Uncertainties Through Time: Career Trajectories of Fashion Photographers

Fashion photography started its’ emergence in the mid 19th century and sooner turned into one of the most important parts in garment production and advertising. However, during all the time fashion photography as a professional field is a way of trying to find a balance between commercial and “artsy” (editorial) work. The career trajectories of fashion photographers is a complex structure, where each subsequent interaction with the fashion industry depends not only on skills but also on the symbolic positions and trust. Belonging to the symbolic economy as a creative industry, this field builds its laws of constructing status, as well as rewards for the work. Based on previous studies, there are two pathways of career development for fashion photographers. On the one hand, they can grow their symbolic capital and recognition through low- or unpaid collaborations with legitimate actors (magazines and brands) and publish editorial work in independent magazines. After a while, they can be noticed by specific commercial clients who not only have budgets but also recognition in the field. In the other hand, those, who tend to focus on commercial (and financially rewarding) work from the beginning can face a short-term existence in the fashion world despite the immediate monetary profit without obtaining any status positions. This research explores the trajectories of fashion photographers career paths looking into their collaboration with other agents of the fashion world, taking into account processes of obtaining different forms of capital and conversion of then into each other and exchange of them into symbolic one. This research paper is focused on a mixed-method approach, using semi-structured interviews with fashion photographers as well as quantitative analysis of the longitudinal data, collected from archival and recruitment website ”models.com”. It includes information about the cover and editorial photoshoots in fashion and lifestyle magazines and campaigns for clothing and accessory brands from 1985 to 2019. Based on this, we can see the role of social networks in career development in the field of fashion photography as well as obstacles on a professional pathway.