Blog

The answer: Never! If you are relying on one portfolio, one set of images, you certainly aren’t tailoring your work to the interests of your potential clients. At the risk of being repetitious, let me say again that if your only interest in photography is shooting glamour/nudes, you may ignore the above directive. However, unless you are one of the lucky and talented very few, it is unlikely that you can make a business out of glamour/nude photography alone. If being a “professional” photographer is your goal, that is one who makes enough money doing it to pay the rent, you need to diversify your areas of expertise and use your good judgment when approaching a potential client.

A little Playboy story to illustrate my point: Christie Hefner made the acquaintance of Phil Knight, the owner/kingpin of Nike. He even made a visit to our Chicago offices and toured our photo studio and photo archives. He was very friendly, even seemingly receptive. Nike was a much sought after advertiser for Playboy but all efforts to land even one Nike ad had failed. Christie used her charm to convince Phil to allow us to make a presentation at the Nike headquarters in Portland. I was to be a centerpiece of the presentation since I was not only the Photo Director but also Playboy Sports Editor who selected Playboy’s prestigious All-America teams on college football and basketball. Christie, editor Arthur Kretchmer, art director Tom Staebler, our two crack West Coast ad reps plus myself made the trip to Portland. I carried along several of the team photos of the All Americas who had appeared in the magazine, including, of course, Michael Jordan, who had become the face of Nike.

Knight met us in a large conference room in one of main buildings on Nike’s campus. He was very friendly. We all chatted over coffee. Now it was time for the presentation. Knight said “Let me bring in my staff who make all such decisions for me” and quickly left the room. Six women staffers came in the opposite door. I went into my dog and pony show about the long and illustrious history of the Playboy All-America teams. Someone in our group had also brought along the three most recent issues of the magazine, one of which featured a nude pictorial on five particularly buxom sisters. I went on with my presentation as the Nike staffers paged through the issues of the magazine. I couldn’t help noticing that they lingered over that one five sister pictorial.

About Gary Cole

The meeting ended and the Playboy group was left alone in the room. Christie turned to us with a cheerful smile and said “Well, I think that went pretty well.” Arthur, Tom and I looked at each other knowingly. Hell would freeze over before Playboy would ever see a page of Nike advertising.

Photos: Michael Raveney

My point is simple: if you show a potential client the wrong image, and it needn’t necessarily be a pictorial of five nude sisters clustered together, you’re not going to get the job. Of course, we probably wouldn’t have landed any Nike advertising even without those magazines on the table, but at the moment when perhaps we had a chance to make a valid marketing point with Nike, their attention was diverted by something that had negative overtones for them, that emphasized that we were not the appropriate medium for Nike advertising.

If you shoot lots of glamour/nudes, be careful which clients see it. For some of them, it may be perfectly appropriate. For some, it may be the kiss of death.

Think about this also when arranging your website. Categorize. Separate. Don’t put together online slide shows that are too diverse. Better yet, put together specific slide shows to show to specific potential clients. See photographer Michael Raveney’s website for category samples.

It’s nearly seminar time. Hope to see all of you there.

~Gary Cole

© 2015 Copyright ShootTheCenterfold.com. All rights reserved.