Notice: This post is made out of frustration and you can leave your thoughts and anger here too.
I am 25, female, german and a freelance photographer. Since a year I am trying to get into concert photograpy with pay. The first 10 concerts I did of course for free to build my portfolio but now I reached the point where I want to get real jobs and some respect for my work.
But as many fellows know it is a hard world out there and you have to give 200% effort to get 2% chance on landing a job. So one of my strategies were writing pm‘s to concert photographers on instagram with the question if they could be so kind and spill the tea about experiences in the business.
Guess what? The answers were vague and short or you would get ignored. Further it would stop at telling the simple thing of which lens they used. I get it that everyone has their own style and tries to protect it but you can nit be replaced that quickly by just helping one out with some info.
Can someone tell me about similar experiences? Is there someone who is not afraid of giving informations about this photography sector? I would really like to not feel alone anymore with this behavior.
Thanks guys!
Summary: Freelance photographer trying to get into concert sector but struggles to get paid jobs. Succesfull photographers won‘t have a conversation about their experiences. Hence their the biggest gatekeepers in my opinion!!
Yeah this is not gatekeeping.
This is people who you do not know who you have never meet not wanting to take the time to reply to a random stranger online messaging them. I am sure if their work is good they probably have lots of messages asking to use their photos for free, or for them to do free shoots for smaller bands etc… that they also ignore or give short replies to.
There is zero benefit for them to and they are not obligated to take time out of their day to give free advice or lessons to random people.
It would be different if this was part of a class, educational series, or you were talking to them live specifically about concert photography and they refused to share details.
Gatekeeping is such a bad buzz word
It’s a very real thing and absolutely happens even in photography. Just not in this example.
Gate keeping is the 2022 gas lighting
Had this the other day. Lady messaged me on Facebook saying she wanted a photo I posted. Replied a price, she then wanted me to teach her how to take shots using her iPhone. Didn’t want to pay for the photo or “lesson”. I won’t waste my time on random messages anymore.