Mark_Thomas
4 likes
• 2015-06-10T20:27:00+00:00 •
Quote from Frai Magazine
The TFP Trap
For those not in the industry, a simple explanation for TFP is Trade for Print or Trade for Portfolio. So a group of creatives get together and each do their part - makeup, model, styling, photography - and no money changes hands. It is a collaboration, a group project with the end result, the images, being payment for the team. This benefits everyone, with each team member working towards a common goal and respecting each others input and valuing each others time. This is an important way for those starting out to grow their portfolio, or for the experienced to explore new things or create just for passion. Well, at least that is what it was meant to be...
In its pure form, TFP is such a valuable tool. Most people in the industry were drawn into it from a passion to create, to explore and to have fun. They start before they consider making money, they start before they outlay thousands and thousands of dollars on photography gear, or grow their makeup kit to where it needs to be insured, when styling means using your own clothing or borrowing from friends, not shipping pieces in from across the county and driving all over the city for hours picking pieces up. They are doing it for the love of it, its fun and can be rewarding. Each offer of a TFP shoot seems like an 'opportunity', a chance to make connections, get a little exposure, try new things. You do this for a little while, build your confidence and then, in theory, you should start taking paid job offers and fill your portfolio with these images from then on in, doing the occasional TFP shoot for fun or to fill any portfolio gaps. Sounds great? Of course it does! So what is the problem?
With the onslaught of social media and easy access to digital cameras, we are swirling in a pool of fresh new creatives, keen to explore and create. This is an exciting thing, we are overflowing in creativity, but this means that there is an abundance of artists out there, willing to work for free. Not just with each other, but FOR others. the term TFP has gotten out, it escaped! It is no longer used just by artists within the artist community, to work together to build each other up. It is used by businesses and brands, and sometimes even huge companies, as a polite way of asking us to 'work for free'. And we are taking up the offers! With so many creatives out there, there seems to be someone always willing to take them up on the 'opportunity'. They have no need to pay money, they offer 'exposure'. And yes, exposure is great, no one is arguing that, it can lead to other 'opportunities', but this is where we have stumbled into another problem.
Those other opportunities, that we have been working so hard towards, are no longer paying either. TFP has also had another detrimental effect.
We like to think that, if your work is good, and you have a good reputation, people will be happy to pay to work with you specifically, because they value you as a professional. This may have been true, but unfortunately, as we work less paid jobs, and do more TFP, our prices for paid jobs need to go up, just to keep us going, so then the companies that are paying, struggling with rising costs themselves, start to be unable to afford to pay what we are now asking. Even though they may like your work, respect you even, they have a bottom line, they are working to make money, so they start looking around to cut costs, and find someone more affordable, and with so many creatives working for free, many very good at what they do, they would be silly not to go down that path. After all, they have nothing to loose if it doesn't work, they aren't paying!
So here we are, caught in the TFP trap.
Look around and you will see disillusioned photographers, models, makeup artists and stylists everywhere, beaten down and exhausted by the industry they once had so much passion for. Many artists with so much potential are crushed by the need to find another job to support themselves. The younger ones can survive by staying at home with their families, but try and grow up and move out, support a partner, buy a house, pay for kids schooling and they are forced to get a 'real' job, and let go of their passion and dreams. The saddest part is, we have done this to ourselves.
Is there a solution. Of course there is. Take back the word TFP! I don't mean we shouldn't do it at all but we need to define it, to keep it to ourselves again. It needs to be a secret handshake among our own community, not a term that brands, labels and the general public can use to get us to work for free! We need to draw some lines in the sand! As a community, it seems we need a little bit of discussion on the matter, to come up with a clearer idea of what TFP encompasses, if we are going to stop our industry from turning into wasteland of broken dreams.
#iwontworkforfree
Words by Lisa Fahey
The TFP Trap
For those not in the industry, a simple explanation for TFP is Trade for Print or Trade for Portfolio. So a group of creatives get together and each do their part - makeup, model, styling, photography - and no money changes hands. It is a collaboration, a group project with the end result, the images, being payment for the team. This benefits everyone, with each team member working towards a common goal and respecting each others input and valuing each others time. This is an important way for those starting out to grow their portfolio, or for the experienced to explore new things or create just for passion. Well, at least that is what it was meant to be...
In its pure form, TFP is such a valuable tool. Most people in the industry were drawn into it from a passion to create, to explore and to have fun. They start before they consider making money, they start before they outlay thousands and thousands of dollars on photography gear, or grow their makeup kit to where it needs to be insured, when styling means using your own clothing or borrowing from friends, not shipping pieces in from across the county and driving all over the city for hours picking pieces up. They are doing it for the love of it, its fun and can be rewarding. Each offer of a TFP shoot seems like an 'opportunity', a chance to make connections, get a little exposure, try new things. You do this for a little while, build your confidence and then, in theory, you should start taking paid job offers and fill your portfolio with these images from then on in, doing the occasional TFP shoot for fun or to fill any portfolio gaps. Sounds great? Of course it does! So what is the problem?
With the onslaught of social media and easy access to digital cameras, we are swirling in a pool of fresh new creatives, keen to explore and create. This is an exciting thing, we are overflowing in creativity, but this means that there is an abundance of artists out there, willing to work for free. Not just with each other, but FOR others. the term TFP has gotten out, it escaped! It is no longer used just by artists within the artist community, to work together to build each other up. It is used by businesses and brands, and sometimes even huge companies, as a polite way of asking us to 'work for free'. And we are taking up the offers! With so many creatives out there, there seems to be someone always willing to take them up on the 'opportunity'. They have no need to pay money, they offer 'exposure'. And yes, exposure is great, no one is arguing that, it can lead to other 'opportunities', but this is where we have stumbled into another problem.
Those other opportunities, that we have been working so hard towards, are no longer paying either. TFP has also had another detrimental effect.
We like to think that, if your work is good, and you have a good reputation, people will be happy to pay to work with you specifically, because they value you as a professional. This may have been true, but unfortunately, as we work less paid jobs, and do more TFP, our prices for paid jobs need to go up, just to keep us going, so then the companies that are paying, struggling with rising costs themselves, start to be unable to afford to pay what we are now asking. Even though they may like your work, respect you even, they have a bottom line, they are working to make money, so they start looking around to cut costs, and find someone more affordable, and with so many creatives working for free, many very good at what they do, they would be silly not to go down that path. After all, they have nothing to loose if it doesn't work, they aren't paying!
So here we are, caught in the TFP trap.
Look around and you will see disillusioned photographers, models, makeup artists and stylists everywhere, beaten down and exhausted by the industry they once had so much passion for. Many artists with so much potential are crushed by the need to find another job to support themselves. The younger ones can survive by staying at home with their families, but try and grow up and move out, support a partner, buy a house, pay for kids schooling and they are forced to get a 'real' job, and let go of their passion and dreams. The saddest part is, we have done this to ourselves.
Is there a solution. Of course there is. Take back the word TFP! I don't mean we shouldn't do it at all but we need to define it, to keep it to ourselves again. It needs to be a secret handshake among our own community, not a term that brands, labels and the general public can use to get us to work for free! We need to draw some lines in the sand! As a community, it seems we need a little bit of discussion on the matter, to come up with a clearer idea of what TFP encompasses, if we are going to stop our industry from turning into wasteland of broken dreams.
#iwontworkforfree
Words by Lisa Fahey
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