freelance paradigm

During the time in whch I neglected this blog, I did quite a lot of reading and educational watching. I watched the entire series of Justice class from Harvard, and I really liked this episode where they discuss the price that can be put on a human life.

I also read this book that Chase Jarvis recommended.

But enough about my academic pursuits.

What I realized more vividly than ever is that even intangible things must sometimes be tagged with a price in Euros. Which often sucks.

As a photographer I must attach a price tag to my photographs or my work in general. More often than not, I make critical errors in judgment, but not in my favor. I usually charge far too less. I tend to forget what I invested in my self and I also forget what I bring to the table. And I think I am not alone in this. It is a general thing among artists, not just photographers, but also painters, illustrators, writers, movie makers, musicians... etc.

It would be too easy to blame it on society, even though it plays its part too. The value that creative work has is often intangible and hard to defend financially, so people tend to diminish it in negotiations with the artist. They often do it on the basis of time ("You did it in one day..." "I don't earn so much in 3 hours..." etc) or material costs ("You only used this much of color"). You hear it everyday...




Yesterday a society of photographers in Slovenia called Enoooki (one-eyed) distrubuted an edition of our biggest daily newspaper Delo - but without photographs. It becomes very clear what the value of a photograph is, once you miss one.

Think of your wedding/graduation/family/whateveryoulike photograph(s). How much would you pay to get them back if someone stole it from you? That's the price!