Every fashion week photographer starts his or her career somewhere. Mine began behind a desk in the Hearst Tower building, not too far from my current office now. It was the first day of my internship in the photo and bookings department at Harper’s Bazaar. All dressed up in heels I could barely walk in, a hot pink blouse and dress pants, I was overheating in the sweaty NYC 80 degree summer sweat.
My internship was far from the “Devil Wears Prada.” I learned an incredible amount that prepared me for my fashion week photographer days. I did research on celebrities being considered for the cover. Chronicling their hair and beauty styles in a timeline of photos, so an actress like Nicole Kidman didn’t show up to the shoot in an unexpected short bob when shoot involved long Khaleesi waves. I made binders upon binders with names of the top photographers and their agency contact information associated with samples of their best work. I researched locations for shoots, studios and otherwise, and reviewed the industry’s top models on Models.com. Fresh faces coming in for go-sees had the pleasure of shooting with little intern me.
I even bought every bright green sticky candy at Dylan’s Candy Bar for a photo shoot where they wanted to dye the girl’s tongue green. Sadly the green Kool-Aid was discontinued at this time.
Time not spent in the Harper’s Bazaar office, was spent researching fashion. I kept notes of photographer’s I heard of at the office in a notebook actually titled “Photographer’s I Met and Liked.” I flipped through fashion books in Strand Bookstore trying not to make ice coffee ring stains on the pages. I wanted to shoot fashion week and was determined to know everything about it. I took everything I heard and saw at my Harper’s Bazaar days to prepare me for that following September’s fashion week.
Creating a portfolio that is your vision and demonstrates the type of work you want to get hired for is essential to being a fashion week photographer or any type of photographer.
Studying street style and culture was just as important as knowing past seasons and runway looks. I knew if I had a street style heavy portfolio, I had a good chance of getting an editor to hire me for fashion week. The editor doesn’t need permission of access to cover street style, so it was a great “in” to the beautiful chaos that is NYFW.
That summer I shot any interesting person, female or male on the days I didn’t intern. I approached strangers on the street and told them why I wanted to shoot them (their eye color, fuzzy bag, unique tattoo etc.). Most of the time people were flattered, although I was once hit with a cane from an older woman in Little Italy. By the end of the summer, I had a diverse set of street style images to show and pitch to editors for fashion week. They didn’t know I wasn’t hired to shoot them. The photos were personal work that I treated as assignments. Even if I couldn’t get an editor to hire me for NYFW to cover street style, I knew I could post myself outside shows and photograph attendees myself. I then could email the photos to editors with the work I already created. It is a risk to photograph and pray you sell the images after, but sometimes you have to take a risk and shoot on your own to prove your worth first.
There is no excuse not to take the photo you want. You don’t need a model, a press pass or secret access to Dior gowns.
You can contact a designer who maybe is a student looking to have their designs photographed for their Parsons’ portfolio. Enlist your friends as models and pick a spot in NYC on location to shoot. When you show the photos to an editor, you don’t need to tell them that the model is your childhood friend who you paid with french fries and a milkshake.
That summer I photographed a lookbook campaign for a friend in a studio downtown. That experience and work led to my first assignment at NYFW. The designer whose lookbook I shot ran a blog and had access to Vera Wang, Zac Posen and Reem Acra amongst other shows for that September’s NYFW. A lot of fashion week is based on connections. Who knows who. Sometimes a job may not be interesting or exactly what you wanted, but that person may know the photo editor at W or Vogue or WWD. I would shoot a job for free in hopes of an introduction or connection. In the end, it’s worth it.
Assisting is another way to get hired during NYFW. I spent a year assisting and editing which much like my internship, gave me access to the world I desperately wanted to be a part of.
The fashion week world may seem like an exclusive club, but the truth is if you work your hardest, show your worth, and are thankful to those who help you along the way, there is room for everyone in NYFW.
