Look Before You Leap...

Almighty Lord, somebody got my back up the other day. Introducing myself as a professional photographer, I was greeted with a comment that I’d imagine many other photographers get levelled at them. ‘What was wrong with a proper job then?’

I wonder if anyone else gets as peeved about remarks like that as I do. Among some people lurks a preconceived idea about my profession being some manner of airy dreamland for bored and divorced city workers. They’re out there, of course – oh, they’re out there – but what I would genuinely like to know is:
a) for those who did it, what is actually wrong with deciding you’ve got enough out of working in the city, and moving on to something new;
b) what their impression of the photographic profession is actually based on.

Deciding on photography for a living is quite some commitment. Whether or not you decide to take a lengthy course for a qualification, there is networking to do, there is marketing to do, you have to fork out an inordinate amount on equipment you can depend upon, you spend hours and hours (and hours) processing images to the last detail before handing them over, you manage and maintain an ever-growing library of images, you get asked to do a great many jobs that are anything but glamorous (I was once commissioned to photograph a BIN), you do those jobs under intense pressure and, to top it all, the person hiring you occasionally regards you, a trifle disrespectfully, as a dreamy, bored former city worker.

Let me tell you, if you are under any illusion that the photographer’s profession is somehow an easier one than yours, you are wrong. I chose to pursue photography not because I dreamed of being there on the Norfolk coast every morning, capturing boats at sunrise and then selling prints on a daily basis for £250, but because it is something that I am good at, in the same way that anyone does a job based on the skills that they have. Would you accuse a lorry driver, a librarian or a graphic designer of not having a proper job? Of course you wouldn’t.

There is a world of difference between taking a camera to the countryside of a weekend and doing photography for a living. Of course it’s a great pleasure, but it’s also a very difficult pleasure, just like many less 'glamorous' professions. Please understand that, and bear it in mind next time you ask one of us what was wrong with what we did beforehand. If, after that, you still have to ask, there is no hope for you.