Taboo Alert: The Client Is NOT Always Right
The Customer is Not Always Right, and It IS Okay to Be Kind to YOURSELF.
Whelp, it's coming for me now...
the cancel culture. Yep. It's all over. Pun totally intended. Be prepared to be triggered... maybe? Just in case you're not sure what I'm saying, I even put the definition below.
Merriam Webster's Dictionary defines cancel culture as the following:
"cancel culture
noun
Definition of cancel culture
: the practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling (see CANCEL entry 1 sense 1e) as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure
One thing I've seen and heard preached forever: The customer is always right.
As a freelancer, many think I should be living by that phrase, especially as a freelancing artist. Whatever I can do to keep money coming in, right? No. In fact, HELL NO.
Being an artist gives many the impression that what we do isn't work because we often enjoy it so much or it elicits so much joy in general, that people don't see us hating our jobs. That does not at all make the "behind-the-screens" work go away. That does not take the practice and dedication it took to become good at the art away. Just because someone can do something quickly doesn't mean you should pay less because it took less time; you're paying for their experience, too.
There was always this trifecta I saw in college:
• Pick 2: Good grades, good sleep, good social life
This is the trifecta I've learned about and discovered as an adult that fits so many things:
• Pick 2: Inexpensive, quickly done, made/created/done well
There are tons of people with fancy cameras who call themselves photographers, are inexpensive (some under-selling themselves, some...should be paying their "clients"), you can get in immediately every time, and/or are throwing every photo on a USB Flash Drive or Disc "because that's what their customers want."
Guess what, Sunshine? That's their business, and if they want to do that, that's up to them. Good for you for finding the good ones (sincerely)! If you prefer their way, you can certainly go work with them! PLEASE DO! I do sell those things, I just don't offer them for free. I value the gallery-quality work that I strive to produce. Just because a person demands something does not mean an artist is required to deliver.
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I used to want to do whatever I could to get people behind my lenses.
After 2020, I realized I needed to be kinder to myself.
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I saw a post that said something along the lines of, "The clients you should happily let walk away are those who zap you of time or energy."
That was when I did something for the first time in my more than a decade of photography experience: I canceled appointments. In fact, I canceled more than one after the relief of the first.
I reached out to the few clients who were my worst time/energy zappers with whom I was "actively" trying to work, returned their deposits, and I canceled their appointments in ways that did not say, "Please come back now, ya hear?" I also made a promise to myself to no longer accept any and all work I could possibly do.
One of my previous clients asked me about how recently I'd attended church every single time I saw her. I did not appreciate how she used the access she gained to my life professionally to try to make persuasions personally. Nope, not doing that.
One of my previous clients just simply never got back to me. It felt like I tried harder than she did to get her business off the ground. When I let her go as a client, she somehow found the time to immediately get back to me. There was information I had asked for several times over several months with zilch coming back from that end.
One of my previous clients would incessantly text me about his food and making better choices for his health. Good for you, sir; but I am a photographer, not your personal cheerleader. I did not sign on to stroke your ego. I signed on to create art with you. Also, my photos will NOT make your decades-long music career suddenly come to life, though I appreciate the compliment.
One of my previous clients would make the most awful Facebook posts about her ex-husband and was a super social media drama mama who turned everything into something about her ex, even if it was comparing her new fiancé to him; yikes, not very adult-y. This was to be a very intimate session, and I could not do a boudoir shoot with a person I could not trust so much so that it caused physical anxiety. I just had no idea how what I did or said would be spread to others or if it would be said with a twist. I was still doing boudoir shoots in my home at the time, and that was what made me realize I could cancel that one. I had an experience that made me understand that I don't have to let anyone in my home who in any way doesn't make me feel safe, so what makes a photography session worth breaking that personal understanding? It doesn't.
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Luckily, I didn't have to cancel many appointments. Now, I do filter clients based on fit as well as time available; I've been called snooty (even by multiple in my own family) for that, but that's totally okay; I view it as more of a kindness.
You're likely going to get the best work when all parties are comfortable.
So, yes, if choosing to work with clients I enjoy and who enjoy me back makes me a snooty-falooty, then a snooty-falooty I shall be!
I am happy to work with almost everyone, and I'm even happier when I get to do so respectfully.