What a great opportunity! VII is an amazing photo agency with a roster that includes photographers like Lauren Greenfield, James Nachtwey, and Antonin Kratochvil. And now they are going to review others for potential membership (for those of you who don’t know, it’s a sort of co-op–not your typical photo agency–so being a member means being a partner).
Go to the VII site and click on “VII Membership” (top of the page) for details.
Then, gird ’em up, put together a great set of images and bio/statement, and send! What’s the worst that’ll happen? You won’t get chosen–which means you’ll be in the same place you are now. But if you are selected…wow!
I have an issue with this attitude:
QUOTE
“Then, gird ‘em up, put together a great set of images and bio/statement, and send! What’s the worst that’ll happen? You won’t get chosen–which means you’ll be in the same place you are now. But if you are selected…wow!”
Although from the submitties point of view this is true but if we put ourselves in VII shoes would you want this? I am sure that VII would want people to submit their work only after they have studied the Compaines current and past work and philiosophies and then decided that their own work would be of benefit to VII?
The critiera that VII are asking for are people who can ‘add value’ to the Company. This sounds like a highly specialised positioned and not just for anyone to send their work in.
Thoughts?
Marty
Sure, from VII’s perspective I’m sure they want the best photographers they can get. But we should let them decide who that is–they have, after all, left it open to anyone to apply and I think they did that precisely because they know the pearls are often hidden.
Most of the time, the photographers I know are their own worst critics and would never even consider applying to VII because they think their work is nowhere near good enough. I’d rather encourage them to try than to let them assume they are right. The very people who might be selected are often the ones who think the worst of their work compared to “the greats” of the industry.
While I highly encourage people to think of others before taking action (in general), this is one of the rare occasions where I say:
Do it for yourself! Let the people at VII decide if they want you or not. If you don’t put yourself out there, you have 0% chance of getting asked to join. Sure, it’s a longshot for just about anyone to get asked in, but the miniscule cost of sending your materials is a fair bet to place on the minute chance that you might just be asked.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
-Leslie
Nicely put,
The philosophy here is to have no fear of the outcome and just try it – something that can be applied to business and all of life.
Regards,
Marty