Marketing Fine Art Photography by Alain Briot
"I know people in the ranks who are going to stay in the ranks. Why? I'll tell you why. Simply because they haven't the ability to get things done!" — Dale Carnegie
Seemingly addressing the thousands of photographers who would like to make (or make more) money selling their photography comes this challenge from a professional who made enough money from the sales of one print to pay for his house in cash, "Put up or shut up." That's the message that lies between the lines in Alain Briot's third book, Marketing Fine Art Photography. Briot’s point of view isn’t intended to be harsh, but revelatory for the casual shooter.
His first two books helped readers learn how to master composition and creativity, develop their own personal style, and learn landscape photography. Now he reveals the results of years of hard work, trial and error, and experimentation to become a successful purveyor of fine art photography.
Briot says that the first key component of long term success (both artistically and financially) is, "Photography must be your career in order to succeed." He re-iterates this point in his three part definition of "fine art photography." The three parts are: artistic, technical, and marketing, each of which is further divided into as many as fourteen parts. He says, "The photographer must consider himself an artist." For Briot, a photographer doesn't "capture an image", he "creates art". Both the career choice and self image as an artist are quite simply attitudes — attitudes not fully embraced by the photographic hobbyist.
As my personal sales mentor, Jim Winner, always says, "You have to accept responsibility for your own attitude," if you're going to be successful at doing what Briot recommends with the title of Chapter One: "Taking Control of Your Destiny." In his studies and research, Alain Briot draws upon the work and inspiration of people like John Maxwell, Zig Ziglar, Percy Whiting and Dale Carnegie. Carnegie used to tell people to speak or write about something for which they had earned the right to talk about. Briot certainly has earned the right in this instance and has the success to back it up.
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