“Show Notes”
Fabrizia started with family photography, but moved into brand photography. She says brand and pet photography are the two rising genres. She started as a brand photographer was emerging. She used to work as a fashion and beauty editor.
She started photographing young people and managed to get a headshot of an author (family friend) of hers to be published on the book cover. In her 50s, she made a move to be a photographer. At the time, she was living in a tiny village in the Austrian mountains, so she realised it couldn’t be in fashion. So she started brand photography in 2011, but it wasn’t called brand photography then. She also did lifestyle shoots with families.
After she had run the business for a while, she moved to teaching photography business skills. She had an issue in Austria, as there was an exam to become a registered photographer. She got around this by setting up a UK business and operating that in Austria. She found that she could not pass the test as her German was not good enough. Eventually, the law was removed.
Fabrizia found that on Facebook groups, there were lots of photographers who were asking lots of business questions. So she eventually ran a course about how to run a photography business. She has been doing these ever since.
Fabrizia talks about brand photography being storytelling. Lots of brand photography shoots show women with laptops, coffee and champagne. She thinks it should be much more personalised to the person in the shoot. Marcus asks how you can delve deeper with your clients. She says it’s best to reflect where they are, not where they want to be. And she says this work is AI-proof, and you can charge more for it.
Fabrizia is running a brand lab again soon. She is speaking at the Wales and West Photography Show, as will Marcus. She is going to open the show talking about AI. She is also talking about branding. The show is from the 19th to the 21st of June.
Fabrizia also invites anyone who wants to chat to meet her for a coffee after the talk.
You can find Fabrizia on
Facebook
Linkedin
Insta
Website
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“Show Transcription”
Marcus: Well hello there, Sam. It’s another show. How are you doing?
Sam: Very good, Marcus. How about you?
Marcus: I’m very well. Thank you very well indeed.
Sam: Excellent.
Marcus: Yeah, we’ve got a guest on today, Sam.
Sam: That means listeners don’t just have to listen to us rabbiting on.
Marcus: Oh, I’m sure that people will be cheering around the country. The bunting will be out. Yeah, so we’ve got Fabrizia Costa, hopefully I’m saying that correctly. Fabrizia is a branding photographer and educator. But Fabrizia, you tell me more. Tell me about your journey.
Fabrizia: Right, so hi. Really nice to be here. It’s exciting and thank you for inviting me.
Sam: Thank you for joining us.
Fabrizia: So I have been doing brand photography. I’ve been doing all sorts of photography.
I started off with, you know, the usual families, this and that, the other. But then I kind of honed in and focused on brand photography because it’s such an up and coming thing. And it’s, you know, the demand for it is, I think, together with pet photography, it’s the two fastest rising genres of photography on the market right now.
Sam: So when did you think about, when did you make that transition to branding?
Fabrizia: Oh, I actually did it from basically from the beginning. I moved to Austria from Italy in 2009, 10, 9. And I thought, what do I want to do when I grow up? And I have been working with photography, with photographers for a very long time before. But I wasn’t a photographer. I was a fashion and beauty editor for magazines in Milan. I worked with a lot of photographers. I ran a studio for five years. So I was just on the other side, you know, on the other side of the fence for a long time. But photography has always been my passion. I used to take my father’s camera when I was nine. I think it was the first time he let me put his hands, my hands on his knicker mat. And when I was 12, I’m very proud to say I took a photo of a friend of his, who was a famous art critic, and he put the photo on the back cover of his book. That was my first publish.
Sam: Amazing.
Fabrizia: Yeah, I was so chuffed. And unfortunately, I don’t have that book anymore, but it was like my… Anyway, going on, I never really… I always had that passion, always took photos, but always, you know, not working on other sides of it. But then actually, when we moved to Austria, I thought, what do I want to do when I grow up? And I thought, if I don’t… And I was already in my 50s. But if I don’t do it now, when do I do it, right? So let’s give it… And that’s how it started. So I started, like everybody else, doing things, you know, trying to figure out what do I like to shoot. Obviously, it wasn’t going to be fashion, because I was in Innsbruck. And Tyrol, well, Austria and fashion were two words that can all go together. So… But especially, I was in a tiny village in the mountains, and it was like… But I do, you know, in the meantime, I realized I do love to photograph people. And I love the stories of people. And so it went to portraits and things like that. But then I realized, you know, there’s businesses out there that need photos. And I love not just to take photos of products or whatever people do, but actually tell the story of that business. So basically, I started writing photography in 2011 before calling it that, you know. But part of it was already that. That was my idea of what he should be.
