How would I go about selling some professional photographs?

Question

I have a friend that is unsure as to how to go about marketing her material... she has a website set up (www.ciaracusseaux.com) with some of her pieces visible.. can anyone offer any suggestions, ESPECIALLY if you're involved in the industry?

NOTE: These are artistic pieces, not journalistic.

THANKYOU! :D

Answer 1

Well depending on the city you live in she could start with local art fairs. If she is thinking mainstream she can copywright her work and send it to publishers or art dealers. The city I live in is really big on art so we always have art fairs for local talent. Tell you friend good luck and Nice work!

Answer 2

Despite the artistic intentions behind this work, I would not classify this work as fine art photography, but would in all aspects consider this as commercial photography. So in terms of marketing this work there are several things you can do. You need to adress the target market for this type of photography. One of your primary targets would be advertising/design agencies who will typically go out and hire photographers for their clients although approaching clients works as well if they do all their design in-house. However, before you go out an approach an agency at least have some idea of what kind of work they do. Give them a call if you have to, and also be sure you know who makes the decisions about photographers. After you have done this you are going to need a concise and elegant portfolio which you can present to the agency as sort of a reminder that you are available. As to what kind of portfolio you choose is up to you, typically it is going to be disposable, i.e. don't send original prints. Multimedia presentations are nice, but many of these professionals might not have the time to load a DVD, or CD. I would suggest creating a small pocket sized on-demand book for example if you have an Apple and I-photo there is an option to create a book. However, there are other on demand book softwares for PC if that is what you have. Anyhow, this can be a costly solution, but spare no expense as far as presentation is concerned, first impressions are often times the last in the commercial photo field. Another thing you can do is have announcement cards with your best work presented on the front with all the important information on the back phone number, website etc... In terms of presentation though be as creative as possible, a lot of these agencies see the same thing everyday, and if you can distinguish yourself from the others, all the better. By the way there are lots of books on art and marketing, as well as books on starting out in commercial photography, just take a look on amazon.com. Anyhow good luck.

Answer 3

One possibility is to sell them to a stock photo company. Another option is to find a restaurant or art gallery that is willing to put them up on display and maybe charge a small consignment fee.