[Leica] free photographers

[Walter S Delesandri <walt@jove.acs.unt.edu>]

Hi,

Enjoying the thread about the "value" of photography.....

I work in a university photo dept.....I get AT LEAST three requests a week 
for photo "students" to do "photography" for "practice".....weddings, 
advertising, public relations, what have you.....

I put the inquiring person on the spot....I tell them that I don't have a 
"student", but that I can refer them to a number of reasonably price 
"photographers".....then I listen to them squirm.....often, these are 
secretaries or assistants who have been given the task of finding a "free" 
photographer....I ask them what they earn, and what their boss earns....etc...
of course, they don't like that, so when they ask who I am (I don't answer with 
my name)so they can complain, I hang up on them....(we don't need good PR...
we have 200 students and room for only 100 -- that should be a hint-- every 
one of these will hit the streets as a "photographer" soon....willing to 
work for $6/ hour......)

The problem is just like being a blues guitar player in Texas.....thousands 
of good ones, (at least fair) and ten jobs.....and most of them will play 
for free, if asked.....

If you want big bucks, learn a trade that no one (few) else are doing.....that's 
simple supply and demand....with every tom, dick, and harry weilding a nikon 
N-something with a goddamn auto flash bigger than the camera, everyone's a pro....

Photojournalism's the worst.....everybody wants to do it, they'll take whatever 
job and pay they can get...often $17,000, furnish their own car, and pay their 
own insurance (if they have it offered at all)....and three more guys waiting 
for their job if they quit.....can you blame the employer, who's responsible to the 
publisher or stock holders for the bottom line?  Why pay for photography?

I should have listened to my elders......done something else....like my sleazy 
cousin the lawyer or the other sleazy cousin the doctor.....now there's a license 
to steal....

Walt