working as an assistant for free

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<p >I have read one print book, an ebook, and a lot of blogs on assisting. One thing I have heard over and over again is don't assist for free. My experience includes a degree in photography, assisting a wedding photographer, and assisting commercial shooter once about five years ago. I will also be attending a photo assisting workshop this weekend. I am chomping at the bit to get into assisting and I have no problem working for free to get my foot in the door and make some contacts. Quite honestly, I don't know why a commercial shooter should pay me good money to assist when my experience is so thin. What do you pro shooters think of someone marketing themselves to work for free?</p>

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<p >Thanks,</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Rocky</p>

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<p>I would also be interested in hearing some answers to this question.</p>

<p>I'm not a commercial photographer and (thank goodness) don't get that many people asking me to intern and/or assist with me. I think though that if I'd probably value someone less if they were willing to work for free. On moral and ethical grounds I wouldn't accept it, but to me it would speak about what value the person puts on himself if he is willing to work for free.<br /><br />Then again, in this day and age I understand that people are willing to do this to get their foot in the door so I can see both sides of the issue. Would be interesting to hear from someone who have a couple of assistants on a regular basis and see what their take on this is.</p>

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<p>I think though that if I'd probably value someone less if they were willing to work for free.</p>

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<p>I'd value them more, because it tells me that they value my experience and knowledge.</p>

<p>As a past commercial photographer and custom printer, I have always considered it a privilege to pass on what knowledge I have. Indeed, one young photographer I mentored, went on to become an assistant for <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Leibovitz">Annie Leibovitz</a>. What use is knowledge if it is not passed on? Young people have a difficult enough time nowadays and those prepared to 'hustle' for their careers and passions, will always have my respect. </em> </p>

<p>Before coming to B&H I shot for 20+ years and assisted wedding pros before taking on my own stuff so I've seen both sides. People who work for free are too often worth what they're paid and photogs who take on free assistants get what they're paying for.</p>

<p>If you're worth the time, you're worth the dime.</p>

<p>My <em>PERSONAL </em>opinion!<br>

- Henry</p>

<p>I have hired many assistants over the twenty years I have been shooting commercial/industrial/architectural work. I have always paid the assistant. What I have paid them differs depending on the talents they bring with them.<br>

When shooting text book work using ten kids in a shoot I would use a woman assistant with good skills with kids. If I had a shoot in a canyon where we needed to get equipment in I had an assistant I would call who was 6'7" and could lift my SUV. In the last few years it has been important that I use an assistant with good file management skills and experience tethered shooting through Lightroom. It all depended on what I needed from the assistant. All of them were paid in today's dollars $125-275 a day.<br>

I have known photographers who used unpaid help they called interns. I have never had an intern only freelance assistants working by the day or at most a week.</p>

<p>It sounds like you have plenty of experience to be a paid assistant for the right person. Keep looking and contact photographers repeatedly. What has amazed me was of all the people who have called over the years asking to assist, 98% of them only called or contacted me once. Keep contacting them if you are serious about working for them.<br>

Good luck. It is a hard time to assist with so many photographers under such pricing pressure.</p>

<p>I too pay my assistants when they produce something - it's only fair. True, I do have people often come and assist in truly menial jobs just to get a feeling of how a commercial shoot flows, but I rarely if ever trust them with something important and therefore it's much, much easier to justify not paying them.</p>

<p>As for how much, my price list usually breaks down assistant costs separately (usually as part of a complicated formula based on project costs, etc), so they know how much they'll be getting from the get go. However, this ALWAYS comes with the caveat of them having to produce what I hired them for at my specifications - otherwise, they get zilch...</p>

 

<p >Thank you for your insight especially from the commercial shooters. No offense to you non-commercial shooters but I am just looking for opinions of commercial photographers. I hope some more commercial photographers will weigh in. I am still not sure what route I will take and any advice form people in the industry would be appreciated. That being shooters or professional assistants.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Thanks</p>

 

<p>Using unpaid assistants is morally deplorable but sadly increasingly common. Very often when taking decisions about career steps in a creative industry, it pays to ask the 3 big questions:<br />Am I having fun?<br />Am I learning something?<br />Am I getting rich?<br />Three "yes" answers is perfection, two is good, even one is OK, but none means "Don't do it!" Quite frankly, if you can afford to work for nothing, you can only gain by doing so, subject to the above - if you're learning and advancing your career, fine, but do not tolerate exploitation.</p>

<p>Morally deplorable? Exploitation? I'd swear this thread is about a grown adult assisting on a photo shoot not ten year olds working 18 hour days in a third world sweatshop.<br>

University students all over America spend summers working as unpaid interns to gain real world experience and face time with potential employers. I see no reason why you should not do the same thing for x period of time in your chosen field.</p>

<p><<Morally deplorable? Exploitation? I'd swear this thread is about a grown adult assisting on a photo shoot not ten year olds working 18 hour days in a third world sweatshop.<br />University students all over America spend summers working as unpaid interns to gain real world experience and face time with potential employers. I see no reason why you should not do the same thing for x period of time in your chosen field.>><br>

