To Shelter In Place
You’d think that being a freelancer for over three decades I’d have all of the tools for working from home stress-free, but the last two weeks, with Covid-19 Shelter In Place, it’s been challenging. The practical aspect has been fine, often even positive, with seeing more of my wife and daughter, but anxiety about the future, health, and finances are in the back of my mind much of the time.
Julian Richards, my agent from back in the day, used to say to us, “Your main job when you’re not shooting is to not go crazy.” In fact, when I’ve seen some of my peers leave the business it’s struck me that they’re probably going for psychological reasons first, not financial ones. Working freelance has its ups and downs, and those downs can go long and deep. Sometimes years. If you don’t develop ways of coping you won’t survive.
I don’t pretend to have all of the answers, but I’ll list here a few of my ways of getting through the quiet days (and weeks).
1. Office Work. First, get all of your day to day business in order. Outstanding image delivery, bills, invoicing, government paperwork. Any and all office obligations.
2. Promotion and Marketing. One should be doing this on an ongoing basis, but quiet times are great for re-evaluating websites, writing blog posts, brainstorming upcoming direct mailers, and strategizing social media rollouts.
3. Series Work. Which leads to the big one, shooting series work. This should be a staple of every photographers work life. I do personal projects as a license to explore our world, as promotional material, to build my legacy, but also to give myself a sense of purpose when I’m not getting jobs. When I get a slow week or two I do the deep dive into my passion projects.
4. Family, Home & Exercise. One of the great benefits of being a freelancer is that I can make my own schedule. For the most part they align with standard office hours, but I don’t hesitate to schedule in a mid-afternoon run, or to take a day off and do something fun with my wife or daughter.
5. The Real Personal Projects. Sometimes I’ll truly indulge and do big personal projects that have no connection to my professional life. At one point, I spent my free time, for five years, building a family history archive. I interviewed my parents and their siblings, built an online family tree (with my father’s help) and put together three books of “family facts,” featuring one page for each family member.
When asked how I’ve built a long career, and one that reflects so much of my personal vision, I recite one of my mantras, “When in doubt, play the long game.” In this time of uncertainty, that is a good one to go by. I feel like I know what things will look like in two years, but not in six months, and that’s scary.
Walt Disney said, “The difference between winning and losing is often not quitting.” When not quitting today means staying at home and not freaking out, I think that we’re got a fighting chance.
Image: I was pleased to be asked by AARP to make a portrait of my “shelter in place” working from home situation. Our family self-portrait is strangely serene and upbeat given the times, so just to be clear, we don’t all sit by a roaring fire while doing our respective work. Thank you to Jane Clark and Melanie Skrzek for the assignment.