Mentorship
MENTORSHIP
Since the beginning of my career, I have been lucky to receive tremendous help from other photographers, mentors and workshop leaders. I strongly believe that they have been instrumental in helping me improve my vision and build a business in this crazy industry. Today, I would like to offer the same to other photographers who might be on a similar path.
My photography mentorship program has evolved since its inception in late 2018. In its current format, there are two separate parts: first, as before, a completely free one hour informal portfolio review and discussion about your photography and the industry. The second part, which is new (and completely optional), is a longer term relationship where I follow your work, check in at regular intervals and help you develop your career.
Part 1
- Once or twice a week, I will run an hour long one-on-one mentorship discussion with someone. The format will be half an hour portfolio review of some of your work, either a specific project you are working on or a general overview of your current portfolio, and half an hour of Q&A on whatever questions or concerns about the photo industry you want to talk about.
- The instruction will be on skype video, unless you happen to be in Chamonix and manage to catch me there. It can be in either English or French.
- This is completely free and without any commitment on your part. At no point will I ever ask you for money, nor try to upsell you Lightroom presets, instruction videos or anything. You can pay me back by producing good work and being an outstanding member of the larger photography community.
- This is open to anyone who is serious about their photography, whether you are a passionate amateur, a photography student, considering a career change or in the first few years of being a professional.
- Because the photo industry suffers from a big representation issue and is so overwhelmingly white and male, priority will be given to photographers from under-represented communities, from gender, sexual orientation, disability or ethnicity.
- I will gladly review photography in any style, medium and genre, though of course there are areas I know better than others;
- Please respect my time, make sure you are on time or slightly early, make sure you are calling from a quiet place with a good internet connection and that skype, your microphone and all other equipment work properly.
- Finally, though I will of course do everything I can to avoid this situation, I reserve the right to unilaterally cancel or reschedule any session.
To get a spot, you simply have to send me a quick email with a paragraph summarizing who you are, telling me a little bit about your work and what you would like to discuss during our session. Please make sure to include a link to your work (portfolio website, flickr gallery, even your Instagram feed). I will be in touch shortly to try to schedule a time for our session.
Part 2
If after our initial session, you feel that you could benefit from a longer term relationship, please let me know.
- We will discuss what kind of frequency makes the most sense. It will greatly depend on where you are in your photography career and how much time you have at your disposal. Frequency can range from weekly to bi-yearly.
- I can help with both the artistic/technical side and the business side of photography, portfolio and website edits, marketing, promo design, etc. Please note that I am neither an accountant nor a lawyer, though, so might not be able to help on all the fun tax and legal stuff.
- I will charge for my time, on a per hour basis. Since these are tough times for a lot of us, I will definitely take into consideration any special circumstances. Just talk to me.
- Because of the aforementioned representation issues, I will offer one or two full "scholarships" each year to photographers from under-represented communities (from gender, sexual orientation, disability or ethnicity).