Max Ferguson
Founder and editor of Splash and Grab Magazine
Director of photography at Port Magazine and Port Creative
Freelance photo editor
Ferguson began studying photography from A Level and continued from there. Initially he wanted to be a documentary photographer, but this soon changed and he realised he wanted to work in magazines mentioning Photo 8 and Colors magazines as sources of great inspiration for him. However, these magazines have now since stopped publishing.
This lead him to found Splash and Grab after not being able to find the job he wanted. Ferguson used social media such as tumblr to get splash and grab running by building up an online readership. Splash and Grab is now an independent print magazine with no advertisers, this means they have free roam to publish the work of photographers without backlash from funders.
They run in print and online using Instagram. Ferguson mentions that he finds new photographers through instagram, it’s a great place to connect, but also to publish work. They allow photographers to “takeover” the splash and grab instagram in order to give the photographer a platform to reach a larger audience as their online readership is very large.
It seems clear from this part of the presentation that the print side of Splash and Grab is really a labour of love. Previous photography magazines have failed to stay relevant when so much photography can be found online. Ferguson was very honest about the fact the their readership was much larger online, and though I do not find that surprising, I do find it desperately sad. As I write this I have recently just produced several wedding albums and have several more in transit, each of the couples have expressed surprise and joy at how their photographs look so different in print that they do online. Is there really no place for a print photographic publication in modern photography? Surely there must be some compromise where we can make print and online publications work to feed each other?
Ferguson went on to talk about working for financial times, finding photographers such as Salvitore Vitale and the editorial story about the reintroduction of wolves into switzerland. They sent vitale off to shoot this as he found the idea of Vitale working at night interesting and thought it could work for the editorial. They commissioned him based on his personal projects so the importance of having a personal portfolio with self lead projects is clearly important to getting into magazines as an editorial photographer. Ferguson went on to show two more examples of photographers whose self led projects had inspired ferguson to commision them for editorials. This is something I aim to do during the course of this MA.
The formula:
CONTENT - WEBSITE - SOCIAL MEDIA
“There is nothing more important than the photos you take and the artwork you are producing”
This needs to be tight and looked after, this will help you gain work. People like to see simple and easy websites that show what you can do. Ferguson spent some time talking about how a good simple website that shows you and your work without confusing the viewer is very important. They do also look at instagram accounts, so keep it up to date and relevant. I have since started a new instagram account dedicated to my work that I aim to keep up to date with my own projects.
Question and answers
Regarding splash and Grab, do you search for work or do you let it come to you? Is it all established photographers?
They find work because they are looking all the time, but they also get loads of submissions as well and this is how they find many of their photographers for splash and grab. It’s important to provide a good pitch that relevant to the magazine, but do also apply to many different magazines. Don’t change the work your shooting, find magazines that suit you. It’s mostly young new photographers coming out of education, they have not been published before. They are interested in photographers who will actually benefit from being put into print.
Is writing important to your pitch?
Yes, it does not have to be loads, but it has to be good.
In conclusion I found this lecture incredibly useful. I had never thought that I might want to be an editorial photographer, but talking about it has reminded me of previous times where my commercial work has been published in magazines and the joy of working on a project and seeing it in printm, and I now have a starting point and an idea of what to do to head down that path.
Extra Notes:
Look at the publishers Antenne books and Artwords books
Use Instagram! Learn to follow hashtags to see what's going on
Interesting take on modern stock websites having no ethics about who can use your photos and for what!
Writing about your work is important, they would rather see less images with good text, than more images with bad text
They want to select images themselves, and they will edit. Not the photographer. Send a small amount of good images to start though.
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