essential skills: digital photography in available light
Distribution and sale of photo-essays
The majority of photojournalists are either freelance or work for agencies. Freelance photographers
are commissioned to cover stories for a wide variety of media and corporate publications.
Photojournalists also self assign. They seek out and research possible commercial stories and then
sell the fi nished piece to a publication. Many photographers contact publications with the idea or
concept for a story before taking the images. They complete the story when they fi nd a publication
interested in the idea. Newspapers cannot hope to cover all world news and feature stories using
staff photographers only. They therefore rely heavily on input from freelance photographers. The
material is brought in from photo and news agencies, wire services, stock libraries and through
direct contact with photographers.
In order to succeed a freelance photojournalist usually requires the following skills:
~ Curiosity, self motivation and patience to fi nd and complete a story.
~ Knowledge of publications currently buying photographic material (a media
directory with contact names, addresses and circulation is usually available in
large libraries).
~ Commercial requirements for stories (these include image format, publication
deadlines, content, length, style and copy).
Titles and copy
All images require an image description prior to submission. This can be achieved by entering
Metadata into the image fi les using your editing software. Metadata should include the following
information:
~ Location and date.
~ A brief description of the content including names of people.
~ Photographer’s name.
~ Contact details and copyright information
Accompanying copy is sometimes prepared by a staff writer working from the factual information
provided by the photographer or is submitted by the photographer along with the images.
Photographers often team up with a writer on projects and submit the work as a team effort. The
average length of each story and the style for written copy (humorous, factual etc.) needs to be
researched prior to submission.
ACTIVITY 8
Research possible distribution and sale of a photo-essay.
Locate one local photo-agency, one stock library and one photographic archive.
Research the possibility of submitting one essay or image to a magazine to which you currently
subscribe.