Freelance is the future.

The newspaper industry is cutting jobs left and right. As a student in a journalism school I hear the doom and gloom scenario constantly from professional journalists and professors alike.

The model for a career in photography has shifted. Photojournalists are no longer able to land staff jobs as they did in the past as hiring freezes are enacted industry wide. Paper Cuts is a blog that keeps a daily running total of newspaper job losses and the numbers are shocking.

When I was an undergraduate in journalism at the University of Texas I worked for the Daily Texan, was a member of the National Press Photographers Association and knew exactly what it was that I needed to do to land a staff job at a respectable paper.

The path I took, like so many others, made sense. After graduation I traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I interned for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. From there I returned to Texas to intern for my hometown paper the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. My three-month internship turned into six and then nine. By this point I knew that newspaper photography was my future, I was hooked.

I attended a conference put on by National Press Photographers Association and met an editor who took a chance on me and offered me my first professional job as a photojournalist for The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s DeLand bureau.

My path was typical, two internships then a professional job. But what about now? What is a photojournalist to do when the industry continues to lose jobs? It seems that freelance is the future.

On Thursday the National Press Photographers Association at The University of Texas held a panel with six freelancers discussing how to navigate the world of freelance photography. Six local Austin freelancers Thomas Meredith, Andrew Loehman, Taylor Jones, Erich Schlegel, Kelly West, and Ben Sklar met with our NPPA group and gave insight to the world of working for yourself.

Photos by: Tara Haelle

The consensus advice seemed to be that as students we need to learn the business side of photography. Working for yourself as a freelance photojournalist encompasses much more than the typical staff job. You have to pay your own health insurance and taxes, write invoices and know how to run a business. It’s not a punch in punch out forty hour a week gig.

Resources exist such as the NPPA’s Cost of Doing Business Calculator and the American Society of Media Photographers business resources such as their Pricing Guides for estimate, change order, terms and conditions, assignment invoice, assignment confirmation, and delivery memo forms.

Additionally members of the panel introduced careers in photography that don’t involve actually shooting. These support roles such as assisting, lighting technicians and digital post production can provide a lucrative living in the field of photography.

While I lament the loss of so many staff jobs at newspapers the reality in journalism leaves us no choice but to seek an alternative model for working as a photographer. Be it as a wedding photographer, a graphic designer, or in digital post production there are options available to work in a field about which you are passionate.