Words of Wisdom from Women Photographers

"My ASMP experiences have been the least sexist experiences of my professional career. That said, when I became president I have to admit that—not internally within ASMP, but because I now had a more public position for the organization—I definitely got some raised eyebrows from the outside like, "This is your president?" And I’m younger than most and a woman, so it's a double whammy. I felt a little bit of that in the first few public functions I attended, but now that it's going on six months I think people realize, "Okay she’s real. She’s a photographer. She knows the business."

"But in my dealings with staff at ASMP, and chapter leaders and membership, I’ve never had any of that. It’s all been a very positive experience."

Advice to women – and to all photographers – who are just starting out

By Judy Herrmann

Over the past 8 years, my partner Mike and I have mentored countless high school and college students—ironically, all but one were women. We've developed a little formula for introducing them to the industry. We start by telling them about the trade associations. We explain that it's not enough to join, they have to become active and that it's not enough to just show up at a meeting, they have to be willing to introduce themselves to strangers. We also refer them to trade magazines and source books, both hard copies and web sites. We encourage them to sign up for the various photo listservs and, more importantly, to search the archives of the listservs for keywords like "start" (getting started, starting out, etc.), "portfolio," "assist," "pric" (for anything related to price or pricing), "usage," "buyout," etc.

We also encourage them to use the member listings of the trade organizations to find qualified professional photographers near them, to call those photographers and try to get informational interviews and/or opportunities to assist or even just observe a shoot. I suggest that as they go through this process they really pay attention to how they react to the experience of trying to get in the door. Do they handle rejection well or do they get hurt and angry when someone blows them off? Are they able to talk their way past gatekeepers? Are they able to sell themselves to the person on the other end of the phone well enough to get to the next step? How does this process make them feel? Could they cope with this being an important part of their job? I explain that self-employed photographers go through this exact same process to get clients and that when you're first starting out it's practically all that you do. I try to help them see that how they handle this process will have a huge impact on their ability to survive in this industry and that if they hate this process or can't bring themselves to even start it, then being a self-employed photographer may not be the best direction for them.

If they get an informational interview, I recommend that they ask questions about job security, what the photographer's favorite and least favorite parts of the job are, costs of doing business, pricing, how much time the photographer actually spends shooting, what they do with the rest of their time, what working with clients is like--anything having to do with the business side or the actual work of being a photographer.

I tell them to read Michal Herron's and David MacTavish's book "Pricing Photography" and to visit the cost of doing business calculator at http://www.nppa.org/services/bizpract. I also give them a copy of Stan Rowin's January/February 2003 ASMP Bulletin President's Letter, "Photo Darwinism," and tell them that if they want to be in that 10% [That made more than $48k] they need to know as much or more about running a small business—accounting, marketing, negotiating, selling, pricing and cost control—as they do about photography. This business is so competitive, that talent is a given. Clients aren't choosing between good photographers and bad photographers—they're choosing between really good photographers and other really good photographers—so you have to be bringing as much to the table as you possibly can. If that's a challenge that you're willing to meet, then you'll do fine.

"The most common comment I get is about how I handle lifting equipment. People still think it’s cute, I guess. But when you think about it, most of the 50-ish male photographers I know have bad backs and can’t lift anything anyway. It used to be my favorite thing to carry heavy bags in and watch guys fall all over themselves to help me. I’d watch their faces as they tried to lift just one bag and then realize that I was carrying two."

Margaretta Mitchell on the inverse relationship between women, money and accessibility

"I think for women today getting into photography is not a big deal. In fact I think there’s something to think about here. There are so many female assistants and photographers now. When you have a field that is suddenly very accessible to women, you know that the big money is being made [elsewhere]."

"I’m part of the architectural specialty group and over 90 percent of the members are men. Now I’m going back to teach at the Arts Institute and it's the opposite—98 percent are women. It will really be interesting to see where this is going to take us."

"Women have been told this big lie that we can be perfect women, have a perfect career, a perfect family … and the truth is that you have to compromise and pick a few things that you can do well. And even then you have to compromise. My best advice is to set your priorities and follow through with the things that feel more important."

"The women [in my classes] are very interested in how I juggle family life and career. Some have children, but they also want to know about relationships, and how do photographers have time for everything?"

"I feel like work will always be work. Don’t ever put it before anything else because at the end of the day, work is what we do so we can take a holiday. But luckily for photographers we do something we enjoy."

Lisa DeCesare on the challenges and advantages of being woman photographer and how that has changed over her career …

When I started out as an assistant, you wouldn't believe how many executives asked the photographer I was working for—male, of course—why they are making me carry all that equipment! Then, when I first became a photographer and hired male assistants, you wouldn't believe how many clients spoke directly to the assistant as if he was the photographer and I was the assistant. Then, when I went into business with my business partner—again, male, of course—several people believed I was his secretary. Now that I'm on my own, my clients work with me for my own merits and it has never really been an issue.

