Freelancing for Magazine Companies

[ddelplato]

Hello,

I'm 17 and I've been serious about photography for many years now. I am going off to college in NYC in the fall. Recently, just to gain more experience and better credentials, i've been thinking about contacting magazine companies about publishing my work. Most of the work I do is concert or fashion. My main question is if I shoot concerts around New York, could I contact magazines (lets say such as rolling stone) and have those images published? Or do i have to go through an application progress and etc.? Will I be turned down because of my young age? Are there any magazine companies that would publish ANY of my work?
Honestly i just want to get a foot in this business now because I believe it will help me a lot in the long run. Some of my main career goals are to work at BLT productions as well as GQ magazine. Honestly I really just need some guidance on what to do to get me in the right place. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here is my website: Danielle Del Plato - Home

-- Danielle

 

[BlackSheep]

There's a book called "2014 Photographer's Market" that you could check out, it's published every year and includes info on which magazines, etc would buy what type of images.

I also wanted to say that I'm not a pro photographer, but I was really impressed with your website photos!

Good luck!

 

[KmH]

With sufficient self-motivation, self-promotion and determination you can accomplish pretty much anything.

Each magazine will have somewhat different requirements and needs.

The quality of your photos will factor more than your age. The drawback your age likely poses is your lack of contacts in the industry.

Some of the photos published in magazines are accompaniment to an article. The article writer usually takes the photos that go with the article.

15 years ago editorial photography paid decently and many magazines had staff photographers that took the photos for the author of the article..
Today editorial photography pays very little and pretty much all the staff photographer jobs have been eliminated.

 

[CCericola]

Intern, intern, intern. It's who you know. Then you win over an agent that will represent you. The agent gets you the gigs, you shoot, you get paid.

 

[12sndsgood]

just starting out and getting into the fashion field I would start thinking a bit smaller. there are tons and tons of small fashion magazines out there that are more user submitted. meaning there small and take submittals from photographers and MUAH and models etc. This gives you a magazine to go to. to submit to, to find out what is really necessary to get your photos into fashion magazines. Start looking around for the smaller magazines and give them a look, it's not as simple as taking a cool photo and emailing it over, they want to know who all was involved, they will want to know every bit of clothing, every bit of jewelry etc. so you have to go into a shoot with a plan ahead of time, it needs to be planned out. Do that a few times and you may find them asking you to make an article or more substantial submission. This is going to get your feet wet of working with magazines so you know what your doing, this will also build you a portfolio of published work which will help you when you go to the bigger magazines.

 

[acparsons]

Intern, intern, intern. It's who you know. Then you win over an agent that will represent you. The agent gets you the gigs, you shoot, you get paid.

I agree. Not paid, but it's a step up from just shooting for fun.