5.6.08

Who would like to be my assistant...




In between meets, greets and froffy coffee I managed to pop into the AOP today to view the Assistant Awards. I have always preferred these awards to the main ones which I mentioned here a while back. Maybe this is something to do with the fact that these images are always less commercial in nature and, If I may be so bold, very often more original (how dare you, I hear you cry)....Here are a few of my favorites.
As with students (see yesterdays post) I often think assistants get a bit of a raw deal at times, however, lately I have noticed a new breed of assistant. These new assistants ask questions like:
Whats the job? Who's it for? Who is it? (Who is it...!) and how much? (fair enough) And if they don't like the sound of it, they simply turn it down as if it was coffee flavoured ice cream. All well and good if there making a living, but in my assisting days you had to fight for these jobs and were glad any kind of assisting work. I understand photographers picking and choosing jobs, well actors do it why not photographers, but assistants, Give me a break and make me a cuppa (please get the joke).
If asked I will always tell young hopefuls that they are probably better off assisting a good photographer than going to college. They will certainly learn more technically and equally important will learn more about the business. And before you say how very dare you. If I had the choice again I would not of gone to college at all, but I may of read a few books...Oh, its like the film sliding doors...

I am shooting a male and female underwear catalog next week but unfortunately have enough assistants who I will be paying fifteen hundred pounds a day along with cream cakes and a back rub.

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