LPA / Work Experience at a Photography Agency!

Hi, I’m Olivia Hoddy and I’m studying for my A levels in geography, sociology and photography and I’m spending a week with LPA to see if the photography industry is something I want to go into in the future!

Monday

I started my first day off by meeting the LPA team, Lisa, Chloe, Anna and Clio and getting settled into the office lifestyle. Everyone talked me through what they did and how an agent works. I was shown the process of arranging meetings to show the photographers’ portfolios by contacting particular agencies and companies. I then got the amazing opportunity to meet Will Hartley, one of the photographers at the agency, and see some of his newest work. Near the end of the day I got to look through some of the portfolios which were all beautifully put together and incredibly inspiring.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I got to help Clio write a blog post on still life duo Wilma’s most recent shoot with eyewear designer Tom Davies, it was really interesting to see how a blog post is put together and what’s included in them. Then for the majority of the afternoon I got to work on a treatment for a brief. I really enjoyed selecting the two best photographers for this brief and choosing their images that showcased that their work was appropriate for the idea behind the shoot, as I got a real taste for one of the tasks you have to do in the agency.

Wednesday

On my third day in the office I helped Chloe update LPA’s Linked In page by creating posts of all the most recent blog posts which was fun to see how agencies promote their work. I then did some research on a mailshot LPA are planning. As well as this, food and drink photographer Tim Atkins came into the office and him and Lisa had a little catch up about his latest work and the projects that he’s been involved in and planned some exciting things. Later on, in the afternoon we all took a trip down to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Cindy Sherman exhibition which I was really excited about and it was a nice opportunity to get out of the office, as much as I like walking up the four steep flights of stairs.

Thursday

Today I met Anna in Parsons Green and we went to a studio were Katrina was doing a photoshoot for House of Fraser. This was definitely my favourite part of the week so far as I loved being in the studio and seeing the amount of work and effort that goes into taking one shot and the number of people involved. When we got back to the office Andrea popped in and had a catch up and meeting with Lisa, Clio and Chloe about her amazing trip to Tanzania, her incredible project on albinism, and the people she met on her trip.

Friday

On my last day with the team I helped out with preparing presentation for Lisa’s talk next week with Ogilvy about what agents do and how they work with creatives. I really liked working towards an end goal and it was interesting for me to see all the preparation that goes into a talk presentation. I also helped Chloe create an estimate for a photoshoot as well as filling out a call sheet for another shoot.

Overall this week I have really enjoyed my week with LPA and it has really helped me to find out more about the photographer industry and I definitely want to keep up with my photography in the future!

Thanks to Chloe, Anna, Clio and Lisa for making my week so enjoyable!