The beauty of freelancing is in the name, it can be quite freeing and liberating, as it’s not a repetitive daily slog to the office. But the dark sides of being free(lance) are always rearing their heads.
Given the state of the photojournalism industry in 2024, the number of full-time staff jobs out there are probably a couple of dozen at most (a guess). For the rest of us, and even the big shots, it’s a life of forever freelancing.
Freelancing in truth often means working for free. I’m not talking about when you’re hired on an assignment, it’s all that other stuff. The story researching, pitching, accounting, admin, safety planning and logistics, constantly brainstorming story and feature ideas in the meantime, whilst trying to build your network of contacts with photo editors, as well as the protagonists for stories. If it sounds tiring, it is.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bc2359b-abba-4652-8118-f5e080f7f747.heic)
So how does an average month of freelancing usually pan out? The problem there lays within the question itself - there’s no average month when it comes to the news cycle, or freelancing.
I’d guesstimate it’s around this:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1fd7c28-31aa-44a4-bb4e-40152459fa3d.heic)
Key points to remember when freelancing -
Diversify your income stream when it comes to editor contacts - try and have a balance of editorial, corporate, portrait, & other photo editors in your Filofax.
Aim for some vague sense of stability - no month will be the same, but getting to a semi-stable annual income each year would be the ideal, so you can better plan expenditures, and stress less.
Remember that we’re all in the same boat, everyone is struggling and just trying to make ends meet - it’s an endless hustle, unfortunately.
When starting out, I was full of idealism and optimism for the photojournalism industry. I still retain some of it, of course, but I didn’t really comprehend how the industry worked. I assumed that being somewhere and shooting something I thought was important, would be enough to spike a photo editor’s interest - FALSE.
Be smart with your pitching - link it to either a timely event or topic, or go the other way, and make it timeless - which will bode well in the longer term. When you’re walking into any story idea, or having a brainstorming session, think of why a photo editor would be interested to show their audience this set of images, what is it adding to what’s already been shot on the topic?
PITCHING realities - The majority of the time I write and email over my carefully crafted pitch to an editor, and then hear absolutely nothing back. Sometimes I get emails at 11pm asking if I can shoot something the next morning - fortunately I’m a night owl. There is zero stability, and you have to roll with for better or worse, whatever happens.
One month you can be working back to back, squeezing assignments in amongst themselves, and other months, there’s a dearth of any work. The quiet times are perfect for personal projects. In my first proper substack post, I discussed the importance of having a solid, long-term personal project, or several, so keep morale up by shooting that.
So, make the most of the ‘good free’ freelance bits - the diverse workflow and subject matter, liberation from the desk, being your own boss - and do your best to stay afloat/upbeat during the ‘bad free’ freelance patches - all that behind-the-scenes work without anybody paying you - because those ones will be bloody rough.
Another post on freelancing will follow sometime in the future - looking more at the nitty gritty - all the paperwork, lack of sick pay/holiday pay, financial instability, copyright infringements, etc. Get your prozac / beers ready :)