What Is the Annual Income for a Fashion Photographer?
Existing at the intersection of art and commerce, fashion photography could be considered one of the glamor professions, literally. Once clothes are ready for the new sales season, purveyors need to sell them, but customers need to see them. It's the job of the fashion photographer to record clothes in a flattering and alluring way. How much they are compensated for doing so depends on their experience, networking and reputation.
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Mean Salary Profile
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' compensation projections for salaried fashion photographers are inexact, as the profession is lumped in with all photography professions. Overall mean annual salary for the photographer category, based on 40-hour-per-week estimations on surveyed hourly wages, is $35,980. That figure is somewhat distorted by the highest earners, as the median annual wage -- the wage of the middle-earning person of photographers surveyed -- is $29,440. The middle 50 percent of photographers earned between $20,620 and $43,530. Typical annual pay for top-level fashion photographers has been estimated at $50,000, with the most successful fashion photographers earning six figures.
Markets
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Fashion photography is a single craft that serves multiple purposes. Apparel sellers need photographers to provide pictures that will show off their wares. Fashion centered periodicals need photographers to produce pictures that will illustrate articles. Then there are "high art" fashion photographers -- photographers who focus on setting a scene with fashion playing a prominent role. The fashion in question may not even be available for sale -- itself falling into the realm of "high fashion" -- but designers and advertisers sometimes utilize high art photography for the images' allure. Private and periodical fashion photographers might be employed full time with a magazine, apparel seller or advertising firm, or they may be hired piecemeal on freelance jobs. High art fashion photographers, on the other hand, are always freelance and can make large sums of money or nothing but a portfolio entry, depending on their reputation.
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Freelance Work
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If a photographer is not a staff employee -- a position almost exclusively restricted to photo agencies that manage multiple clients over the course of a year -- she most likely makers her living by freelance work. Freelance rates vary widely, depending on either the employer's offered rate or the rate the photographer can command. An examination of a listing of freelance artists on Guru.com shows minimum rates ranging from nothing to $800 per hour. Pro bono jobs can be a fact of life for beginning and even intermediate-level photographers hoping to boost their portfolio of publisher work and, by extension, their reputations.
Costs of Doing Business
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Unless a photographer is on the staff of a firm, he will be paying the costs of his own equipment, printing, lighting and data storage -- and since he wouldn't be hired without a portfolio, chances are that he will have to pay for all those items and more at some point. Some costs are one-time capital investments -- notably, the camera itself at a probable $1,000-plus, additional lenses, lighting fixtures and a backdrop. Other costs include items such as bulbs for lighting fixtures, lens cloths, storage cards, set pieces, props and models. And those costs aren't necessarily reduced as the photographer moves forward in his career. Though popular high art fashion photographers are highly paid, they are responsible for all costs they incur, which could additionally include employees responsible for setting up lighting, makeup or scene decoration. All those costs need to be counted against earnings, though they can be deducted as business expenses at tax reporting time.
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References
- Photo Credit Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images
