Introduction

Since 2012, I’ve been taking photographs of my community in my hometown of Oakland, California. As I grew as a photographer, I began to use my perspective to tell community stories that highlight the beauty and nuance of the place I called home. Once I learned how to travel cheaply, I used these opportunities to capture moments and communities in other places — my first attempt being in Paris, France. This approach to storytelling set the trajectory for how I would later be recognized as a photojournalist and hired to document stories in other countries.

In March 2017, I traveled to Paris, France for about $300 round trip through a flight deal with Wow Air, a low-cost carrier (now dissolved). Coincidentally, I had received my passport two years prior at the age of 22 because I was committed to seeing the world. My influences to travel were the newly formed Travel Noire, a now award-winning boutique travel company, and my eldest sister who went to Singapore for her study abroad program in college and gifting me foreign currency. In the early years of Instagram, I loved seeing Black people traveling and exploring the world, especially as an American. As a photographer, I wanted to put myself to the test and experience photography in another place as my main motivator.

Working with companies

There are many ways to earn money with photography. You can shoot for hire such as a photography assignment or you can license your existing images after visiting a place.

On this trip to France, I traveled there as a photography resident and representative for Oakland/Saint-Denis, a cooperation project between the city officials of Oakland, California and Saint-Denis, France, a bordering town to Paris. So basically I was making time on my own to take photographs while fulfilling a contracted agreement for the project. For a month, I led photojournalism and community workshops for high school students while taking photographs of the communities they lived in. I was paid for my time after the trip ended.

If you want to guarantee a project for hire before traveling, you can utilize work for hire for a news publication, travel organization or non-profit that works with international communities and efforts that need documentation.

I would suggest thinking about your personal interests and how they align with the organization doing existing work, then pitching your idea to them. Many publications have guides on what they’re looking for in pitches and it never hurts to ask (via public-facing emails).

Work for hire vs licensing images

Here is some information about work for hire by the US Copyright Office.

Copyright in Works Made for Hire

A work’s status as a work made for hire affects the authorship, copyright ownership, copyright term, and termination rights in that work.

Authorship

If a work is a work made for hire, the employer or the party that specially ordered or commissioned that work is the author of that work.

Copyright

Ownership If a work is made for hire, the employer or the party that specially ordered or commissioned that work is the initial owner of the copyright in the work unless the employer or the commissioning party has signed a written agreement to the contrary with the work’s creator.

I won’t go deep into image rights and contracts in this post, but shooting for companies often requires a contract and many contracts, but not all of them, offer work for hire as part of the agreement. There are also options to retain ownership and ways to negotiate.

Another way to earn money with photography is by licensing existing images. A license is different from purchasing because licensing is granting permission to use the image for a termed use. News publications often license images to use in news articles. I use the platform photoshelter to license images such as this aerial image in Berkeley, California. I licensed the image to society & space for an article about the contested space. The article was published and I was paid in June 2024 even though I photographed it in January 2023, earning me money for my existing library of images.

Making time for my own images on vacation

Even though I haven’t licensed images from my France trip, they are available on my website for view to license or purchase a print. This is because outside of my project, I made time to photograph for my personal archive that matches my style and interests.

I learned from a photography workshop by Todd Bigelow that many ways photography can become income generating is to think of the images outside of what’s popular. Everyone has images of the eiffel tower while on vacation, but how many people have images of the construction of the city before they host the olympics? Because I made time to capture images outside of my intended purpose for traveling, I can now utilize my archive for future use.

Conclusion

Traveling to Paris and Saint-Denis, France for the cultural project made a full-circle moment for me. Coming from my hometown as a hobbyist with the intention to make images in another place led to me showing up for the opportunities to do so when they met me. Sharing my work, making connections and practicing helped with the execution of the projets a long the way and allowed future collaborations to be possible. Not all opportunities will look alike, but making the most out of them can always be an intentional act as a photographer.

Do you have any suggestions on how to land more opportunities for travel photography? Comment below with any questions.