How Photo Schools Train Tomorrow's Pros

Every year, more photo graduates are going directly into the work force. Do they have an understanding of professional business practices in negotiating fees, estimating jobs, finding representation or approaching clients? To find out how photography programs are preparing students for the real world, we took a look at some typical business courses taught at schools across the country.
While some schools have only one required business seminar, the six schools in our survey offer a curriculum that balances the practical with the artistic, with real-world courses taught by experienced photographers, supplemented by lectures by working pros or field trips to photo studios.
What follows is description of the six courses, with key topics covered and –for those working pros inspired to brush up their own business skills—required reading lists.
--Research by Dana E. Rouse

AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Austin, Texas

Course Title: Photographic Studio Management

Course Description: This course is set up to help students learn what it takes to start up and run a business. Covers taxes, insurance and marketing, portfolio preparation as well as personal marketing materials. In the first half, rofessionals who work with photo businesses come in to address the class. In the second half, working photographers visit to answer questions about how they approach the business.

Instructor: Bill Woodhull, department chair, has 15 years experience in the professional market.

Reading List:
Business Basics for the Successful Commercial Photographer by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua
Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
The Guide to Negotiating by Richard Weisgrau
Power Marketing for Wedding and Portrait Photographers by Mitche Graf
Wedding and Portrait Photographers Legal Handbook by Norman Phillips and Christoper S. Nudo, Esq
The Real Business of Photography by Richard Weisgrau
Pricing the Photography by Michal Heron and David MacTavish
The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

Related Courses: Currently in the degree plan, Accounting for Non-Business Majors teaches QuickBooks and all things related to taxes for small businesses. In Fall 2007 a course will be added entirely devoted to marketing and selling.


DAYTONA BEACH COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Daytona Beach, Florida

Course Title: Professional Photographic Business Practices

Course Description: Offered with support from ASMP, this courses introduces students to the professional practices required to successfully run a photographic business. Topics include business types and structures, legal and financial issues, promotion and marketing, billing, pricing and copyright. Guest lecturers include professional photographers, an attorney, an accountant, an insurance agent, stock and magazine agency representatives. During class field trips, professional photographers provide tours of their facilities, show their professional and personal work, and talk about their careers and experiences. Portfolio presentation is emphasized throughout the course, and the segment on marketing and promotion covers issues like planning your promotion, researching your market, and establishing clientele. Other topics covered: Employment Options and Creative Teams (including ad agencies, editors and publishers, the wedding/portrait business, museum and gallery personnel, newspapers and reportage); Introduction to Business Practices (including tax and insurance, contract terms and conditions, pricing and creative fees, releases, permits, mark-ups, residuals and royalties); Business Planning and Financing; Business Ethics (such as discretion, solicitation and loyalty, and client, employer and employee responsibilities), and Career Entry.

Reading list : Professional Business Practices in Photography, Allworth Press.

Instructor: Kevin Miller is Director of the Southeast Museum of Photography in Florida. He was previously the Department Chair of Visual Arts at Daytona Beach Community College and head of the photography programs at Charles Sturt University and the Melbourne School of Art, both in Australia.

Related Course: The Field Survey class is a course in career exploration in photography. In addition to the traditional classroom experience in business, each week a working photographer or professional working in a related field provides the students with practical information about their day-to-day life as photographers.

MISSOURI SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
Columbia, Missouri

Course Title: Photojournalism Business Practices

Course Description: Concentrates on expertise photojournalists need in order to be successfully self-employed. Covers critical legal issues such as copyright, business licenses, and model releases. Also covers practical financial and self-employment issues, such as pricing, invoices, estimates, archiving, insurance, taxes and financial planning. Students are introduced to the different kind of agencies that represent photojournalism. The course time is split between lectures and practical applications. Students are required to query a magazine with a completed story, and to include a self-promo or business card. Students learn how to generate a number of forms: model releases, estimate, confirmation, invoice, contracts and delivery notice. Other topics include how to apply for a business license, and how to calculate their cost of doing business. Course requirements include a paper about a photo agency or about a freelance photographer the student has interviewed.

Instructor: Jackie Bell (Associate Professor, Photojournalism) teaches fulltime and shoots her own work. She has 15 years experience with newspapers and magazines.

Reading List:
ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography, 6th Edition by the American Society of Media Photographers
Business and Legal Forms for Photographers by Ted Crawford.
Other readings are provided during class, and several assigned readings are on the web (mostly from
the Editorial Photographers web site, ASMP and NPPA Business Practices pages).
A suggested text that will be on reserve is the Photographer's Market:
2,000 Places to Sell Your Photographs by Donna Poehner.

Related course: The Photojournalism Portfolio, in which students learn about various types of portfolios and are required to make two during the course.

PARSONS THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN
New York, NY

Course Title: Semior Seminar Lab I&II

Course Description: Seminar I covers business practices for commercial and fine art photographers. Discusses marketing, branding, bidding, pricing fine art and commercial work, copyright, resumes, galleries, artist statements, editing and packaging your work for presentation, and how to meet and approach galleries, magazines and ad agencies, among other topics. In Seminar II, a production course, students create web sites to accompany other promotional material.

Instructors: Paul Aresu, Barbara Bordnick, Arlene Collins, Terry Towery, all working photographers; Jeffrey Martini and Michael Wiemeyer, web site designers.

Reading List: The ASMP Business Bible is being used in Senior Lab classes.

Related Courses: Senior Seminar is a year-long class: the first part covers resume and portfolio presentation, how to identify, acquire, and maintain clients; how to approach a gallery or a museum; how to negotiate contracts, copyright, and reproduction rights; what the tax advantages and liabilities are of freelance status. Other practical classes include Intellectual Property and Art Law, and Transitioning to the Professional World, in which student examine current market conditions, branding and how it applies to the young photographer entering the market; the art of the estimate; how the magazine, design, advertising and retail worlds differ and discuss issues such as the use of digital technology vs. film and who is using what and why. Portfolio presentation and professinal practices are built into most photography classes, including Fashion Photography I and II and others.


SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
Savannah, Georgia

Course Title: Business Practices for Photography

Course Description: Topics include freelance work, studio management, basic accounting, copyright law, contracts, licensing agreements, negotiating fees, taxes and general business protocol. At the end of the course, students are expected to have gained competencies in research, resume writing, business etiquette, contract writing, estimating, invoicing, taxes, working with creatives, and portfolio development and presentation. The class brings in visiting artists and lecturers. In the 2006-2007 semester, visiting lecturers include Greg Gorman, Gray Scott, Spencer Tunick, Vince Musi and Len Jenshel.

Reading List
The required text is a custom course pack that is a combination of content written by the professor who designed the course (Jenny Kuhla) and copyright-cleared content from various sources. These include:
Create Your Own Destiny by Selina Oppenheim
The Art of the Estimate from the APA Business Handbook (copr. 2001)
The Licensing Business Model: Why It's So Important from the APA Business Handbook
The PDN Guide to Insurance by Carroll Lachnit
Estimating 101: Making the Triple Bid Work for You by David Walker (originally published in PDN)
Excerpts regarding bookkeeping and accounting basics from www.nolo.com
SE Tax (pass-through) guidelines from the IRS website
Content from the US Copyright Agency
License Terms & Conditions and Model/Property releases excerpted from Business and Legal Forms for Photographers by Tad Crawford

Instructor: Jenny Kuhla is a fine art photographer who, prior to teaching, worked first as an Account Executive and then as an editor at a stock photography agency.