A Year In The Life was a project concepted and executed by Heather Morton - Canada's progressive authority on Art Buying for advertising agencies - which recently wrapped. Taking one West coast photographer and one East coast photographer, over 365 days she mentored them and had them write weekly blog entries about their experiences breaking into the business of commercial photography. Toronto's Jaime Hogge along with Vancouver photographer, Grant Harder, were the two lucky photographers and over the coming days we'll be sharing some of Grant's thoughts on and photos from his Year.
First we shared Heather Morton's INTRO, then week we shared THIS first post from Grant, today we're sharing another...
Words by Grant Harder
Heather’s idea to feature a photographer in both Toronto and Vancouver made a lot of sense to me. Heather, being from Toronto, had questions about the Vancouver photo market and I felt the same way about the Toronto scene. Over the past couple of years, as I’ve been developing as a photographer, I’ve often wondered if it would be wise to head east and set up shop in the much larger center of Toronto. I’ve spent a bit of time there, with the longest being a four-month stint. The city has its charm. In the past year alone I’ve visited twice for meetings and a photo festival. During my first visit of this year, I asked a handful of people in the industry if they thought it would be wise for me to move east. I was told that while there may be more work, that doesn’t necessarily mean it would be better for me. Also, I was told that it’s possible that clients need someone on the west coast who shoots like I do. That’s what I wanted to hear! I think Toronto is great and all, but as most of you know, it’s no Vancouver. Sure, our photo industry is small, but as long as I have work coming in from outside the city it doesn’t make a difference where I am. So for now, I’m staying right here.
