Late one night in March, Atlanta-based photographer Brandon Clifton received a request for stock images of first responders from his photography mentor, Monte Isom. The stock images were going to be submitted to Millie magazine for a spotlight on first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the request came late, the due date for the images was around noon the next day, so Brandon got straight to work.
When I decided to shoot these images, it was the peak of the pandemic in terms of hospitalizations and uncertainty, so I knew I wanted to photograph nurses and police officers. It only made sense that I’d shoot at a hospital and the police station in my hometown.
Brandon reached out to Stephanie Mason, a nurse friend of his, to coordinate the shoot at the hospital. The nurse confirmed that as long as the hospital’s name was not visible in the photos, Brandon could use the outside of the building as a backdrop. Stephanie gathered a few of her coworkers as talent for the shoot. Brandon had the nurses stand outside of the hospital on the sidewalk while his friends drove by with encouraging signs that they had hung out of their car windows.
Even though they knew it was staged, I believe the nurses were genuinely touched in a time where there was so much anxiety and heartbreak, thus giving the authentic reactions you see in the image.
For the shoot at the police station Brandon consulted his dad, who works in the same building as the police department. The photographer’s dad was able to get the police department on board with the shoot under the notion that it would be for a magazine.
At the time I had no idea if my images would get picked up or not, I just told everyone they were and hoped for the best. Thank God they actually were chosen because I don’t know what I would have told them otherwise.
Brandon photographed the police right outside of the station so that he wouldn’t be taking them away from their jobs for too long. The photographer kept things streamlined and only ended up shooting for 15 minutes.
There was little conversation between me and the officers other than making sure I was bringing out their best side. I did get the sense that even though we were in the middle of a pandemic, they had a sense of duty and weren’t going to let fears of infection stop them from performing their jobs.
After he finished both shoots, Brandon did some quick edits and sent the photos to Monte for submission to the magazine. A few weeks passed before Brandon heard back that the magazine wanted to purchase two of his images — but at a low rate. Fortunately, Monte was able to convince the magazine to raise their image rate.
As photographers, we get excited about a project and are willing to let our work go for next to nothing sometimes. That’s only hurting us in the long run. Monte’s whole thing is, if every photographer would charge what they’re worth, clients wouldn’t try to get you to work for next to nothing because they’d realize you’re asking for the industry standard rates.
Check out more of Brandon’s work at brandoncliftonphoto.com.
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