PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Greetings from the fantastic metropolis (my home town) that in one week will host the NFC championship game. (Go Cardinal Nation!) I’m here attending the Imaging USA conference sponsored by one of our founding members, the Professional Photographers of America.

This isn’t really a policy conference; it’s more on the art and craft of the visual arts, and the business of said art and craft. But copyright is a central part of the business of any artist. The myartspace blog shows that symbiosis in two recent posts on “promoting your art online” and on “stealing images online… and other copyright issues.” (Speaking of copyright, there’s an insight on that topic at the end of this blog post, which has a broader theme.)

What have I learned so far here in the Valley of the Sun, other than the fact that this is a football town just like any other, it’s just been in hibernation while waiting for the Cardinals to awake from a 50-year slumber? I’ve learned a lot, more than could possibly be condensed into a blog, but the two main themes I learned today were that it’s all about the art, and it’s all about the brand.

Grammarians will say I need to focus on one or the other, but what I’m hearing is that artists shouldn’t.
An amazing demonstration by Jerry Ghionis of his incredibly innovative wedding and fashion photography showed what it means to be an artist. Mr. Ghionis isn’t opposed to technology. He loves modern digital cameras that allow him to change ISO from shot to shot. He even uses Photoshop, but noted he really only uses it for cropping and color tweaking. To make his amazing shots he uses available settings, light and material.

The award-winning Australian photographer said if MacGyver had been a photographer he’d have been the best in the world, because the best photographer makes the most out of what is at hand, from a bride’s veil to the bright yellow wall of a big-box electronics store. Have you ever been to a wedding and seen family members snapping away with their point-and-shoots over the shoulder of the professional photographer? He said he doesn’t care if people do that, because the tricks he’s doing not just with props but with lighting and settings can’t be duplicated by those other photographers.

Mr. Ghionis has made himself into one of the top photographers in a very crowded profession, wedding photography. Clearly his artistic vision and craft has helped him rise. But also during his talk he described his vision for his work, namely he wants all of his work to make the subjects beautiful, through flattering angles and lighting, but also to appear beautiful naturally. In other words, even though his poses can be awkward based on his use of setting and light, he strives to make the ultimate photo look as if the bride was caught in a completely candid moment. This gives her an extra level of beauty.

This is part of Mr. Ghionis’ brand. He says this is his style, but it is perceived by others, and that is key, because as PPA President David Trust explained in a seminar this morning filled with about 400 attendees, brands are set by your customers, not you. (Full disclosure, Mr. Trust served ably as a Copyright Alliance at-large member in 2008.)

Mr. Trust said at least a dozen times that branding is not about art. He got audience members to admit they all know great photographers who struggle financially and mediocre ones who thrive. According to Mr. Trust, the secret to having a strong brand — something that will bring customers back, something that will lead to recommendations, something that will allow prices to be raised — is giving something extra to the customer. An example was getting to actually know the customer, and follow up in ways relevant to him or her, because one spends eight times as much bringing in a new customer as you have to spend keeping an existing one. He said the former is operating like a hunter, the latter like a farmer.

These are principles true for all branding, as Mr. Trust acknowledged. He cited Dasani (owned by Coca-Cola) and Aquafina (owned by Pepsi), JIF peanut butter, Starbucks, Haagen-Dazs, and other brands. He said artists need to be like a great car salesman. It should come as no surprise that many photographers around me were squirming. They didn’t like being compared to sellers of commodities.

But that was Mr. Trust’s point. Photography can be about commodities, but photographers lose when selling commodities. They need to sell a brand. JIF didn’t become the number one peanut butter by promoting how good their peanut butter was in comparison to rivals, they said “choosy mothers choose JIF” and mothers, not wishing to treat their children poorly, bought JIF. While Mr. Ghionis’ art was obvious to me, Mr. Trust said most consumers can’t see the differences in quality of photography that a photographer can. You can’t expect a consumer to automatically go for the better quality photo; you have to give them a customer experience that goes beyond expected customer experience — I was on time, took good photos and delivered them to you promptly — and give something of yourself. Make it a personal experience.

From hearing Mr. Ghionis talk, he does that on every shoot. Why, he only carries a few pieces of equipment and acknowledged some of them are just there so he’ll look professional. He’d rather use what’s on hand, make the bride’s home or neighborhood part of the shot. He then combines that personal touch with photos that no other photographer would imagine. He gives them the art and the brand.

Oh, another thing about Mr. Ghionis. He stated flat-out that he earns his living through prints of his work. Of course he has a digital camera, but he doesn’t just hand his customers a disc and move on with his life. I remember reading recently a blog post by someone hostile to copyright law who was complaining that the photographer for his upcoming wedding wouldn’t just give him the photos.

When my daughter bought a poster of a Georgia O’Keefe painting recently at the National Gallery of Art, should she have had a right to insist upon the original artwork? That work is in a fixed medium, paint on canvas, and Mr. Ghionis’ photos are in a fixed medium as well, a combination of ones and zeroes on a hard drive. The estate of Ms. O’Keefe has the right to profit from reprints, as does Mr. Ghionis. If he were restricted to one business model and one business model only — sell all rights to all photos — he would hardly have the same financial incentive to continue producing such fine art, and brides and grooms across the world (he travels internationally) would be the poorer.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 8:56 pm by Patrick Ross and is filed under advertising, creators, events, licensing, market forces. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.