Chances are, I’ll probably receive some form of backlash for this article, but it is just something I have to get off my chest. I recently did a magazine shoot featuring a reasonably known individual on the cover. Before the shoot, their publicist sent me a contract to make sure I would not be doing anything else with the photos outside of the magazine; which I suppose is an understandable request.
However, after the shoot, both the art director and myself received e-mails from the publicist requesting to review and approve any images of their client before the magazine went to press. At this point they were really pushing limits.
I’m left to ask, what is it that they actually do for their client? They didn’t get their client on the cover – we directly offered it to the subject. They didn’t help in the orchestration or planning of the shoot. They just seemed to get involved without being needed to slow things down.
We had a similar experience in which we had a cover shoot scheduled, once again, directly with the subject. After everything was already booked and confirmed their publicist got involved and after a series of e-mails littered with lies from the publicist, they successfully managed to get their client removed form the cover and placed into a much smaller feature.
Once again, what is the publicist actually doing for their client? How is this helping your client? Is there something I am missing here?
At the end of the day, I completely understand and respect a publicists desire to protect their client’s image. However there does not seem to be the same respect given towards professional photographers realizing that our name goes on our work as well and we are not out to make your clients, and especially our work, look bad.
James Patrick
jamespatrick.com
IG @jpatrickphoto