"Also, I think there are more women in the advertising field now and because of that, it seems that I work with more women than men. So, maybe that is an advantage to me. I believe most photographer/client relationships are based on personality. So in essence, the people who will work with you—and you with them—is based on how well you get along, whether you're a man or a woman."

"Some of the things I experienced in the past have been so ridiculous they sound ludicrous. An agent once came back and asked me what happened between a particular art director and me, and I told her I had never worked with him. She said another AD had wanted to use me but was 'warned' by the [first guy], 'Well she certainly has a mind of her own."

"If you ever told me growing up that having a mind of her own could have a negative connotation I never would have believed it."

"I certainly never found it to be a disability. Sometimes it definitely worked to my advantage. I worked in Belfast and did editorial photography over there. It was rough times and the media was not particularly thought well of. But as a woman they really backed off from me and were very courteous. All the men were there with backwards baseball caps, and I’d show up and show my credentials and they’d say, 'Let us know if we can do anything for you."

"The only time I even thought of myself as a female photographer was when I was in Belfast. The only women involved in the photography group were office assistants making coffee. They were aware of the oddness of the situation and asked me to teach a class specifically for women. I was asked to take them out and have them photograph because they were used to being pushed to the back by the males. I was very glad that I lived here instead of there."

"Being a woman definitely works to my advantage sometimes, especially when working with children. I've done some editorial work with people at family centers and I think they probably respond a lot better to a woman than a man. Some have been abused or traumatized, and as a woman I have a somewhat different approach to these subjects than a male photographer probably would."

"I think that women have some advantages. I find that when I do corporate portraiture, or have assignments to photograph men, that I am generally very well received. There is a different chemistry between men and women, than between men and men, or women and women. I used to sense that men were intrigued by a woman coming with assistants, with the equipment, being in charge. This may have changed. Usually though the person you are asked to photograph respects you as a professional. And you are treated as such."

"In my office—and this is where I discriminate—whenever possible, when all other things are even, I will hire a female intern every time because they are not taken seriously at other businesses."

"I’ve heard of other women who were never given the chance to go on location when younger male interns were immediately given that opportunity. I have had male interns, but I tend to hire women because they don’t get a fair shake elsewhere."

"I have four older sisters all of whom work in diverse fields that all happen to be male dominated, and I would have to say that I've encountered far less sexism from both my fellow photographers and my clients than they have in their careers. Certainly manufacturers tend to design gear for larger hands and I know several female assistants who have had a hard time proving that they can schlep gear around as well as their male counterparts, but once you're actually working as a photographer, in my experience, all that matters are your images and your skills."

"I do think there's a fair amount of ageism in our industry. When I was in my 20s and I'd go to buy 4x5 film, the people at the camera stores would treat me like I couldn't possibly know what I was asking for, let alone how to use it. Now that I'm 40, they treat me with respect but our assistant, Maili Godwin, who's 24 still gets the same patronizing and dismissive attitude that I was getting 16 years ago."

"As a young woman, it was hard to be taken seriously. There's this posturing that a lot of photographers do that reminds me of roosters staking out territory. You know, before they'll take you seriously, they just want to make sure you know your stuff. They're hard on the young men, too, but I think perhaps they're a little more willing to cut young men some slack. Now that I'm an established photographer, though, I haven't experienced that kind of attitude in a decade or more. But it's hard to say how much of what has changed relates to attitudes about women and how much relates to age. Part of that may be because I've earned a reputation as an expert in digital capture and imaging so most of my colleagues view me with a certain respect. Part of it may just be that I'm more confident. All I know is that I really haven't experienced any gender bias among my fellow photographers or clients for over a decade."

"Maybe because I'm in a small market, it has never been a huge issue for me. But it’s always a mystery; you'll never really know which jobs you lost because you're female."

"Certainly people are not as surprised to see a woman photographer as they used to be, but I have a name that can be either male or female and it still happens that I show up with a male assistant and they'll look at him instead of me. What has changed is that I’ve gotten smarter about how I handle it."

"I think the best thing we can do is teach by example about how professional women act, both towards our clients and towards other photographers."

"We are lucky enough to live in a time where much work for women's rights happened before we became professionals. We, and our contemporaries/colleagues are generally enlightened enough that we think of sexism as a problem of the past. In reality, sexism, like any prejudice, is often subtle and insidious. Insidious because we become accustomed to it on some level. We tend to ignore or discount it believing it is a thing of the past. It can easily be perpetuated without conscious awareness of doing so. And my experience is that women often aren't any better than their male counterparts on this matter. Sexism is equal opportunity when it comes to underestimating the capabilities of female photographers."