The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me

[ Photo by Brit Worgan ]

Tha Crossroads

(Photo by Painting512 - Flickr)

I'm wrestling with myself all the time

Growing up I knew I wanted to work in visual arts or a media related industry. At 16 I knew I wanted to pursue photography. But recently in a scared (soon to be jobless) turn of events I sadly started to question this. In this economy, do I have much of a choice? What with lay-offs, (free) "interns" taking (real paying) jobs, budget slashing, and the daunting fact that this market wont be cured anytime soon. I'm weighing my thoughts and I've narrowed it down to 2 options:

1) Play it safe. If you currently have a job, stay where you are. Sure, things might be really bad but it can only get a little worse before they stop slashing your paycheck. Sure, you're making less now than when you started 2.5 years ago with the company, but who knows, maybe in 5 years, they will give you that 1% raise you were promised all those years ago. At least you weathered the storm with shoes still on your feet. kudos you.

or

2) Be a rebel. Live like you got no tomorrow and go after what you really want (whatever that is). Yes, you're going to be broke and you're going to get cut down more often than not, but you're doing what everyone wishes they could be doing, LIVING. It will be terrible when you are in the thick of the shit storm, but you will learn to be resilient and emerge as a more interesting person. You will know how to consume less energy, eat better on less, and maybe even a how to play a game of gin rummy (while drinking bathtub gin!)

Life is all about the yin and the yang; the good and the bad. (and yeah, I kinda recently started watching LOST, whatever) But regardless of magic islands, good and bad does exist.

For instance, when I was 18 I dropped out of community college and was living out of my car. At night while I was falling asleep in the back seat of my '95 dodge neon, I closed my eyes and pictured myself working at a newspaper, being a photographer, and sharing stories and historic moments through images with thousands of people daily. That was my dream.

Almost 3 years later, with an Associated Press award, a New York State Newspapers Publishers award and a more polished portfolio; I'm ready for my next challenge. New York...?

Lets do this thing

Au Revoir Thooo

French things:

My girlfriend and I flew AirFrance (which is the BEST airline I've ever flown with, can you say party plane?) to visit our friend Holly who is studying abroad for the year. Her little baby sized apartment (no really.. it was the size of a handy cap bathroom stall, if that) housed all 5 of us where there was no room for shyness. On any given morning, someone would be bathing in the basin tub while others were preparing a fresh breakfast and nursing a their hangovers. We explored the city of Paris on foot and did a lot of site seeing, went to a Persian gay dance club (which had their cira '92 MTV party to go vol. 2 CD on repeat) and got a taste of local living thanks to Holly. We went to the markets, haggled for fresh vegetables and ate a lot of smelly delicious cheeses. Naturally, I documented this in more than 2,000 photographs from start to finish. I couldn't actually post all of them, so I made a movie instead.

Here it is... enjoy!

Paris, France trip 2010 from brit worgan on Vimeo.

PARIS MADDNESS

and it's happening. right. now.

more pictures to come

Wedding Season Ahoy!

[Photo by Brit Worgan]

This year, I'm going to make a push to do more weddings. After a lousy breakup I decided to take a hiatus from shooting weddings. But now I'm back in business and more prepared than ever; I'm real excited to get back in the game.

There is a lot of pressure on a wedding photographer to make magic happen in a split second. And the post processing work can be an enormous work load. The photographer is locked in their studio for a solid several days/weeks/months, only to emerge for cigarette breaks and coffee refills.

But It's not all bad, in fact... it's sort of addicting.

When I first meet with a client I give them a price list which is anywhere from $1,500-$5,000 depending on what kind of package they are looking for. I show them my portfolio and explain to them my style of shooting. As a photojournalist, my style is documentary. I don't take wedding photos that are cheesy and forced. Sure, we will do the traditional posed pictures and whatever else the bride and groom want, but with a professional and creative spin you can really set yourself apart from other wedding photographers.

Having worked as a second shooter for Vanity Fair and Vogue wedding photographers, I learned the difference between a good photograph vs. a breathtaking photograph.

