes a business successful. Every business is of course different but for me the essentials are:

• Having a passion for what you do – if you love what you do your enthusiasm will come across when communicating to potential customers that will buy your product or service.

• Create a Vision – picture what your business will be like in 12 months time – create a collage or write down in detail describing the various areas, what you are selling – to whom- how much you are earning, where you are working etc. By creating this rich picture you are rehearsing in your mind your plan.

• Know how to communicate what it is you do/make/provide- when asked – “what is it that you do” don’t say I am an architect say I am an architect that specialises in modernist city centre designs, or I hand-make handbags with unique designs that appeal to most teenage girls.

• Know your customers – know who your product/ service will appeal to and target that market first. Do research if you can to confirm your view – sometimes you are wrong.

• Have a business plan – it is essential that you get what you want to achieve out of your head and down onto paper. Once it’s written down it takes you a step nearer to committing to do it. It also gives you the confidence and clarity of taking steps that move you forward. I will cover this area in more detail in future columns.

• Network and get as much help as you can – being part of networks like CIN give people working on their own and small companies the opportunity to hear from others the challenges and solutions they face. Mostly your challenges are similar to others. Networks are great places to explore funding opportunities and employment issues.

• Have patience and persistence – in business things can move slower than you would like and rarely happen first time of asking. Don’t give up at the first or even second delay.

Finally an old cliché – enjoy what you do – we spend far too much time working to not!

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From one to many

This was posted here by Derby-based Graham Bennett. It’s food for thought in relation to organization management. Not that you have to be CEO of something to make sense of it. it works also if you work alone. especially in the creative sector. Thank you, Graham.

Changing organisational cultures

At a presentation given by Kevin Williams (at the time Chief Executive of YMCA England) we were shown a photograph of the people responsible for running YMCAs in the 1960s. They were all grey suited men.

Kevin then went on to explain that, currently, the majority of the larger YMCAs are now managed by women.

Clearly this cannot be the whole story – so what other changes have also taken place which might support such a change in leadership? And what might we learn from this?

I began by drawing a line down the middle of the page, putting “Male” at the top of the left hand side, and “Female” at the top of the right hand side. The following is a list of changes which seem to have happened in the world with which we work, during the same period of time:
Male to Female

Heavy Industry to Service Industries

Machines to Ideas/Knowledge

Strength to Nurturing

Specialisms to Multi-tasking

Power to Influence

Hierarchies to Networks

Control to Encourage

Command to Persuade / “sell”

Mono-culture to Valuing Diversity

Facts to Intuition

Books to Internet

Vote to Buy

Membership to Shareholder or User Group

Grants/Subsidies to Social Enterprise

Competition to Collaboration for mutual benefit

As with all caricatures, this needs some careful handling – but much of the world we work in is undoubtedly moving this way, and we all need to be able to respond. Even where organisations still need to work to the left side, some of their activities will need to work to the right side if success is to be achieved.
It seems likely that some of us are more comfortable when working in the way shown on the left side, others to the right. The solution to this must surely be:
* awareness of the issues;
* recognition of the inherent tensions between people, disciplines, organisations, and sectors; and
* having the right teams or partnerships in place to cover all bases.

If, from where you see the world, you feel that there are any other issues which should be considered, or added to the list, I would be delighted to hear of them.

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Edgecraft

Ok, I got a crush on Seth Godin’s insights. This one you can find here. It’s about Edgecraft, which – according to him – is an iterative process that is much easier for an organization to embrace than brainstorming. Off we go:

It’s a mistake to try to champion much beyond your reach.

There are hundreds of available edges, things you can add to, subtract from or do to your product or service. Find an edge and go all the way to it. Going partway is time-consuming and expensive—and it doesn’t work very well. Going all the way to the edge is the only way to jolt the user into noticing what you’ve done. If they notice you, they’re one step closer to talking about you.

It’s all marketing now. The organizations that win will be the ones that realize that all they do is create things worth talking about.

And another little bit from the same book:

It’s not that people somehow lose their ability to be creative when they’re in an environment in which they feel safe. It’s that they ignore the creative ideas that naturally occur to them and fight the changes championed by others.

They like things the way they are, and they can’t resist the urge to defend the status quo. The challenge of the champion is to help people who are already creative to take advantage of their talent. By selling the dream and fighting the status quo, we can free people who have been lulled into a false sense of security.

And again:

You only have one boss, and if she doesn’t believe you can do it or that it’s worth doing, you’re stuck. If you can’t make the fulcrum work in the eyes of that key decision maker, your work is much more difficult. But there are hundreds of sources of capital in the outside world, and when you approach them as an entrepreneur, you’re more likely to have the posture of the champion. They want to believe that you’re the person who can do this, and thus you’re more likely to persuade them that you’re the guy.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the answer is to go outside and start something new. It means, instead, that you and your boss (or your co-workers, or your employees) should sit down together and figure out which parts of the fulcrum are out of whack.

Dramatic changes. Things that may very well be unattainable. Things that require not incremental improvements or changes, but significant quantum leaps in the way you organize, create and deliver what you do. If you can’t find a scary edge, then you haven’t found an edge, have you?

No use going to an edge that all your competition is going to as well. That’s not an edge. That’s the middle. Growth only comes from the leap to the remarkable.

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But are you really serious about it?

Like the one that follow (and the one before), this is an article by Seth Godin; this time you can find it here. I almost bought his book…but before you rush off, here’s some interesting highlights:

I did a gig in New York today about the Dip and it went really well. Afterward, someone asked me a question about his new business.

I asked back, “if you accomplish that, will you be seen by your audience as the best in the world, or will you be seen as doing your best?”

He didn’t have to answer. He got it.

If you’re doing your best, only your AYSO soccer coach cares. If you’re the best in the world, the market cares. The secret, if you have limited resources (don’t we all) is to make ‘world’ small enough that you can actually accomplish that.

Obviously, this approach is applicable to just about any idea-based product, whether it’s consulting or clothes:

1. Find the core market

2. Obviously the otaku (Seth’s name for the ’surplus’ in things)

3. make it easy to sample

4. Make it easy to share. And hope it hits the critical mass.

That seems common sense, but it’s common sense that’s not so common. Designing anything for the masses is silly. why? because the masses don’t buy stuff any more. The edges do.

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Short. No attention left

This is an article by Seth Godin available here:

Short books, short shows, short commercials, short ideas…

In 1960, the typical stay for a book on the New York Times bestseller list was 22 weeks. In 2006, it was two. Forty years ago, it was typical for three novels a year to reach #1. Last year, it was 23.

Advise and Consent won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960. It’s 640 pages long. On Bullshit was a bestseller in 2005; it’s 68 pages long.

Commercials used to be a minute long, sometimes two. Then someone came up with the brilliant idea of running two per minute, then four. Now there are radio ads that are less than three seconds long.
It’s not an accident that things are moving faster and getting smaller. There’s just too much to choose from. With a million or more books available at a click, why should I invest the time to read all 640 pages of Advise and Consent when I can get the idea after 50 pages?

Audible.com offers more than 30,000 titles. If an audiobook isn’t spectacular, minute to minute, it’s easier to ditch it and get another one than it is to slog through it. After all, it’s just bits on my iPod.

Of course, this phenomenon isn’t limited to intellectual property. Craigslist.org is a free classified-ad listing service. A glance at their San Francisco listings shows more than 33,000 ads for housing. That means that if an apartment doesn’t sound perfect after just a sentence or two, it’s easy to glance down at the next ad.

The end.

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