I HATE the term free
To a lot of people, free simple means worthless. Not worth anything and therefore pointless. In reality (in this context) it simply means no money! There are plenty of people who will argue that free is worthless and these people a very wrong and should be avoided. Remember you can pay plenty of money for something worthless. We do it all the time, so let's stop that and understand free means 'without monetary gain'.
Collaboration is often free. Not always, sometimes there is money involved or some form of remuneration but mostly, no beer tokens are exchanged so if you want to 'get rich quick' I suggest you go forth and multiply.
For the Love of something
This IS the most important reasons for doing anything, anywhere, ever. If you don't get it then don't collaborate on something, you will not enjoy it and you won't see the value in it.
When people have a common interest or goal or passion we see the result of that all the time. Sports teams, creative artworks in large spaces, racing, running, etc. We see the results of people who care about what they are doing and they tend to be amazing. This is what collaboration hopes to achieve, to create something that both parties enjoyed making and see value from working with each other to move there creation or career forward.
For practice
The simple act of doing what you do with other people makes you better at what you want to do. If you have heard the phrase '10 000 hours to mastery' you know that to get good you need to do something a lot.
If there are few and far between paid opportunities to practise your craft, collaboration offers you the ability to do what you do and 'get good'!
Its arty and all….but its outta focus!
To Start Something
Nike is right!!!
"Just Do It"
Start, NOW. I mean finish this blog first but then whatever you want to do, go do it. To start a collaboration you need to talk to someone. So write that email, send that letter, feed that carrier pigeon and get on it.
Once you start you start building momentum and if the only way to do that is to collaborate then F***ING DO IT (that's a better line for Nike I think)
Simply to meet people
Often freelancing can actually be very lonely and this in its self is a very serious problem. Not only does it isolate us from the industry we might work in it also can cause us some real harm. Now imagine you talked to others in the industry! (Shock Horror) or maybe just to meet new people.
So maybe you have a cunning plan you want to test out or maybe you are working with someone new. Best doing it with other sympathetic individuals before you fuck it up in front of clients...or not, your call.
Feel the love people
When NOT to collaborate
One of the most (only) valuable things I learnt while working in a camera shop was what NOT to buy. There are a lot of very rich people out there trying to sell you a lot of absolute shite you do not need.
In turn, there are a lot of very rich people out there that see no value in your work and will promise you the world to get what they want. The time not to collaborate is when you would give up your time for NOTHING in return. Everything I have talked about above is a situation when you would get something (Education, prints, experience etc.) in return for your work. When that return is not present do not do it.
Things to watch out for:-
-"We can give you exposure for your work!" - BOLLOCKS, firstly, I can get exposure through Instagram doing EXACTLY what I want and not having to bow to others pressure. Exposure is what perverts do in trenchcoats to passers-by, not people looking to collaborate.
-"This could lead to future paid work" - NO IT WON'T! This person has already valued your work at £0 why would they pay for it next time!
-If someone wants you to do something that is outside of the field of work you do, reassess if you really should do it. This isn't a no no but it could wind up being pretty pointless for you.
-Sometimes there are costs for collabing (I hired a studio recently to collab, I will travel to collab) but be careful you aren't footing the bill for everything. This would fall into exploitation.
I really recommend looking into ' @annacod ' and ' linktr.ee/fjandco ' for more help on the subjest. She produces some really good content to do with freelancing. It's great.
#fairpayforfreelancers
Be polite
Be efficient
Have a plan to shoot 'with' everyone you meet
