photo assignment in kerela / cochin

Hi Natasha,
I’m available to do the shoot this weekend. What are the terms?

hi jenny – thanks for replying –
i forgot to mention we’re on an
extremely tight budget so we’re
looking for a photographer based
IN kerala / cochin itself – we have
no travel budget! sorry.

Natasha,

Who is the yoga instructor?
I am not in India at the moment but I have many friends studying yoga there so if it is a teacher I know I could possibly arrange something with one of the students.

And Natasha please give some inputs regarding your budget even if it is “extremely tight” and even if you cant afford for travel. I think we have much elaborate discussions on these “extremely tight” budget assignments here in LS and people here will ask for some more inputs regarding that.

Santanu

we’re paying 2,ooo/- I.N.R. for the portrait,
inclusive of all expenses. so i really need to
know if there’s someone localised in kerala
unfortunately i’ve been unable to get in touch
with kalyani (the yoga instructor) as yet so
her address details are still awaiting update

here’s the ashram in kerala where her portrait has to be taken: http://www.sivananda.org/neyyardam/ and the address is Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Neyyar Dam, P.O., Thiruvananthapuram Dist., Kerala 695 572, South India, Telephone: +91-471-227-3093, or 227 2703 or 227 2926

I have contacted some of my friends. Lets see if they can help you in some way.

Santanu

Natasha,
Kerala is one of my top work zones.
I can get you great images.But 2000
is incredibly low for my work.
Dev

2,000 Indian Rupee = $US50 = £26 = €34
(then subtract your expenses).

Just so you know. ;)

Sorry Natasha, I only have yoga friends in Mysore at the moment.
Hope you found someone.

I hope she didn’t.

The guy I met handing out free newspapers at the train station last night on just above minimum wage gets a better rate than that.

Hi!
Rs. 5000/- your job will be done by 22nd of this month.

I really can’t believe how low that rate is. Its offensive.

One day photographers will be ask to pay to be published :(

Otherwise assignmement does not seem to be the exact word for the “proposition”.

I think wages in India is lower than rest of the developed world as the cost of living is also low. Thats the reason for recent wave of outsourcing of work from those countries to India/Indian subcontinent and flourishing of BPO and software business here.

Well I am not supporting Natasha’s day rate, just sharing the information.

And I have also heard that freelance photojournalism in India suffers a lot from this poor wage. I cant produce hard statistics if you ask for. This is just opinions of different people that I have heard.

Santanu

Santanu,

You’re right, wages are low here for freelance photographers. That doesn’t make it right. Cameras, cards, computers all cost between 25% and 50% more in India than they do in the rest of the world and unless you’re a new freelancer living with your family rents, at least in Mumbai, Bangalore and now Delhi are approaching the rents in New York and Tokyo. I’m sick of Western Magazines opening up divisions in India and paying a fraction of what they pay western photographers for their home country editions. Its rude and it prepetuates tired old colonial attitudes. Sure, lets pay some local guy $50.00 US instead of paying a western photographer $800.00. How about this… LETS PAY EVERYONE $800.00 and stop trying to rip off local photographers in developing countries.

Micheal,

I can only say that I keep my fingers crossed and dream that those happy days are falling on us soon!!!

Regards

Santanu

Its coming man….its coming!!!!!

Any relation with Grazia Magazine UK ?

http://www.graziamagazine.co.uk/

No offense meant Ms. Natasha

Will you take a $50/day assignment, and that too including expenses? Ask yourself.

Take the expenses off, it may be just $35 for a local guy. So even if he is lucky to get a job like this one for 20 days a month (that many days may not happen)... he ends up making USD 700 on the brightest side.

Now of this $ 700 and that too if lucky to work for 20 days/month, can a photographer buy a camera, lenses etc… and oh i forgot food for himself and his family?

A good photo editor will always fight for its photographer’s rights.

cheers

A

just a word in for some closure i was away for the weekend and just got back to this storm of censure i know that’s a pretty underpaid assignment but i don’t call the budgets on shoots, our editor does. it leaves me with no scope of altering the expenses. things would be different if i *was making those decisions, we could quibble about how i should be making them and i’d be the first one shouting yes but as it stands that is not my area of empowerment at the moment. perhaps after the magazine launches i might be in a position to. however, for now these are the rates and i can only try to find people as local as possible to work with me on it. so while i appreciate the uproar & agree with the discussion in principle because i’m a freelance photographer myself, i’m pretty helpless with the wages-scene in my magazine. yes, it is affiliated to grazia UK but for some reason we’ve been asked to launch on a ridiculously low budget and shoots come to my department pre-expensed. if this doesn’t work out we’ll have to run with images sent to us by the subject herself but i’m hoping that there’s someone out there who’ll do shoot for us at this price.

Natasha,

Perhaps you should just take the pictures from the subject to your editor and say, “This is what we get from a 2000 RS budget.” Then CC the British team and tell them how rude it is to take advantage of photographers from developing countries so they can make a buck.

But Natasha in your post above you told that you are the photo editor of this magazine. right? I am pretty confused by your last post!!!!

Micheal I think you are asking too much from Natasha. What appears from her last post she is waiting for her career break and this is hardly what she can afford now.

Michael – i think that’s precisely what is going to happen. Santanu – I am, but as it stands I am apparently photo ed in terms of legwork and arrangements and selections but not in terms of budgets and pricing. I think this is going to change as soon as we launch though, since the powers that be will have to realise that we will only get odd work if we insist on ridiculous budgets. And now i have a shoot to get to, I’ll look back on what has unfolded in my absence later tonight, cheers all.