I moved to LA for a bit to pursue my fashion photography ( I am from London) and its a LOT more commercial you won't get so many opportunities for high fashion s just depends on your preference. I find people in LA expect to get paid whereas in NY and London we are willing to do a lot more for free this is good and bad.I noticed in LA. a lot of people with like 0 portfolio or something in London we would consider pretty bad just expected to get paid for tests from the photographer who wouldn't be making any money from this shoot. This mindset just seemed to keep them stuck and with rubbish portfolios. In London and I assume New York we test a lot and build our books where all creatives give up there time and the stylists in general a LOT stronger than any I saw in LA and I think really people in LA just expect to get paid right away without any real skill level. I also find it weird how they expect a photographer who is also testing to pay them especially when their portfolio is much slimmer and not as good as the photographer. It's just a different mindset good perhaps for making money but also somewhat delusional for becoming great. I think problem we ended up finding here though is people working for clients for free /cheap. That has seriously diluted the industry to where everyone expects everything for nothing, but I thought the testing was great to build skills and books when everyone is gaining from the experience and no one profiting more than the others. I think borrowing clothes was weird in LA too they had to pay to borrow here pr loan for free so that added to the fact none of them wanted to test unless it was a paid shoot and it just meant it was REALLY hard to find talented stylists etc over there.
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I love to get the West Coast vs. East Coast perspective – so thank you for this! I feel like being based out of New York for just about anything creative is a double edge sword. On one hand you get the whole, I’m trying to hack it in New York in one of those most oversaturated cities in the industry so there is a certain pride in that. On the other hand… unless youre a super established insider its so hard to break into the industry AND GET PAID.
As you mentioned there is some amazing talent out here and everyone is just scrapping by, especially in the beginning working for free and its so tragic because it feels like at this point - by the time all of the creatives are 25+ and have been buiding their books already for quite awhile you wouldn’t think it would be out of the question to get paid! My girl @kenseyjean is an amazing photographer and shes touched on her social media sometimes about her experinces in the industry that sound very similar to yours.
So weird that PR wants to be paid to loan samples out there! I get it for celebrity dressing but for a test shoot or an editorial in general? No way!
Have you shot in New York before? Is it New York where you were finding its hard to find talented stylists or LA?