FINDING YOUR VOICE

Photographic agent Mark George has represented the likes of Richard Avedon and Sir Don McCullin. Here, he explains why you need to create a unique style and how to go about it

-  Mark George

Even with the incredible advance in the technology that digital photography has brought us, the important elements that go into taking a great picture have not changed at all. Here is why.

I started representing photographers in 1978 and, since then, I have managed many great photographers. Back then, the UK was leading the way in commercial photography, but there were only a handful of photographers who had ploughed the path that led them to be considered great. These few were breaking new ground, while the rest were just following what had gone before.

Over the years, although the number of commercial photographers has exploded, the number of great photographers has not increased exponentially. And although the change in the technology of photography has been quite remarkable, making it easier to take a picture, to edit, to post-produce and to print, we still do not see a plethora of great photographers. Over the next few pages, I’ll look at how the greats approach editing, what makes a photographer unique, and why quality always wins over quantity.

It is not the equipment a photographer uses that matters or even the advances of technology with that equipment. What has always been and always will be important, is shooting with your ‘heart’. To be precise, the common denominators that will create unique work are heart, honesty, soul and passion.

These should always be the driving force behind each part of what makes up the trinity of photography – deciding what to shoot, how to shoot it and the edit. Stick to these criteria and the result will be a body of work that creates a recognised unique style that can only belong to one photographer.