How creative event branding evolved my photography career!

Photography is a vast medium reaching many genres, each of which has a unique formula for making a living. I have friends that create gorgeous fine art, surviving on prints, never having taken on a client. I have friends that make $300K a year shooting exclusively weddings […although most of them are miserable; if you’ve ever photographed a wedding, you can do the math of 150 or more a year]. Wildlife and nature photography lends itself to prints as well, and magazine publications. Band and live music photography […which I’ve ultimately found near impossible to survive on], and then there’s my wheelhouse of editorial fashion.

Over the last 15 years, I’ve learned some hard lessons on crafting a business in the saturated world of professional photographers. In my tool belt, I relied on creativity and hustle to distinguish myself from the countless talented visual artists […all of which wanted the same work]. In Minneapolis, specifically, hustle went a long way. Minneapolis is a big art city. Art is what makes it so appealing. 

Shortly after moving here, I met a mass of brilliant artists, all of which worked at Target, Best Buy or Caribou coffee as baristas […not looking down on those trades, but clearly off base from the path these new friends were meant to pursue consider their artistic gifts]. To my surprise, just walking in to local businesses with a portfolio and my rates got me hired a third of the time, or better. The revelation for me was, yes, lots of talented artist, not a lot of drive to get work in said field. I wrote about this phenomenon in one of my previous blogs “Do hardships and poverty breed good artists?”.

Creativity was my second asset, and more to the point, is what this blog is about. As with most cities, you’ll see the usual ads for boudoir photography. I did a few myself when settling in to Minneapolis as a new transplant. In addition to my love for photography and visual art, I’m also passionate about branding. During art school, I loved graphic design and logo projects. I’ve always loved the idea of wrapping things up in to a neat, well thought out package. The boudoir offerings here in the Twin Cities were, by in large, abysmal. I was good at what I did, but broke, and I saw an opportunity.

Rather than trying to hunt and gather clients […like I’ve been doing for years through word of mouth and meager social media efforts], I put together an event called Lé Confidant. It was, more or less, a boudoir session, but with more of an experience and it’s own identity than the shady dealings you see on CraigsList or Groupon. I carefully selected fonts and color schemes, and laid out all the ads to look cohesive. The website to book sessions matched the ads on Facebook and Instagram, and it did well. After a few weeks, it was booked solid. I realized I was on to something.

The evolution of these uniquely branded photography sessions was, and still is what I’m most proud of. NOIR. NOIR is […meaning still running; in fact I’ll be holding the event in Minneapolis this October and in LA the following month] an annual Old Hollywood black and white boudoir event, inspired by pulp crime novels. Dames and private dicks. Femme fatales and classic beauties. It couldn’t be more apparent that NOIR was different than every other boudoir session out there, and it booked in record time accordingly.

The first NOIR event was held in Minneapolis in 2012, and the following year. In 2014 I held NOIR in Minneapolis and LA. By that point, I’d been fortunate to dig in with the pinup community on the west coast, and NOIR I LA sold out in unprecedented fashion, especially endorsed by Doris Mayday, Micheline Pitt other internationally acclaimed pinup models. Last year’s NOIR events were my most ambitious, being held in LA in August, Minneapolis in September and NYC in October […I won’t be doing that much again any time soon].

The creativity I mentioned went beyond just branding NOIR. I strived to find new ways to promote the event and gain interest. A content was held giving away one from Hepburn session […the entry level package to the event] for reposting ads on Instagram, which was astounding to see how many entries were made. Just have a look at the “NOIRContest” hashtag. In my past life, I was a punk and devoured DIY zines and self publication, so I did an eight page zine for NOIR, writing stories and sharing testimonials from previous years. I also capitalized on new technologies like Periscope, broadcasting the events in each city, in essence, exciting the next city for the event to soon come.

What I hope to reach photographers and readers of this post with, is that our industry is changing at a blurring speed. We’ve got 15MP phones that can shoot DOF portraits w/ bokeh. Mirrorless cameras that can capture 4K [8K shortly down the pipeline] video, allowing perfect stills to be pulled straight from the footage. Beyond the constantly evolving tech, platforms such as Patreon, and now Steemit to fund your work, but it’s the hungry artist […in many cases, that can be taken literally], that finds these tools and applies them to make a career out of your passion. The branded events are something I’ve found to be an effective hack when your client work slows, but overall, it’s the creativity and resourcefulness that’ll navigate you through the tumultuous climate of living as a career artist.

Thanks for reading! I post daily. Follow me @kommienezuspadt!