assisting - initial contact

My studio constantly receives phone calls and emails from people wanting to work for us. The people we hear from are all over the board, from hobbyists who think it would be interesting to see how a studio works to students intent on making photography a career. Who are we most likely to hire? To put it simply, the more serious the caller is about making photography their profession, the more likely we are to give them an opportunity.

Realize that photographers were once assistants and we understand what you are going through just starting out. Photographers generally want to help assistants with their careers but there are certain things that will be expected of you in return. There are three main things we are looking for when a potential assistant calls us (in this order): professionalism, passion and photographic ability. Let’s look at all three…

Professionalism

Introduce yourself clearly and let the photographer know what type of work you are interested in. Since you’ve done your homework beforehand it’s also nice to mention that you are contacting the photographer because you like their work. Make mention of something you saw on their website to let them know you’ve taken time to do your research. This displays great professionalism and photographers always like to hear that someone likes their images.

Contrast this to the people that call us and have no idea what we do. Sometimes it’s obvious that we’re just another studio they’re calling while going down a list. There’s not much there to interest us in hiring these people.

Another key to professionalism is being honest about where you are in your career. If you have never assisted a photographer before then let us know. You should understand that photographers use assistants at all different levels for different jobs. The photo assistant system is hierarchical and larger jobs may involve two or three assistants. On occasion we may use up to three photo assistants:

1. a first (highly experienced) assistant, who works directly with the photographer, camera and computer
2. a second (moderately experienced) assistant, basically an assistant to the first assistant
3. a third (beginning) assistant, someone who may be working behind the scenes, helping people park cars, running for lunch, etc.

Absolute beginners may start out as third assistants and work their way up. A photographer isn’t likely to hire you in for the first time as a first (or only) assistant on a high pressure or high profile job unless you have some experience. We try to give opportunities to beginners when we know the shoot won’t be particularly demanding. It’s a chance for us both to ‘feel things out’ and make sure we work well together.

So, regardless of your level of experience there may be assisting opportunities. And regardless of your level of experience you need to be professional. More about this later.

next: passion for photography