I just got some amazing news, but I need some advice from industry professionals.

[sashbar]

Happy for you, congrats. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[limr]

Dan, I had no doubt that you would get it!

 

[tirediron]

Most excellent!

 

[DanOstergren]

Here's my 2 cents:

Congrats. Getting into any top line endeavor in NYC is hard, even as an intern.

NYC and photography is OF course about the photography... except that of course you can do the work, at which point it's not really about the photography at all... it's about BUILDING YOUR NETWORK of friends, contacts, references, relationships and resources. And your body of work.

This internship is like a Harvard MBA for a photographer. Of COURSE you're going in to learn photography. But that's only like 40% of what's going on here. The rest is all about building that little black book and spidering your way into all the business aspects of things too.

Soo... with that in mind... watch your mouth and your step. A single "bad" moment can undo a reputation built with a decade of hard work. I'm not saying you should be anyone other than who you are... but do make sure that who you are doesn't cause any problems for anyone else along the way.

The fashion industry in NYC is very shrill and catty, and the more peripheral you are to it, the more shrill and catty and the less professional it gets. You don't have to fix any of that... just make sure you don't get caught up in it either!!! Have a heart, be decent to everyone... even the hopeless schlubs who you know have no absolutely no chance (as models, as MUA's, as photographers, as designers or whatever). You never know who they know or where they will end up or when you will come across them again. You don't have to mow other people down to get ahead. Building other people up will land you much farther ahead in the long run. Always be positive, constructive, proactive, productive, and contributing to shared and team success, and your own success will follow.

Now go get em ;-)

Thank you so much! This is incredibly useful!

 

[mmaria]

Great :cheers: I'm sure you'll get the best out of the whole experience!

I enjoyed reading nycphotography's 2 cents, he advised you like a family member would

 

[Warhorse]

Congratulations!

Now your career can have a firm base for future success's.

Also, you can start paying more into Social Security to help make my life a little more secure when I retire. :mrgreen:

 

[nycphotography]

Oh, and one more thing... to be successful in the arts you will have to build an extensive network of powerful allies... of people who TRULY WANT you to succeed. As opposed to an extensive network of powerful enemies who REALLY want you to fail but are all smarmy and smiley in your face and you never suspect what catty **** they're saying behind your back. mrowr. lol

To this end, make sure you collaborate with EVERYONE in a way that works in the real (corporate) world, as opposed to how "honest critiques" get handed out on TPF.

Instead of: "this is horrid. it doens't work at all. the color is all off and your composition is bad."

Use: "This doesn't really work for me." ("FOR ME" is important. it allows room for the FACT that it could work for someone else somewhere else) "I think if the red cast weren't there and if you composed with the bla in the bla in relation to the bla that it would be spot on." (take the moment to show them exactly where you are coming from and where you think they could be successful. Even if they wash out of whatever they're doing, damned if they won't eventually find their true talent in something peripheral... and then one day you're work crosses their desk and they remember you were the one person who actually treated them like a person...)

NOBODY in the real / corporate world who isn't the RARE top dog gets to slam people the way critiques are bandied about on TPF. The bad blood eventually catches up with them and they get sidelined, fired, setup for failure, sabotoged, or otherwise dealt with.

Mouthy Michael (Kors) and Horrid Heidi (Klum) get to act that way on Bravo not so much because they're top dogs, rather it's because they're being paid to act like asses, I mean, create drama, for a TV show. But if he treats his designers like that in his company then all he's doing is investing his time and money in training them so when they get fed up and leave they'll be key assets for his competition.

I'm sure you already know all this... but it never hurts to read it again from time to time ;-)

 

[binga63]

good luck ...

 

[DanOstergren]

Thanks for all of the support! I can't wait for this to start!