was a project concepted and executed by - Canada's progressive authority on Art Buying for advertising agencies - which recently wrapped. Taking one West coast photographer and one East coast photographer, over 365 days she mentored them and had them write weekly blog entries about their experiences breaking into the business of commercial photography. Toronto's along with Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»photographer, , were the two lucky photographers and over the coming days we'll be sharing some of Grant's thoughts on and photos from his Year.
Last week we shared post from Heather introducing it, today we're sharing the first of Grant's thoughts and images...
Words by Grant Harder
My year of blogging with HMAb has been a fantastic experience and I wish it wasn’t over. 365 days goes by pretty damn fast. Along the way I’ve enjoyed getting to know both Heather and Jaime. I’m also happy to say that I’ve learned a few things during the journey. Over the span of a few posts I’ll write a bit about these findings.
Make it personal.
A few years ago a business instructor told me that I should try and portray my business as being bigger than it really is. This idea of creating a fictional team is supposed to help legitimize what it is I’m doing as a company. At it’s simplest, for example, in your bio you can use “we” instead of referring to yourself in the first or third person. The intent is to make it look as if you are a team of people buzzing around headquarters as opposed to one person doing all of the daily duties. Personally I felt uncertain about this idea from the beginning. Who is it that I am trying to fool and why do I want to fool them? Up until a year ago I had never even hired an assistant. I now realize that it is more important for those that do the hiring to know who they are hiring. Blogging with Heather during the past year and having my own blog has allowed me to not only humanize what it is I do photography wise but also add insight into my personal life. I’m not trying to fool anyone. My photography has a certain honesty and quietness to it, which I would say reflects my character as a person. I hope that this transparency and openness allows for readers, whether you are in a hiring position or not, to get a real sense of who I am. In an ideal situation I would be hired for exactly these same reasons, which includes my vision and personality.
