Ways to Play: Types of Family Photography Businesses

How to run a business?

Who are the images for? What are they of? What are the expectations? How bold can I be? How do I generate bookings? Should I satisfy my creativity in my business or separate them?

I’ve run a few different types of family photography businesses and have enjoyed each for the creativity, income and connection they brought to my life

Here are three ideas to inform your thought process, developed from doing them and also observing other businesses

You don’t have to choose (customization is key) but knowing one’s goal and boundaries is an aid

Mainstream Family Photography

Difficulty level: easy

What is pictured: the family’s happiness

“The customer is always right”

Broadly accessible price point

High volume, high demand

Generally loving gaze

The audience: the family themselves

Pitfalls: burnout, self-abnegation, cosmetic

Pros: potential for large income, easily understood

Documentary Family Photography

Difficulty level: intermediate

What is pictured: the family’s reality

“We collaborate to depict your life”

Moderate investment but accessible to those looking for a deeper depiction

Moderate-high volume & demand

Loving and observant gaze

The audience: the family themselves and those interested in documentary photography

Pitfalls: blurred boundaries, mainstream clients who like the price but not the work, longing for more

Pros: compromise that often releases inner tensions related to art vs. business

Niche Family Photography

Difficulty level: advanced

What is pictured: the artists vision

“I want to be seen through your eyes”

Significant investment, many priced out

Low-moderate volume, must create demand

Observant and editorializing gaze

The audience: those interested in art; galleries, photo books, prizes & awards

Pitfalls: questions of consent & image ownership, total trust required, polarizing, feast and famine bookings (supplemental income often required), travel often required

Pros: creative freedom, personal fulfillment, a seat at the table of the Art world

Blending for Vitality

My work is a blend of documentary and niche, often when I am unable to cross the social discomfort to create the niche work of my mind

My price point is niche, it is generally inaccessible and purchased by those who have a personally felt connection to my work AND a milestone they want to materialize and hold in physical form

Where mainstream is service-oriented, niche is vision-oriented

Mainstream family photographers often possess the courage of tolerance

Niche family photographers often possess the courage of conviction

Documentary blends a diluted, moderate version of each

Businesses proceeding from personality are often the most successful because they are the easiest to run

Vitality can be seen and felt from a mile away