Ok, so you have now found a love of photography and are dreaming big about your future behind the camera. Now what?

You’re now at the point in your creative journey where you want to get eyeballs on your photographs to make yourself known in the wider photography world. One of the best ways to raise your profile, away from social media, is through publications in magazines, both physical and digital.

In this article, I share with you some of my secrets that have helped me land multiple publications in some of the leading landscape & Nature photography magazines and publications in recent times, including Outdoor Photography Magazine, On Landscape, and Nature Vision Magazine.

Develop a Strong and Consistent Photography Portfolio

First and foremost, you’re going to want to curate your landscape photography portfolio. It is going to have to showcase only your best work, concisely and consistently. This means ruthlessly culling irrelevant photographs that are long past their ‘use by’ date, ensuring that every photograph contains a deeper story or is an important piece in the jigsaw of your final collection.

Magazines are more likely to feature photographers who have a clear artistic vision and identity, an understanding of who they are, and clarity around what they are communicating. Most magazines feature certain genres of photography and sometimes even sub-genres and specific styles. It is important, therefore, to develop your style before pitching to a magazine.

The chances are, if you haven’t found this consistency within your work yet, you aren’t ready to be featured in your favourite magazines. Find the magazines that suit your style of photography. Don’t attempt to make your photography suit the magazine, because this kind of self-sacrifice will quickly lead to you becoming artistically unfulfilled.

Learn to Communicate

One of the most important and so often overlooked skills as a photographer is communication. I often hear of photographers complaining about how they lack writing or speaking skills. It makes sense, given that we choose to use a camera as our primary tool for communicating with the world. Sadly, however, in this digital landscape, great photography is simply not enough. There are millions of photographs hitting our screens every day. It is arrogant to believe that your work is just going to get spotted by that important someone scouring the Internet on their mobile phone. Most people are scrolling to pass the time, mustering just about enough energy to mindlessly double-tap before moving on to the next post.

Every opportunity I have been ‘given’ so far has been a result of me putting down my mobile phone and going out to get it. I have worked incredibly hard to learn how to effectively communicate with curators, editors, podcast hosts, and business owners. I understood early on in my career that opportunities weren’t just going to come my way. I learnt humility, surrendered my ego, and began to reach out to people, telling them who I am, what I do, and, more importantly, why I do it. I would advise anyone on their artistic journey to do the same. Keep your feet on the ground, remain humble, and tell the truth. As a creative person, you can’t go far wrong when you do that.

Refine Your Creative Voice

In your pursuit to gain greater recognition with your creative work, it is vitally important that you work as hard on your creative voice as you do on your photographic vision. Your creative voice is all about finding and communicating your all-important ‘why’. If you want your work to be featured in leading magazines and eventually hung on walls in galleries, then it needs to contribute to something bigger than your egocentric wants, needs, and desires.

Every magazine editor, gallery curator, and podcast host will understand that you love being outdoors in the landscape and how you want to share that love with others. They also likely won’t care too much. What are you bringing to the world beyond wanting to feel the split-second of elation when the sun momentarily breaks through the clouds? What does your work stand for? What causes are you fighting for?

The journey to unearth the creative voice is a long and arduous one. I recommend making friends with your journal. Set aside some time every day, or every other day, to hone your writing skills. Those who communicate well visually, verbally, and through the written word stand the greatest chance of finding artistic and commercial success.

Most magazine features are going to want to include some form of writing for greater context around the photographs they feature, so it is essential that you work hard to refine your writing skills, as well as striving to master the craft of photography. Those who can photograph well and write well become real powerhouses in the creative world and will quickly win the favour of editors of leading magazines for the strength and diversity of features they offer.

By refining your creative voice and better understanding your ‘why’ through the process, you will also find that ideas for features spring to mind more frequently. It is important to go to an editor with an idea for a feature. The clearer the idea you have, the better the chances of the feature being successful.

Be Patient

Features in magazines require patience. Relationships with editors, like with anyone, take time to build. It is a process that cannot be rushed. People need to trust you in this industry, as any.

You should focus your efforts and energy on one or two magazines at a time and apply a strategy to nurture the relationships necessary to secure your publication. Be consistent in posting your work to various places online to raise your profile and ensure that your name gets seen in the ‘right’ places, and then be diligent in your efforts with each of the respective magazine editors. Reach out to them on platforms like LinkedIn, but don’t go straight in with the hard pitch. Just connect, engage, and let them know of your intention to raise your profile with a view to landing new publications in the future.

Embrace Failure

Sensitivity as an artist is a fantastic trait to have — one of the most important, I would say. Hyper-sensitivity around rejection, however, is a fast-track to working a 9-5 job doing something you hate. I can guarantee you that you will face many times as much failure as you do success as you walk along your creative path. You should get used to it… Quickly! Learn to take pride in each failure. Failures are a badge of honour for those who are courageous enough to try. Collect them. Show them off to the world. The artists who have tasted any level of success along this path are guaranteed to have faced more than a fair share of failure.

For every one response I get from an editor, curator, podcast host, or business owner, there are probably seven or eight responses I didn’t get. People are busy, I get it. I run a business myself, so I know how difficult it is to market myself, write articles, create new photographs, plan workshops, update my accounts, and reply to every comment/ email that I get. Wouldn’t it be arrogant of me to believe that I even deserve a response from everyone, never mind an opportunity, and get angry or upset when I don’t?

In Conclusion

Seeing your work in a magazine is a thrilling experience. There is something truly magical about flicking through the pages of your favourite magazine to see your name next to the work you have produced through the arduous creative process. Many of us have grown up reading books and magazines, and then, suddenly, we are creating the products that may fall into the hands of a new generation. It completes one of life’s many beautiful cycles. The process of landing publications and features in magazines is not easy, requiring you to overcome many challenges along the way. I hope that this guide might aid you on your creative path and help you to land that all-important first publication in your favourite photography magazine.

How to Land Your First Feature in a Photography Magazine