For many fashion and beauty photographers, having their work showcased in independent magazines is a way to gain exposure. This process was rarely ever an efficient one, however, as each publication is vastly different. Traditionally, the method for doing this involved crawling the web, social media networks, e-mail contact databases, and finding obscure, over-complicated, or vague submission guidelines. The criteria for each magazine was often very different from one another, with very specific rules that made publishing one’s editorials its own part time job.
The trio of founders behind Kavyar: Sean Charles, Justin Kramer, and Nathan Sarr bring decades of experience from the technology and creative worlds to their new platform. They set out to take the pain out of the process, by reinventing the methods that are used today for contributing work to magazines.
Kavyar, according to their website, is “a network for creatives in fashion, beauty, and art. Our mission is to help artists find opportunities and succeed in their careers.” Kavyar currently hosts over fifty publications to submit to, as well as different competitions.
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Kavyar’s interface is a dream for photographers wishing to publish their work. The user interface allows members to upload their work, credit all collaborators, detail wardrobe credits, and submit their editorials to magazines all within the same interface. Gone are the days of sending low-res images or contact sheets formatted to the publication’s specifications, gone are the days of renaming files to a specific title, and gone are the days of hunting down the right contact e-mail or digging around trying to find an editorial calendar. While the individual publications can specify required quantity of images or sizes, the methods for submitting work remain largely unchanged. This gives photographers a myriad of options, while streamlining the entire process for efficiency with visible deadlines and themes.
Kavyar is a free service and social network for photographers and collaborators, but there are pricing options for publication owners, as well as the ability for publications to collect fees. While the latter is a contested topic for debate, Kavyar’s answer to a longstanding problem with editorial photography is not. In an industry where time is money, saving hours on this marketing and promotional aspect is a welcome opportunity.
To explore their network and application for yourself, visit kavyar.com.
Honestly, the fact that magazine publications are charging photographers to submit is absolutely backwards!! I appreciate that they are just trying to stay in the game but publications should be supporting the artists not adding to their struggles. In the end they will lose the support of those who put them there because why should we care for them if they don’t care about us. The quality of the submissions will ultimately plummet, as will the overall following for that publication. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!
I absolutely agree with Bryan. The Photographers work should be supported on highest Level !
As without the work of Artists, the magazines could not exist.
In the End, these kind of Fake-Magazines should not exist . They just destroy the Market and valuable Work of the Artists !!!
They have to charge because there are no ads. Also no articles. Therefore, no readership outside of the artists who submitted their work. You aren’t exposing yourself anywhere, just having a hard copy that you might as well have just sent to a printer. The curation of submissions is non-existent at times so ‘being accepted’ has no true value.
On a positive note, if you are just starting out, it is very excited to see your work published so I say go for it, but as you get established , get more discerning with your submissions.