Nothing infuriates me more in this line of work then being asked to provide a service for free, or even worse, clients who insist in haggling when I know full well they can afford to pay my advertised rates.
Yet it seems to be all too common in the arts and the creative industries.
We wouldn’t haggle on the hourly rates of a mechanic to fix our car, a gardener to mow our lawn, a cleaner to clean our home or a plumber to unblock our drains. If we hire the services and the labour of these people, we pay their rates without questioning it. They’re advertising a service, we have a need that needs to be met that we can’t do ourselves, so we pay for the privilege.
Yet when it comes to photography and other creative services, that ‘paying their rates for their time and labour’ seems to go right out the window. What’s not acceptable in other industries is suddenly ‘acceptable’ in ours.
When you hire a photographer for an event, or to take images so that you can effectively promote your business or your personal brand; you have a need that you can’t fulfill yourself, and we step in to provide that need. Much like the plumber, the gardener, the cleaner, the mechanic.
It goes without saying: no, it’s not acceptable to ask a photographer or other creative to do work for free. It also isn’t acceptable to insist on a lower rate when the line has been drawn.
Yes, a lot of us do passion projects wherein we aren’t expected to be paid for. That’s a completely different circumstance to being asked to shoot an event with no compensation at all.
It’s unfortunate and disappointing that job advertising platforms such as EthicalJobs allow the advertising of ‘volunteer’ or ‘unpaid’ job positions. This is, once again, overwhelmingly prevalent when it comes to organisations seeking creatives: content creators, photographers, filmmakers, and the like. Organisations that (or should) know better, but do it anyway knowing people will answer the call anyway ‘for a good cause’.
It’s just a shame that free labour for a cause, no matter how good that cause is, doesn’t put food on the table or cover the rent.
Organisations with millions of dollars in the bank and who have a roster of paid permanent staff can afford to pay a photographer or videographer a few hundred dollars for work.
The sad thing is, there’ll be people in the creative industries who answer these job advertisements. Of course they do – that’s why these ‘volunteer job’ advertisements keep getting posted. These are people who are skilled and capable who should be charging for their time and work.
Unfortunately, people doing this work for free makes it difficult for everyone else, and continues the cycle of exploitation. People and organisations pass over those who charge for their work because there’s a whole pool of creatives willing to do that work for free.
That people are willing to do this work for free continues to normalise the exploitation of creatives. Yes, I’m blaming my fellow photographers, filmmakers, and artists just as much as I’m blaming those who seek to exploit our time and labour.
The amount of clients I have who ask for a discount or otherwise is reflective of this culture. If I’m discounting, I’m going to expect a pretty damn good meal and/or to be picked up from somewhere and driven to the venue (and dropped off again afterward) at the client’s expense. Ultimately, most of my clients do willingly pay when they work out that I’m not budging on my rates. With me, they’re getting what they’re paying for and they know it.
If people weren’t willing to work for free, if people insisted on something for their time and effort, which I think everyone, students and up, except for those who are literally just starting out in their field, should be doing, I think creatives and artists alike would be a whole lot better off across the board.
The same goes for licensing of work
As someone who posts their work publicly, it’s often the case that media and the like pick it up and publish it in their publications. Often without asking or seeking to enquire about my licensing rates.
This is another layer of exploitation, particularly by media companies that rake in millions in profit. Most creatives don’t even bother following up – they get published, get an attribution line (if they’re lucky…) and it gets forgotten about. That’s to say, freelance creatives absolutely should be following up and insisting on payment after the fact when their work is used by media outlets.
Them ‘crying poor’ (I’m looking at you, NewsCorp) or saying ‘we don’t have a budget for photography’ when you pay your journalists to write and report, amounts to nothing more than crocodile tears.
I’ve always insisted on payment when commercial media use my images, and they always pay up, even if they stamp their feet and delay hoping that I just give up and move on.
The moral of the story here to all who work in the creative industries is, insist on something for your time and labour. You’re not only helping to sustain yourself, you’re also helping others who work in your industry by putting your foot down and not continuing to normalise the pattern of exploitation in our industry.
And lastly, freelance creatives, join the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), your union.
0 Comments