Marcus: What do you think it was called in 2011? What would be more lifestyle photography?
Fabrizia: I did call it lifestyle. But basically, at the beginning, I wasn’t really even calling it anything.
Sam: It was just photography.
Fabrizia: Yeah, but it went to lifestyle, and I was doing lifestyle shoots with families as well. I did not want a studio on purpose. So my approach was, well, that’s a weak point, you know. All the photographers that were well established there had studios and shops and this and that, you know. And that was the last one coming. A foreigner, my goodness, on top of everything. And, you know, I thought, well, I got to turn that into a plus. And so I did. And so, you know, I started doing.
Marcus: Yeah, sorry. I was just going to interrupt there. So presumably, you were doing portraits. Obviously, enjoying your photography. We also had an interest in business as well, didn’t you? And creating this photography, which we now call brand photography, based around.
Fabrizia: Yeah, absolutely. I was, you know, and right at the beginning, you don’t really know what you’re going to love shooting. You know, from the outside, you go, oh, I love shooting people. I love doing this. I love doing that. But you don’t really know until you actually do it.
You know, what kind of photography are you going to be have most fun with and what sort of thing. So I was trying different things.
Marcus: So, yeah. So there you were, obviously, an early adopter to brand photography, working with these fantastic businesses in Austria. Let’s move it forward. How did you start to get into the education side then?
Fabrizia: Oh, the education side was again, it was about 2015. So I’d been doing it. We had issues at the beginning because the Austrian Photography Association had there was a law where you could not photographer registered unless you passed an exam that there was like it was a close thing.
Marcus: No. You had to pass an exam.
Fabrizia: And if you didn’t pass it, you couldn’t be a photographer registered.
Marcus: I’m quite impressed by that. I had to be honest.
Fabrizia: That was crazy. So when I started, I actually had to. I well, I’d grown up in the UK. So I opened a company in the UK. Thank God there was no Brexit at the time. And so I was the UK photographer basically working abroad in Europe, which was legal. But that meant that I couldn’t advertise. You know, there was like that. And I was in touch with the association all through this time, trying to say, well, can I get my my qualification any other way? Because my German was non-existent. I know how to do things, but don’t give me.
It’s like saying you’re driving testing German, you know, like the full off rate of flash or whatever. I wasn’t going to do that. And they were seemingly nice, but really trying to stop me. So in 2014, on April 1st, they took they took the thing off. They they abolished this law. So on April 1st, I registered as a company. And that’s when I could sort of grow the business a bit. But then in 2015, we had family issues. And I really need I was on my own and I really needed to make my business. I work, support myself, my daughter and kind of turn into, you know, really get going. And I realized that. So I did that. And in a year, it kind of went pretty well. And then all these other photographers, you know, was on Facebook. And groups and things. And all these other photographers were asking me, how do you do this? And how do you do that? I ended up spending more time coaching photographers on their business than actually working on mine. And I thought, you know, and I was working at this time with the pretty famous printer. I’m sure that anyone listening who does portraits and prints knows Graphy Studio in Italy is a big company that does fantastic products. And so I had gone down to they were very helpful. They actually helped me really sort of have incredible things to grow my business when I finally could actually have that sort of thing. So I went down and we organized. I have a castle. We organized the first workshop for photographer, not about photography. They had never been done before. And it was all about design business. Yeah. Yeah. About how to run a business, how to sell albums and design them well, because also photographers had no clue how to, you know, and someone else was teaching that. And someone else was a guest teaching about materials and code. Anyway, so that was kind of the start of my it was scary as hell. But it was my sort of educational journey. And I realized then that I loved it. I absolutely love to see people thrive. You know, I love to be on that journey with photographers who since then, so many, you know, so much talent and very little entrepreneurial. You know, nobody always say nobody has ever become a photographer because they had an entrepreneurial mind. They would be doing something else. Right.
