We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chad Barrett. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chad below.

Chad, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I’ve always heard that one of the keys to success is being passionate about what you do. So as an avid hiker and overall outdoor enthusiast, I was sure that the key to my success was taking my camera with me in to the outdoors and becoming a professional landscape photographer. I took incredible images and I sold almost none of them. It was a total flop. So I decided to change course and go into fashion and commercial photography. It was an instant success and within 6 months I had a client put several of my pictures on a billboard in Times Square. That taught me that passion alone will get you very little. You have to become passionate about what your clients are looking for.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started as a freelance camera operator for broadcast sports. I filmed top tier high school football and basketball for various major TV networks. I really wanted to make films though, so I bought a hybrid photography/video camera. I started experimenting with photography and fell in love with it. I tried several genres from wedding to landscape photography. Then I met one of NYC’s top fashion photographers, Weston Mosburg. Weston taught me everything he knew. It didn’t take long before I was getting paid to photograph for designers at NYFW and then even London Fashion Week. Now I shoot fashion and commercial exclusively and I share a studio with a few other photographers near SoHo in NYC.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

I learned quickly that clients were looking for specialist. I could t be a wedding, family, fashion commercial photographer. That meant I had to walk away from some revenue streams. Without having any clients booked yet, I had to book my trip to NYC for my first New York Fashion Week. This was a pretty big investment with no guarantee of a return. It was possible nobody would hire me. Worse, it was possible I wouldn’t get credentials to any shows to at least build my portfolio. A few weeks before NYFW I booked my first client, Tykorchélli, to photograph their runway show. They’ve since become one of my best and favorite clients, and even went to London with them too. The risk paid off. I was hired by several designers that season and got credentials for several shows. My calendar that whole week was booked solid. That lead to many business connections that shaped my future.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My personality. I love to be relatable with people and also have a relationship that isn’t just focused on business. I celebrate with the people I’ve worked with, even when their success is with a different photographer. I don’t just want the people who work with me to walk away with good photos. NYC has a thousand or more photographers capable of taking a good photo, maybe even better than mine. I want models to leave the shoot feeling respected and more confident in themselves. I want designers to feel like I’m part of their brand, that my own personal brand is the byproduct of my work for their brand.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cbarrettphoto.com
• Instagram: cbarrett.photo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cbarrettphotos
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cbarrettphoto/

Image Credits

Photo 1: Matthew Hooker
Photo 3: Cade Wood
Photo 4: Aliana Glory
Photo 5: Shelby Ritterson
Photo 6: Kerin McAleese