Anyone have contacts at EDM festivals?

[Matthew_Parent]

Looking to start shooting with them. Anyone have any leads? Thinking of Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle, Electric Daisy Carnival. etc. much appreciated!

 

[tirediron]

Have you tried contacting them directly? Most organizations like this tend to rely on "free" photography, and there is generally no shortage of people who are quite happy to spend their own money to be an "official" photographer for <eventname> event.

 

[Matthew_Parent]

Actually not yet. For some reason I always assume people are closed off and unreachable. Aside from that, I'm looking to shoot a photojournalism series about the porn industry in Las Vegas and Craigslist hookups in L.A. if anyone knows anything about that haha. I know... weird.

 

[MOREGONE]

Have you tried contacting them directly? Most organizations like this tend to rely on "free" photography, and there is generally no shortage of people who are quite happy to spend their own money to be an "official" photographer for <eventname> event.

Thats not really true at the shows he is speaking of because they are at the top of the industry.

Burning Man requires everyone to have a ticket to the show and everyone is welcome to bring a camera. But you have to permission in advance to use the images for any type of commercial use. They do not have media passes for magazines and such. Its the nature of BM.

EDC you will absolutely need to have a huge following and a proven track record if you want to shoot for the promoters. If you don't have thousands of followers on social media your best bet is finding a media outlet that you can shoot for or maybe an artists, but that I would suspect is a little harder at EDC given the amount of artists and amount of photographers there will already be.

I don't know much about LIB other than I want to check it out soon.

You will need local experience before you can start moving up to these massive events IMO. Of course nothing is impossible I am just touching on the typical path.

I got pretty lucky and started shooting for the largest newspaper in Phoenix right off the bat. There was a show coming to town I wanted to shoot (Wet Electric). I sent off 3 emails to editors and one replied. I didn't get to shoot the show that year but they offered me another gig instead, DJ Mom Jeans, aka Danny Masterson, aka Hyde from That 70's. But for the next 2 years after that I was the guy they sent to shoot it.

 

[Matthew_Parent]

Right on. I really appreciate the detailed response. I figured as much, and I don't want to shoot for them full time. I simply wish to shoot a piece from a photojournalism/ documentary perspective, which I am trying to break into. I'm new to the game but trying to learn the best I can. I figure it's not always the case of work-up-the-ladder-til-you-get-there. Looking for a proven and known way in through the backdoor. Otherwise I move on to other photojournalism projects. That's really cool you started like that. Very impressive!

 

[vfotog]

Right on. I really appreciate the detailed response. I figured as much, and I don't want to shoot for them full time. I simply wish to shoot a piece from a photojournalism/ documentary perspective, which I am trying to break into. I'm new to the game but trying to learn the best I can. I figure it's not always the case of work-up-the-ladder-til-you-get-there. Looking for a proven and known way in through the backdoor. Otherwise I move on to other photojournalism projects. That's really cool you started like that. Very impressive!

nowadays almost no one gets a photo pass if they are shooting for themselves. if you are well known, maybe, but otherwise, realistically it just isn't going to happen. you need a publication behind you and for the big events, space is limited and conditions even more restrictive.

 

[Matthew_Parent]

Understood sir. Can you think of any publications to speak of that would take content on? I would love to do a piece on say the carnival dancers at EDM or a particular group of people at Burning Man and follow them around as a photojournalism piece on festivals.