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!!

  • FullOfMeeKrob@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Contact the opening bands for asking for a press pass from them instead of the headliners, who probably had 100 photographers reaching out to them.

    Also, try reaching out to the record labels themselves.

    I’m in your same situation but have had some luck recently when a band I shot in the past asked me to be the photographer for their label’s two day festival. It was good publicity and networking.

    Try to link up with a local newspaper or blog and take pictures on their behalf or start your own site.