How to Make a Photography Resume

Video Transcript

"My name is Anthony Maddaloni and I am going to be talking about how to create a photographer's resume. So one of the things that you want to do as a photographer in a resume is highlight your experience. Sometimes I craft different resumes to different jobs I am applying for. Fortunately for me almost every type of photography job I've had has been very similar and so my resume tends to show a nice amount of consistency to it which to be kind of honest with you most photographers don't tend to have. I've been pretty lucky in fact I have stuck with one thing which is photographing people for a pretty long time, photographing events, documenting events. Now there are so many different types of photography that you can create different types of resumes. Say you can have a commercial studio photography resume and documentary style photography resume but one thing that is basic resume, 101 so to speak. You want to have your name, your address, your mailing address, your phone number, a lot of times I put an e-mail too. I tend to stay away from putting websites on my resume. I find that most people look at my resume if they are interested in me they are going to make contact with me and then I forward them the website. I just want just a little bit of information that is fairly unnecessary to people and then I start with my professional experience being what I am currently doing and work my way down to what I have done. Now the way that I was taught to do resumes is that I put my work experience for about the last maybe five to six years. I don't go back to the time when I was in high school working at the one hour photo lab. I try to keep just the main professional jobs I have had or even small businesses that I have owned and I keep them specific. I also try to not really talk too much so to speak. I keep points down to what my skill level is and what I can do. I have read resumes at jobs that I have held when I am looking to employ someone and I really, as kind of cold as it sounds I don't want to read a biography about someone's life. I just want to see what they do and then I want to see if I want to call them up and see how they act. That is one way that I would make a photographic resume. That is one way that I would keep at a minimum of two pages. I actually prefer to keep it to one page and I would also encourage people to list references. I find references to be extremely valuable and I also take a lot of time to call my references and let them know that I am going to be using them as a reference and that if someone calls them to please call me so I know that the person you are giving your resume to is generally interested in you. That is one way that I would make a photographic resume."