Marcus: Yeah, that’s a good point.
Fabrizia: You have to learn to learn how to run a business and a lot of people. So it’s crucial.
Sam: You were instead of doing a photographer’s course about getting better at photography. You were talking of doing a photographer’s course about getting better at business. And so that was completely unique as lots. These photographers are going on lots of courses to get better at photography, which doesn’t help them market their photography, do their accounts now to run a business.
Fabrizia: Exactly, exactly. And now I know everybody’s teaching this stuff. So it’s not anything, you know, strange, but 10 years ago, it was pretty new. And so, but, you know, so since then, I’ve done a lot of that. And I realized that I started going to conferences and speaking, you know, speaking, you know, the rest of it. So, yeah, it’s been it’s been really, really interesting. And I love it.
Sam: So what is it you’re doing now, education wise?
Fabrizia: Education wise, I’ve been working with Italian photographers since then. And so I have a I have a course going in Italian that is a year long course and it keeps going. It’s a revolving thing. I’ve been working with people for a long time. It’s called Outside the Box. And it’s quite famous at the moment. And when I moved to England, I thought, do I do the same thing? Do I not do the same thing? I obviously don’t have the same audience, but I have really honed in on branding photography. So going back what we did because I did three live workshops in Italy in the past couple of years. It’s called Branding Lab. And I thought I wonder and I spoke about it at the Society’s Convention and at different conventions. And and I thought, I wonder if I can do this online in English. And we just finished the first run and it went fantastically well. So I run it again in August and it can be done online. Even if I’m not there to shoot with you, I can actually, you know, coach you through it, walk you through it and then, you know, it’s actually been really interesting and much more in depth, having time, you know, six weeks to do it rather than three days. So it’s been really interesting. And this is about moving on from the branding photography that I see pretty much everywhere now, which has been so popular in a way of, you know, it’s usually a woman with either a glass of champagne or a coffee mug, a laptop or a salad or, you know.
Marcus: The three C’s I like to call it, a coffee cup and champagne. That’s a good one as well. The coffee cup, champagne, computer.
Fabrizia: tthat sort of thing. Which, you know, if somebody wants that for their brand, fair enough. But to me, it’s like a little cookie cutter sort of, you know, go to a great location, borrow some clothes, get a complete makeover and be who you’re not. My idea of brand photography is very much tied to storytelling. So it’s much more and nothing wrong with getting a makeup artist, by the way. That’s fine. But it’s not just about women with laptops.
It’s not just about, you know, coaches or whatever. It’s more about telling the story of you and your business. And the more we move forward, and this is about, you know, my branding sort of hat, marketing and advertising is more and more and more. It’s been so for years and years, but now even more so. It’s about storytelling and even big brands become personal brands. You know, we want the stories of the founders of Nike. We want this. That’s why all these people are writing books, because it’s really important that people align with the values of the person behind the company and where it came from and all of this kind of stuff. And so that’s even, you know, so with smaller brands, with, you know, shops or small companies or anything you’re talking about, it really is about the people that make it.
And you see that, you know, on all of your ads and things on social media and anywhere, it’s about the story of the company or something about them, you know, that makes them unique and all of that. So this is even more important now to be able to narrate the story behind this brand, behind this business, behind this product, behind whatever it is that people want. And whether it’s a person or somebody, a business in terms of like a shop or a manufacturer, it’s the same thing. You know, the elements that are important when you photograph this thing are the same.
Marcus: So I totally agree with you. There’s no doubt about it. We’re definitely in the era of the personal brand, maybe just as we’re coming up to the we’re closing the show down a bit. So you could just give us maybe a couple of tips that how our brand photographers can dive in deeper with their clients.
