Jessica Millman Photography
  • Home
  • About
  • Projects
    • Rocklyn
    • Mangrove Mountain
    • Ash Grunwald Tour
    • Kallidad @Heritage Hotel Bulli
    • Artwork/Video Installation
    • ABC Open Illawarra
    • Feedback Project
    • Illawarra Folk Festival
    • Landscapes
  • Bio
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Destinations
    • Canberra, ACT, Australia
    • Melbourne
    • Queensland
    • Tasmania
  • Illawarra Folk Festival
  • News
  • Policy
  • Products
  • Web Services
  • Yoga

Exposure doesn't pay the bills

5/11/2013

1 Comment

 

Would you work for free???

Picture
Of course not!

Please don't ask Photographers, Performers or other Artists to work for free! I have personally spent more than TEN YEARS honing my skills and there is nothing more insulting you can say to any artist than; "There's no budget but the exposure will be great for you!"

This video may help explain:
"People who would consider it a bizarre breach of conduct to expect anyone to give them a haircut or a can of soda at no cost will ask you, with a straight face and a clear conscience, whether you wouldn’t be willing to write an essay or draw an illustration for them for nothing. They often start by telling you how much they admire your work, although not enough, evidently, to pay one cent for it." (Krieder, 2013)

Author Tim Kreider provides a template for a polite response to those who ask you to work for free:

Thanks very much for your compliments on my [writing/illustration/whatever thing you do]. I’m flattered by your invitation to [do whatever it is they want you to do for nothing]. But [thing you do] is work, it takes time, it’s how I make my living, and in this economy I can’t afford to do it for free. Thanks again for your kind words about my work.

I would like to add something along the lines of; "Please feel free to contact me when your budget allows for paying the artist". Or something less nice ;)

One last thing you may want to consider if you have a friend/relative who is a professional photographer - please do not casually ask; "Oh, and can you bring your camera to my party/event/wedding". If they want to bring it and take photos as a gift to you, lovely. But you wouldn't say to your friend who is a tax accountant; "Oh, and can you bring along your calculator?"
It just isn't good etiquette.




1 Comment

RICHARD STALLMAN GUEST LECTURE

16/10/2010

0 Comments

 
Picture
Copyright vs community in the age of computer networks’ and activism

I had the pleasure of going to a public meeting to hear Richard Stallman speak about ‘Copyright vs community in the age of computer networks’. Stallman is the founder and president of the Free Software Foundation (fsf.com).

Ostensibly Stallman’s talk was on how copyright was developed in the age of the printing press and was designed to fit with the system of centralised copying imposed by the printing press as an industry standard and not a legal process. But after settling us in with a few jokes it became clear that Stallman is an advocate for free software and quite good at the politics of expressing these ideals. He was very convincing. It took a while before people realised they were being preached to in a sense but eventually people started to peel off (generally well dressed software engineers who didn’t like being told they should be giving their work away for free I imagine ;)

Stallman had some great ideas about the egalitarian distribution of software and I began to wonder who he was to speak on the matter with such authority.

Stallman is himself a software engineer and in fact created an alternative operating system called GNU. He is also quite famous in the ICT world for creating a program called ‘Emax’ in the 80’s as I was later told by a fellow attendee.

Stallman’s talk ended with a question time that he further used to expound his own philosophies rather than engaging on an equal footing with his admiring public. Just when we thought we were free to go he instigated an auction for a small plush toy – an “adorable GNU”. I watched in amazement as the bids went up from $10 to $100 and were still coming in thick and fast. I must admit, I did not understand the cause behind the auction though Stallman told us it was for ‘charity’. In a way he was right I suppose – what if we did all have access to free software of every description? Would it be a Utopian world?

Later I interviewed the winner of the precious GNU toy which sold for $170 to a software engineer. “If you think about all the free software I’ve gotten from them [fsf] over the years, $170 is nothing really. It was worth every cent”.


My advice is, if you’re a hungry student, go to all the public lectures you can! You might learn something, meet people of varying degrees of celebrity but best of all, you can enjoy free triangle sandwiches and fruit platters!!!

WHAT IS GNU?

"Dr Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system in 1984 which is free software -- everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small.

The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux added, is used on tens of millions of computers today.

Dr Stallman has received the ACM Grace Hopper Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award, and the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Betterment, as well as several honorary doctorates"   UOW website, accessed: 12/10/2010 http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW088113.html



0 Comments

    Author

    I am a Performer, Photographer, Promoter, and Digital Communications Officer based in the Illawarra, NSW Australia.

    Archives

    September 2015
    August 2015
    November 2013
    September 2013
    May 2013
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    May 2009

    Categories

    All
    2010
    4am
    Art
    Asana
    Camelot Lounge
    Camera Advice
    Chris Jordan
    Classifieds
    Community
    Copyright
    Drawing
    Dslr
    Dwipa Kitchen
    Effective Email
    Environment
    Etiquette
    E-waste
    Exposure
    Fsf.com
    Gnu
    Gypsy
    Healthy
    How To
    Late Night Bus
    Marrickville
    New Students
    Northern Suburbs
    Photography
    Point And Shoot
    Professional
    Public Lecture
    Recycling
    Relaxation
    Restless Leg Syndrome
    Richard Stallman
    Scholarships
    Solar
    Sol Studios
    Summer Bus
    Tech
    Thirroul
    Tutorial
    Undergraduate
    Uow
    Vegies
    Welcome
    What\\
    Wollongong
    Women
    Yoga

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.