Kendall Jenner recently stepped behind the lens as a fashion photographer. Brooklyn Beckham, the 16 year old son of Victoria and David Beckham was the photographer for a Burberry campaign. Casey Neistat is targeted by advertisers to help sell their brand after he created a huge online following. The world of photography is changing and professional photographers are becoming increasingly overlooked.
Previously, professional photographers would perfect their craft and spend years as assistants before moving up the ranks until they run their own fashion shoot, in order to sell a product or advertise a brand. The brand relied on the technique and creativity of the photographer and the campaign to sell their product and reach a large audience. Now, advertisers are looking at the notorious or the famous who have already garnered a large following on social media in the millions. Advertising executives figure these people have done half the job for them. They can reach their audience directly by using these influential people to represent their brand.
Kendall Jenner, a member of the Kardashian family, recently decided she wanted to be a fashion photographer. She photographed Cindy Crawford’s daughter Gaia, for a spread for UK publication, Love Magazine.
Jenner photographed Gaia Gerber with natural hair and makeup, which was done by her mother, Cindy Crawford. This was Jenner’s first professional photography shoot. In the image, the teenager rests her head on her hand and looks up to the sky. A green field is in the background and she is wearing a denim jacket and a white shirt. Kendall is 20 years old, with Kaia being only 14. They both proudly posted the image on social media, Kaia’s post on Instagram got 76,000 likes while Jenner’s acquired over 1.4 million.
Like Kendall Jenner, Brooklyn Beckham was born into a famous family and has recently shown a personal interest in fashion photography. In both cases, their first experience was at the top of the fashion photography profession.
Brooklyn Beckham was the photographer for a Burberry campaign in January this year. Despite the fact that he is 16 years old and has no fashion photography experience, what he does have is 7.9 million followers on Instagram.
Brooklyn Beckham has an interest in photography as shown in his Instagram account, where he shoots in black and white. His shoot for Burberry was for their campaign for their Burberry Brit fragrance. The shoot was filmed live and video was streamed on Burberry’s Instagram and snapchat accounts. Beckham encouraged his fans to follow the shoot using the hash-tag #THISISBRIT.
Brooklyn Beckham’s younger brother Romeo, also worked for Burberry as a model for the labels Christmas campaign. This advertisement attracted 11 million views within 2 days of launching.
Fashion photographer Chris Floyd, 47, well known for his celebrity portraits, says that Burberry’s decision to employ the inexperienced Beckham was a “devaluation of photography”.
Image by TheGuardian A photo taken by Brooklyn Beckham for the Burberry Campaign
He said it showed a lack of respect for hardworking and experienced professionals. Floyd understood Burberrys marketing strategy in tapping into the many followers that Beckham has on his Instagram account.
Jon Gorrigan is a photographer who has worked with publications such as Grazia, Esquire and the Observer said that everything probably would be done for Beckham anyway in terms of the creative side of the shoot and setting it up.
Unlike Kendall Jenner and Brooklyn Beckham, Casey Neistat was not born into fame, but earned his followers by posting videos on youtube that created large numbers in followers. He was, similarly to Jenner and Beckham, targeted for his social media following by advertising companies.
Casey Neistat created his own massive following that he wasn’t born into unlike Jenner and Beckham. He created a number of YouTube videos, sold an autobiographical TV series to HBO and created apps. A number of his videos went viral which is when the big brands came knocking to tap into his audience directly.
Neistat creates commercials that do not feel like commercials otherwise so many people wouldn’t watch them and he wouldn’t be such a success. Nike approached Neistat to help them sell more activity trackers and asked him to make a movie explaining what it means to #makeitcount.
Now Neistat has to create a balance between creating videos that keep the sponsors happy and being authentic and entertaining enough to keep his huge following. One approach he takes is to stay transparent, telling his viewers when and who the sponsors are. He knows if he loses the trust of his audience, he loses everything.
Do you think it is fair that Kendell and Brooklyn are given opportunities as professional photographers as the top of the game because they have huge social media followings? Tell us what you think!