Fabrizia: Yeah, first of all, it’s not just about taking the client out of that context into a better context. I know that is aspirational and everybody wants to look better than they are. But really, it’s about, you know, that’s not doing the client any any favors by just telling a story that isn’t true. So better to have whoever, you know, it is do the things that they do and and shoot like a documentary type thing, always making them look good. That’s really important. But at the same time, nobody wants to look bad. But it’s that kind of, you know, more documentary thing. And that’s some really good portraits, maybe in their spaces, in their offices, in their shop, in their environments, labs, whatever they are. So that, you know, that there is and details that a brand should should be about details. There’s these three or four different planes, you know, you want the interiors. So the wide angle light of the space theory, possibly, if it’s interesting, obviously. And then the person doing things. So all the details doing things and then the details of their tools or whatever is there, you know, the decorations of the place, if it’s a place to hospitality and, you know, food, anything. So stuff is totally AI proof, right? Of course, somebody with a restaurant can just AI a picture of a burger and stick it on their social media. Fair enough. But if you want my burger, I have to come up and take a picture of your burger in your place, on your, you know, table with your work or whatever. You know, so it’s all of that that makes that picture absolutely exclusively yours, which means that you can charge more for it. AI becomes bigger as cheap photographers, cheap images become more widespread. Real true photographers can actually raise their level and also charge a premium because there’s going to be a choice of brands. And this is for a whole other episode if you want. Brands are going to be choosing to go one way or another. And real photography will have that, you know, human touch premium, you know, made by human type of thing. Absolutely. That is going to be, you know, you know, pretty much more valuable.
Sam: So yeah, almost like a labor get made by people. That makes sense. And then you also talk so training wise, you’ve been talking about doing training in Italy and so on. Is there any training available for photographers here in the UK?
Fabrizia: So training, I am running this branding lab again in August. So I will everybody follows my social media. I’ll be putting out a wait list soon. I’m also speaking at the Wales of West show, which you’re pretty cool.
Marcus: So and I will be speaking there as well.
Fabrizia: I’ll be doing a short speaking every day. The first day I actually opened the show with on the main stage on the talk about AI. And that is fantastic. It’s important if you give anybody can just turn up on that. They’d be fantastic. And then the next two days we’re talking one of these. We’re talking about branding shoots and can’t remember the last one. Anyway, some.
Sam: Yeah. So we do not. It’s 19th to the 21st of June. And we’ll put links to it on the show notes. So people can find that sounds like there’s lots of amazing speakers. I wonder how many shoot to the top guests. We’ve got speaking Marcus. You’d have to do a quick count while you’re there.
Marcus: Actually, yeah, that’s quite interesting. We’ll have to quick head count. Yeah. We’re getting we’re getting we’re getting around a bit.
Fabrizia: And actually, after my talks, I’m planning to invite whoever comes to the talks to meet outside the So I’m going to go and have a coffee. So if anybody’s interested in talking more about this, because the talk time is pretty limited. Definitely come and then come out and have a coffee with me. And we can just, you know, sit and chat because that’s the best thing about going to these things is meeting people. I don’t just be on a stage and put on a show and walk off like, no, no, that’s not what I’m there for.
Sam: And if a new port is the place to be.
Marcus: My old stomping rag. So for Pritzia, if our guests want to find out more about you, I’m sure they do. Can you get me what is the best place to find you?
Fabrizia: Someone LinkedIn as for Pritzia Costa. I’m on Instagram as for Pritzia dot Costa. I am on Facebook as well. God knows what the thing is there for Pritzia something because you have to add.
Sam: We’ll put links in the show notes.
Fabrizia: But yeah, so definitely get in touch anyway. And, you know, websites for Pritzia Costa dot com.
Sam: Perfect. Amazing. Thank you very much for being with us. Listeners, if you want to make sure you don’t miss any shows, then do sign up to the newsletter. The newsletter has been a little bit revamped, so it is now going out with hints and tips from me and Marcus every week, as well as links to the shows, get to the Facebook group and all sorts of things like that. So you need to make sure you get that every week to sign up. Go to shoot to the top dot com for Pritzia. Thank you again so much for being with us. And Marcus, I will see you next week.
Marcus: Yeah. Thank you for being here.
Fabrizia:Thank you. It’s been fun.
Marcus: See you next week Sam.
