Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

NuMetal Cub asks on the Discord server, What, in your opinion, are the most reliable places for an up-and-coming photographer to send in photos to be added to a magazine, book, journal, or website? I’m just asking because I’ve been at it for years now and never really cared to get published in that way but I do think it would be nice to add to my portfolio. Have you ever considered starting a photo magazine?

Ok, a couple of things you need to know….

Print publications are not all they are cracked up to be anymore. Back in the day, that was a primary means for photographers to make money. I personally know many photographers who made a career out of selling images to publications.

Today, print publications don’t pay very much, if anything. Their budgets for photography have dried up, so it is very difficult to make money that way. The same is true for websites. They don’t have money for photography, so many of them just use stock photography services.

If you are interested in just getting your stuff to appear in publications so you can say your work has appeared in publications, then I would just start sending emails with links to a portfolio of your work.

There really isn’t much more to it than that. Identify who you’d like to work with and start from there. I wouldn’t start with something like National Geographic. Start with smaller publications or websites.