If you need it spelling out for you ... if entry to certain professions is possible only through unpaid internship, this limits entry to candidates from moneyed backgrounds, who will be predominantly white and middle-/upper-class. It slams the door in the face of poor people, ethnic minorities, etc. Is this the kind of society you want?</p>

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<p>"If you need it spelling out for you ... if entry to certain professions is possible only through unpaid internship, this limits entry to candidates from moneyed backgrounds, who will be predominantly white and middle-/upper-class. It slams the door in the face of poor people, ethnic minorities, etc. Is this the kind of society you want?"</p>

 

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<p>David, nowhere has it been suggested that unpaid internship is the only way into the profession of photography. In fact, most of the responses in this thread have indicated that they would indeed pay their interns. In the case of the unpaid girl that I mentored, she was an Asian of limited means, to which I would provide processing of her film at no charge. Sometimes the greatest thing you can give a person is encouragement and a 'leg up'.<br /> Any more 'straw men' to knock down?</p>

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<p><<David, nowhere has it been suggested that unpaid internship is the only way into the profession of photography.>><br>

Al, you are quite correct - I too did not suggest that it's the ONLY way. To the best of my knowledge, the practice of unpaid internship is more prevalent in the fields of magazines and newspapers, radio, TV and movies. Furthermore, I readily acknowledge that there are some photographers honest enough to pay their assistants. None of which detracts from the fact that unpaid internship is socially and economically discriminatory.</p>

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<p >Gentlemen,</p>

<p > </p>

<p > I had no intent of starting a political or moral debate. I am asking this question from a business and career perspective. I don't have any problems working for free. Hell, I spent a lot of money to go to school and I worked my ass off. No one paid me a dime for that. In fact, I would learn a lot more working under a photographer in the field then a photo professor teaching me about the underlying message of a Jerry Uelsmann print (no offense to Jerry Uelsmann). The last time I posted a question about assisting I got great insights from incredible photographers who are working in the field. I am hoping I could get some advice from someone like that or a freelance assistant who is working today.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Thanks</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Rocky</p>

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<p>It occured to me that you should specify in applications why you feel you should be paid for your work as an assistant. I am seeking work as an assitant at the moment and have specified that I would like to be paid for my work but have specified why and it is not that I feel it is my right to be paid in order to preserve income standards in the industry.</p>

<p>Read the information on sites like <a href="http://blog.nwjobs.com/careercenter/hiring_interns_for_free_labor_is_a_no-no.html">http://blog.nwjobs.com/careercenter/hiring_interns_for_free_labor_is_a_no-no.html</a></p>

<p>The main reason you can't work for free is that US employers who understand current labor laws will not hire you.</p>

<p>As of this date, I've been an intern just over four years at a photography studio and I'm much older than the usual intern. However, after six months, I've had full use of the studio and equipment. After a year, I can get a an letter of recommendation to help secure work in the same field. And over the years, the same studio has helped other interns secure work as a photographer with letters of recommendation. Or continue on as a associate photographer or run their own photography business at the same location. <br /><br />I don't see what all the fuss is about. There were times when parents used to pay professional artists so their kids could learn a profession. And the school where I spent lots of money to learn photography simply did not give me the kind of education I'm now receiving. I'm still learning and my eye keeps getting refined. <br /><br />Personally, what I need to do is build my portfolio and I hope to get started doing that in early 2011. <br /><br />

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<p >I only plan to work for free a couple of times in order to build relationships and showcase my work ethic. An internship of over four years seems extreme to me. I would never work for anyone who would allow someone to work for years and not pay them a cent. That doesn't sound like anyone I would want to be associated with on any level. I don't care how good the perks are.</p>

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<p><<I don't see what all the fuss is about.>><br>

If the words "immoral" and "discriminatory" mean nothing to you, consider this - most people who know me would say I was middle class, but when I was a child, my father's war injuries prevented him from working for long periods and my family had virtually no money. If I had not been able to get a job with the British government as an assistant photographer (paying £10 a week in 1969), with one day's college training a week, I would never have been able to become a professional photographer. As it was, I was forced to stop working as a sideline in the music industry, because none of the dozens of publications I acheived over a period of a year or so was paid for and I would have needed to finance myself for 2 or 3 years before earning enough to live. It annoys me very much that young people today in the same position now as I was then are being denied career advancement simply because their families are not rich enough.</p>

<p>"...this ALWAYS comes with the caveat of them having to produce what I hired them for at my specifications - otherwise, they get zilch..."<br>

Mario: <br /><br />I don't know where you are based but in the US of A and in the State of California this is illegal. Both Federal and state law prohibit employing anyone without paying them. Furthermore when using interns they must meet 6 criteria for Federal law the main one being that the intern cannot be used to provide a benefit to the employers bottom line. Interns are there to learn not to provide "work". Take a look at this link: http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/23795 </p>

Assisting a(pro) photographer is not new. But it has become a way to get people to work for free especially in places like

Los Angeles! It is the new trend with the so called pros! When I was young I assisted a pro photographer but he paid me

and taught me a few things on top of that. It just seems wrong for a grown man or woman to work an eight hour day for

someone who is making money. But if you are okay with this sort of thing.....

 

I learned a valuable lesson years ago. If you lower your standards or your fee today, you are expected to lower your

standards or your fee tomorrow! Worse than that is what people will perceive of your work.