Call Me a People Photographer

CALL ME

A PEOPLE PHOTOGRAPHER

By Richard Terborg

I WAS BORN AND RAISED ON A TROPICAL ISLAND IN THE CARIBBEAN CALLED CURACAO. I LIVED THERE THE FIRST PART OF MY LIFE (18 YEARS) BEFORE MOVING TO THE NETHERLANDS AND “ALMERE” (A TOWN A FEW KILOMETERS NEXT TO AMSTERDAM CENTRAL).

Photography, business and teaching photography and arts became a big part of my life here. In my presentation I want to tell you the story of how this all went, along with some tips, tricks and things learned along the way. I could do a whole introduction about how it is to swim in beautiful warm blue waters and dive with sharks. But that’s not that interesting. What is interesting is how I’ve been told so many times while growing up in this photography business, that you need to be a specialist. You need to know and understand the category you’re working in and be the best at it. It can be portraiture, boudoir, wedding, or any other photography category that exists. If the past two or three Covid years have taught me anything, it was that being a generalist (I call myself a people photographer now) or at least knowing when to switch from one to the other is better than being in one specific field. When Covid hit and the world shut down, I saw a lot of my specialist photography friends who were in the wedding or in the event photography business, shut down. They didn’t have work anymore and they tried to ride it out, until there was no more cash to ride it out and they had to close shop and find something else to do.

Back in 2008 when I started my business fresh off the corporate job, the housing market / bank crash happened. It was here that I learned to go with the times and go with the flow and not to hold on to old principles. What do I mean by this? Back then I heard “older” photographers say that they used to charge +$10,000 dollars for a big commercial photoshoot and that the “hobbyists” were getting in the space and taking those jobs for less money. Those prices never came back. I never tried to find them. I was one of those “hobbyists” doing it for less and “stealing” their old jobs. With Covid, I threw my speciality in fashion photography and travel photography out the window on day one and started looking at what my limits were in this new world. I could only stay in my local town. I looked around and figured out who in my town did what with photography or imagery or who wasn’t affected by what was going on. I saw and noticed that we were still paying taxes. That means the city council was still getting money. I found out the city council wanted Covid stories which I produced by emailing them and asking some local people. Was I a documentary or news photographer? No, but I was sure going to learn how to fill in that spot and market that spot. I made friends with local magazines and newspapers and did jobs for them. I found out there were a lot of budgets not used because of Covid, and they didn’t know what to do with budgets. I thought of different projects for different companies so they could use those budgets on little, old me and have a good photographic project to show for it. Being a specialist in “normal” times when the world isn’t ending can be good. Being able to think quickly on your feet, not hold to old principles and to be able switch when needed helps! I had two of my best financial years because of it. While everyone was in lockdown, I was driving around shooting different “through the window” projects with my city council’s permission.

Richard Terborg

Richard Terborg is a people photographer in every sense of the term. A practicing photographer with two decades of expertise, he loves human-based images as they allow him to develop an emotional connection with the people he photographs. When shooting for a client, he consistently seeks a balance between sharpening the vision of the client brief and adding his own personal, artistic touch to the project. As a brand ambassador for Elinchrom and Olympus, Terborg offers workshops in photography, set design, lighting, and entrepreneurship for creatives in countries such as The Netherlands, Curacao, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Wales, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Canada.