Editorial Photography: Working for Magazines and Publications

Lower money, higher visibility

Editorial photography means work for magazines, newspapers and their online equivalents, and it's where a lot of photographers make their name without making their fortune. The budgets are modest and sometimes barely there, but the work is often creative, the credits are public, and a strong editorial body of work is one of the best calling cards going. Art buyers and commercial clients read the magazines too.

Editorial is the shop window. It rarely pays the rent on its own, and it gets you seen by the people who commission the work that does.

What the work actually involves

Editorial covers a lot of ground.

Portraits are the accompanying image for a profile or interview, often shot fast, on location, with minimal setup and a subject who has fifteen minutes to spare.

Reportage and features mean telling a story in pictures: a place, a community, an issue, an event.

Lifestyle and still life covers food, interiors, travel and product-in-context for the features pages.

News and documentary is the fastest and most reactive end of it, with its own skills and its own ethics.

An editorial photographer usually works to a brief from a picture editor or art director, but with more creative latitude than a commercial job allows, because they're hiring you partly for your eye.

Who hires

Picture editors and art directors at magazines and newspapers. Online publications and digital titles, which are an ever-growing slice of it. Sunday supplements and weekend magazines, which include some of the better-paying and more coveted editorial work. Trade and specialist press, less glamorous and often more reliable.

Relationships with picture editors are the whole thing. They commission repeatedly, and a photographer they trust to deliver on a tight brief and a tighter deadline becomes a regular.

What it pays

Often not much. Editorial day rates and space rates are among the lowest in professional photography, and budgets have been squeezed for years. Understand the licensing, because editorial usage is specific and limited and you should keep the rights to your images for other uses. Many photographers treat editorial as an investment in profile and relationships that pays off later in commercial commissions, rather than as income in itself.

How you break in

Have a point of view, because editorial commissioning is about your eye. A book that says something — a way of seeing people, places or stories — is what gets you noticed.

Approach picture editors properly, with a tight and relevant portfolio, a polite and specific introduction, and some persistence. Show them the work that fits their title rather than everything you have.

Shoot your own stories. Personal projects and self-generated features are how many editorial photographers get their first commissions, because you arrive with the work already made.

Be reliable on the boring parts. Deliver on brief, on time, with correct captions and metadata. Picture editors re-hire the photographers who make their job easier.

The honest picture

Editorial is where craft and reputation get built, and it rarely pays what it's worth. Go in clear-eyed: value it for the visibility, the creative freedom and the relationships, and don't expect it to pay the bills by itself. Paired with steadier commercial or corporate work it's a rewarding part of a career. Chased for the money alone it will disappoint.

Related: the agency route, since a strong editorial book is often what gets you there.