Lifestyle: Youth Culture

photo by Alex Tehrani

1.OVERVIEW
When you talk to buyers about their needs for images of younger kids – babies through 10 or so – their needs are all fairly consistent. But when you talk to them about portraying adolescents and young adults – their needs can really diverge.

Some buyers still want images of kids shown in a mainstream, timeless, lifestyle format– integrated into their families, schools and other institutions. But other buyers want to show kids as a sub-culture where individualism counts and adults are not necessarily welcome. This is the indie, skate, surf, music crowd where clothes need to be modern and even trendy – a wardrobe essential in almost no other category of stock.

Either way, Youth Culture is a fun category, extremely important in the stock world, and not necessarily for the shy or faint of heart.Good luck!

photo by Brad Nelson

2. DEFINITIONS
Youth culture means anything involving kids from the ages of roughly 12-22, in some cases even older.

This category includes both edgy photography and mainstream lifestyle imagery showing kids on campus, watching TV together or playing sports. It encompasses every type of kid or activity you might find in this specific age range.

3. INTRODUCTIONS
We have to admit – this was a particularly cool set of experts – a big thanks to all of them for lending us some of their street cred!

BUYERS

• Anthony Annandono – MTV (Designer)
• Martin Berman – G2 (Associate Creative Director)
• Jess Levey – CosmoGirl (Photo Editor)
• Thu Nguyen – American Express Custom Solutions (Deputy Art Director)

PHOTOGRAPHERS

• Alex Tehrani
• Stephen Ziegler

Blender, October 2007


3. BUYER TIPS
Again – buyer needs varied – some designers wanted edgy individualists doing their own thing, others wanted mainstream kids on campus. Here is a consolidated list of tips.

• Kids hanging out. This is a universal need – regardless of age, attitude, style, or gender – was for images of kids just hanging out with each other. Either on campus or outside of school. Walking down the street, playing basketball, getting coffee, watching movies, at parties, in cars, on skateboards, on bikes – whatever! Talk to kids you know, figure out what they do, and shoot them doing those things.

• Use diverse models. As always – shoot diverse kids hanging out with each other and as single-ethnicity groups.

• Capture ‘un-moments.‘ Get a variety of shots – always get that shot of someone looking into the camera, but make sure you get other moments too – the images that don’t look staged, that describe a subtle emotion, that capture an interaction between people – that tell a story indirectly.

• Kids using technology. This is a major need – kids of all ages using laptops, iPods, Blackberries, texting, or on cell phones.

photo by Jon Ragel

• Not cheesy or dated. So much of what buyers see and dislike in stock imagery is that it is either hopelessly dated stylistically, or it is fake and “cheesy.” Don’t just set up the shots; hang out with kids and photograph what they naturally do. Don’t use exaggerated facial expressions or literal gestures.

Teen, Summer 2008

• Do your research. Youth culture images are used in all kinds of outlets – from teen magazines to consumer product advertisements to non-profit and government brochures. These all have very different styles and will want to see very different types of kids. Pick the genre that you are trying to target. Become an expert in terms of how images are used iand the types of clients that buy stock. Get lots of teen magazine subscriptions!

photo by Stephen Zeigler

• Tell a story. One of the biggest pitfalls of shooting youth culture is just photographing kids without any articulated thoughts regarding what you are trying to say or what you bring to the image in terms of a point of view. Don’t just shoot pictures of kids dancing at a party – have a mental focal point for the image. One way to consider this is by reading teen magazines and noting the story topics:  break-ups, friendship, humor, embarrassment, parties, depression, having fun – think about what your image might be illustrating.

photo by Stephen Zeigler

• Get campus shots. There is a constant need for anything related to school – high school or college.

• Get stuff with parents too. It can be really challenging for buyers to find parents and teens hanging out in realistic, non-staged settings. Think about the interactions the kids have with their parents, both positive and negative, and get those shots – parents being aggravating or angry – or engaging positively – at high school sports events teaching them to drive, dropping them off at college, etc.

• Use great models. You need to be more careful casting teens than younger kids because you don’t have the ‘perfection’ aspect once kids become teens. Teens are much more self-conscious, and cosmetics become an issue – skin, hair, weight – you’ve got to find models who look great (but not too model-y), and who can be comfortable and outgoing in front of a camera.

photo by Brad Nelson

• Be trendy or don’t be trendy. Either stick with mainstream kids and shoot in simple J. Crew-esque clothes, or dive into the sub-cultures (surf, skate, music) and shoot up-to-the-minute trends. The trendy imagery will date quickly but it’s sort of the point – sell it while it’s hot.

• Shoot ethnic cultures + sub-cultures. Immerse yourself! Hang out in concentrated ethnic parts of town and document that segment of youth culture. Or find a sub-culture like surf, skate, music or fashion and document those kids. Also capture the cultural and environmental details – in Hispanic LA, document the rosaries or flags hanging from the kiosks. Show what cars are they driving, what bikes they ride, what skateboards, what clothes – document the sub-culture.

photo by Stephen Zeigler

• It’s ok to be edgy. A lot of the buyers in this category are edgy magazines or media properties, so there’s room for edgy or raw photographic values, and unorthodox angles. Channel your inner Terry Richardson, if you must! Don’t be afraid of using vibrant colors as well.