But of course, that doesn't mean you are always what the client is looking for. Some people appreciate traditional and safe photography. They are not interested in magazine style wedding photos and cannot work it within their budget. There is never anything wrong with that. It's better to meet with someone who knows what they want vs. someone who isn't sure and can't pay their bill.

There are many different types of wedding photographers out there, and they come in all different shapes and prices. Like with anything else, you get what you pay for. But remember, this isn't just a business transaction, it's two people so madly in love with one another they are crazy enough to the the knot. Give em' something to write home about !

[Photo by Brit Worgan]

We got no food, we got no jobs, OUR PETS' HEADS ARE FALLING OFF

Yesterday the newsroom was buzzing about an upturn in this crap economy; even though last week we were handed out our fourth week of furloughs (and no raises…again).

I may be making less money now than when I started working for the paper 3-years ago, but staying positive is all we can do to stay sane. Otherwise, we would all be in the crazy den.

Those who lost their photo department jobs at BusinessWeek today, may positive thoughts be with you.

School Picture Day!

I can remember the fall season of every school year at Clarksville Elementary like it was yesterday. Standing in the gross vomit colored cafeteria, wearing some ridiculously heinous floral outfit my mother picked out for me that I had fought her on the morning of, and subsequently missing my bus.

[Photo by Elsa Dorfman - Self portrait]

A stay-at-home mom would come in to collect the checks and groom everyones hair with a plastic disposable comb, getting just the right kind of static electric look for that yearly portrait of awkward beginnings.

The photographer would then call your last name and you were ushered onto the stage. While your classmates watched, you would fake a smile at the unfunny Lifetouch photographer who treated you like a pedophiliac would treat their prey. After the temporary blindness wore off, you were sent back to class and had to wait a whole more year to do it all again.

Little did you know these pictures would be milestones frozen in time and the butt of your friend's jokes.

Years later, I worked as one of these photographers (not the pedophiliac kind). Our boss was an alright guy, tho he made it a point to remind the photographers of his unmatched accomplishments in the world of senior portraits ...

In the communal work room, he proudly displayed his finest work titled "Serenity" which was just a photo of ducks swimming. Regardless, he was a swell dude who treated the photogs with respect, knowing we were just looking to get some off hours use of the studio space.

In my little doge neon I would drive hours upon hours to schools and sports games with a backdrop pole cutting into my face every time I made a left hand turn. While making LESS than minimum wage, you also had to front your own gear (never do this) to be "published" in some random school yearbook.

So it was no secret - everyone hated being there

But we all had our reasons for sticking around

I for one learned how to take a mean portrait, and made a solid friend out of the deal. Also, it gave me the opportunity to shoot sports for my portfolio and take prom photos in the lobby of a HUD housing site. Neat!

I can't imagine not having the fond memories of portrait lighting diagrams, posing, figuring out how to shoot sports at 3fps (my gear really sucked), retouching, photo orders, and learning the virtue of patients.

Sadie, over at Jezebel.com writes:

According to a heartbreaking and alarming piece in The NY Times "Styles" section, the itinerant school photographer is a dying breed. Quoth the Gray Lady,

"About 5 to 10 years ago, class photos and individual student portraits were reflexive purchases for parents. Those 4-by-6 and 8-by-10 prints were the visual equivalents of the notches made on door frames to show how much Junior had grown since last year. Now, more parents are snapping their own digital pictures and declining the products of the pros. It's a situation akin to the disappearance of the formal engagement and wedding portraits, courtesy of Bachrach, that were once a staple of newspaper society pages. And, I'd argue, the world will be the poorer for it. Because the you your parents snap - relaxed, happy, candid - is a very different one from that immortalized in gaudy 8 x 10."

Where would us photographers be had we not gone through the grueling process of working (and leaving) that damn photo studio years ago? I can only hope future photographers beginning from the ground up have this left as an option to get a foot in the door and to discover their own "Serenity".