Am I Published?

This is a word I have heard questioned a number of times. I think what most are really asking themselves is Am I Credible?

That being published makes them more credible.

Now for the sake of argument, lets say you want to become a General member in the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) requires the following,
General Member
“To be eligible for this category, a photographer must be actively and professionally engaged in publication photography with three or more consecutive years of substantial publication experience from date of first published work. In addition, the photographer’s major source (over 50%) of earned income must be from the publication of his or her own images. A review of publication experience is required, and applicants must be sponsored by two General Members of ASMP.”

What does it mean to be published? How do qualify if I have been published?

So, what does it mean to be published? Well Dicionary.com defines it this way

Pub-lish

–verb (used with object)

to issue (printed or otherwise reproduced textual or graphic material, computer software, etc.) for sale or distribution to the public.
to issue publicly the work of: Random House publishes Faulkner
to announce formally or officially; proclaim; promulgate.
to make publicly or generally known.
Law. to communicate (a defamatory statement) to some person or persons other than the person defamed.

–verb (used without object)

to issue newspapers, books, computer software, etc.; engage in publishing: The new house will start to publish next month.
to have one’s work published: She has decided to publish with another house.

In the past I have heard wedding photographers say they are published since they create wedding albums for their clients or that someone is published because their work is published on the web (their personal web site)

I personally look at it like this; do you get paid to create work that will be distributed to a mass market? If yes, then you are published.

If you create a single wedding album for a single client, how is that for sale or distributed to the General Public? It’s not plain and simple

If you post your photos on your Facebook profile, how is that being published? Did someone else pay you to post that photo? No? Then you aren’t published. If it did, then everybody would be published and the word would have no meaning, no criteria.

Why is it so important to be called a Published Photographer? It’s not! I know tons of great photographers whose work has never been published and it doesn’t diminish the quality of their work one bit

If you really want an answer, don’t ask yourself. Find someone in the field, someone you respect and ask them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 8:47 am. It is filed under Business and tagged with asmp, Business, photographer, photography, published. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.