Nylon, July 2008

• No alcohol. If you’re shooting party scenes, remember that alcohol in the shots make them almost totally unusable (this applies to adult party scenes too).

• Show faces. Get a variety of shots – it’s good to get some close crops on body parts or environmental images – but always make sure you are covered in terms of getting peoples’ faces in the shots.

Blender, October 2007

4. PHOTOGRAPHER TIPS

• Don’t be a creep! You really need to be comfortable with teens and have a natural ‘in’ to their scene in order to shoot them. If you don’t know anyone in this age group, maybe pick an event like a big music festival and put an ad on Craigslist looking for a group of kids going to the festival who might be up for having a photographer tag along in exchange for prints. Also, be outgoing – tell them what you are doing and why, make them feel like collaborators. Don’t just start hanging around a crowd in a shy or voyeuristic way. You need to be a social person to shoot kids.

• Don’t try to be cool. The fact is that most likely you are an outsider and the kids are the insiders, and you have no way of changing that. Don’t try to act like you are one of them, just be yourself and show enthusiasm for what they are about.

photos by Stephen Zeigler

• Think about how it’s going to look. It’s surprisingly easy to take boring and uneventful pictures of interesting kids! Make sure you know how you want your image to look in terms of composition, lighting, and colors – and take the steps to get that result. Bring your own style as a photographer to the shoot.

• Find personalities. Usually if you find a real person with a strong personality and great personal style – someone with a lot of energy -, you are on your way to great images.

• If you don’t know the sub-culture, get a guide. If you don’t come from the surf or the skate world, you may not be able to capture it authentically. So if you don’t intrinsically understand it, find someone who does and get their help.

photo by Jon Ragel

• Have a point of view. Again, don’t just take 500 pictures of the scene and think that they’ll stand out. Understand the scene going into it and have an opinion or a set of scenarios you want to capture. As Alex Tehrani points out, if it’s a party, is it pathetic or awesome? Is it Spring Break or a Friday night in January? Do you shoot the life of the party or the lonely people in the corner? If you can’t articulate this vision to yourself, you can’t articulate it in a picture.

5. MORE VISUAL EXAMPLES

Cosmo Girl, June 2008

Teen, Summer 2008

Teen, Summer 2008

6. KEYWORDING TIPS + MODEL RELEASES

• Yeah yeah yeah, get model releases! Your images are not much good without them! And remember, if your subject(s) is under the age of 18, you need the release to be co-signed by a parent of guardian in most jurisdictions.

• Include age, gender, ethnicity, emotion, and literal descriptions in your keywords.

• Always include ‘teen’ and ‘youth culture’ as keywords.

photo by Jon Ragel

7. SHOTLIST [download]
More important than this shotlist is just finding cool kids and capturing their day-to-days, but here are some thoughts based on what buyers said they need.

• Watching tv
• Hanging out with friends
• Couples – hanging out, kissing, breaking up
• Playing video games
• Watching movies
• Eating pizza
• Doing homework
• Spending time with parents/family – either negatively or positively
• Skating boarding
• Biking, Surfing, Soccer, Football – any athletic activity, especially informal with friends
• Playing in park
• Shopping in mall or in urban environment
• Driving with friends
• Teen driving that is safety related
• Learning to drive
• In dorm room
• On college campus
• Reading a book
• Talking on cell phone
• Getting ready for school
• Eating with friends – at home or in a restaurant
• Walking a dog
• Going to a party
• Going to a club
• Dancing
• Listening to ipod
• On computer
• In classroom
• Study group
• Painting and drawing
• Taking a photograph
• Drinking
• Going to prom
• Graduation
• Packing to go to college
• Volunteer work
• Public speaking
• On beach with friends
• Kissing
• Holding hands
• Getting yelled at by parents
• Teens in any kinds of family situations
• Sleeping
• At concert/indie concert settings
• Playing an instrument
• Putting on makeup
• On a date/dating
• Young couple in love
• Watching a movie in a theater
• Depression
• Suicide
• Drug abuse
• School dances
• Trendy, cool, hip kids across or within all ethnicities hanging out
• Sub-cultures: music, surf/beach, skate
• Teens in backyard settings
• Teens in swimming pools
• College kids on spring break
• Teen  boys hiking or camping

photo by Jon Ragel

8. PARTICIPATE
Are you a buyer or photographer with extensive experience relevant to this category? We’d love to hear from you! Please email us with any additions to the Shotlist, Tips, or any other sections of this article.

We look forward to it!

About the author

Allen Murabayashi
Allen is CEO and co-founder of PhotoShelter. He is a regular contributor to the PhotoShelter blog, and he flosses daily.

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