Creative Work : No Space For Blacks?
Being a black creative in 2021 is complicated.
In 2021, the USA will celebrate their first Juneteenth.
On one side, you have the world telling you that the systems are against you — that we have to deal with systemic racism. On the other side, we’ve been raised with leaders like Martin Luther King telling you that the goal is to be entirely color blind.
It is difficult to marry both ideas.
I am a creative and a business person. I share a lot of my work online and accumulated a decent social media following of several thousands in 2019 and 2020, sharing what I know about lighting and photography.
However, my business is still young — in October 2020, I decided it was time to move on from my accounting career as I got no enjoyment out of it. Armed with 30,000+ Instagram followers, a CPA degree and a lot of guts, I decided to pursue freelance photography, full time.
My goal is to create visuals for active wear brands and portrait campaigns. I’ve networked with marketing leaders and potential art buyers in my hometown of Montreal, Canada. After 8 months of running around trying to build a business (and dearly missing my accounting salary), I realized that getting traction is difficult. The circles that allow you to get those “jobs” are tight. No amount of impressive visual work gets them activated. It is discouraging.
Defeat leads to doubt
They don’t let anyone new in. But why won’t they let me in?
That leads me back to being black.
Since I am not part of those circles, an important question crosses my mind:
“Am I not invited to those discussions because of the color of my skin?”
Other questions that I also think about a lot:
- “Is my photography work good enough?”
- “Am I great to work with?”
- “Do I have enough validation from past clients?”
When approaching those companies, I take the time to learn more about who I am talking to (it’s fairly easy with LinkedIn). I do not mass invite or use aggressive tactics. I try to build bridges and relationships. I regularly generate content via YouTube, Instagram and Social Media platforms.
All those efforts feel in vain — I feel often rejected or ignored by those I reach out to for contracts.
“Is it because of the color of my skin?”
Is my experience the same for everyone?
To make sure that I was not going crazy, I then talk to my other photographer friends.
- They also share that they struggle with getting new clients.
- My friends tell me they often feel like they do not get all the bids.
- They experience clique-ish behavior from art buyers and producers.
- They share that selling fairly priced rates feels like pulling teeth.
My other creative friends shared these stories.
But one thing I did not tell you is that my photography friends are mostly white people.
We share the same struggle.
Where does that leave us then?
I do not know how you feel but, seeing my white photography colleagues experiencing the same struggles, tends to put away my skin color as a factor of my current frustrations. While I cannot say with certainty that systemic racism is completely eradicated…
Creative businesses are inherently difficult as most businesses are. You are in competition with a lot of other people. You are in competition to get the attention of busy people.
The onus to differentiate ourselves is on us it seems. It is to get access to those circles and deliver pristine visual projects. It is to build working relationships and trust within our brand of work. The more black creatives are out there nailing visual campaigns for big brands, the more it will be normalized to have those new “circles”. With some effort, those new circles will be more receptive to new faces.
I can hardly control the events of the world but I can control the effort I put out. I will continue my hardest to pursue those opportunities that may come my way and hopefully, I will be able to bring up some other talented folks.
