July 25, 2023 | News
The election of a new President, Richard Mc Carthy. It’s an exciting time for both the association and Richard as he brings forth a wealth of fresh ideas and exciting projects, igniting a wave of positive change.
We asked Richard a little bit about his background and what are his thoughts on becoming the President of the IPPVA.
Let’s start with your background!
Born & raised in Kerry but now living in Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo with my wife & 2 daughters, I spent my earlier life as an IT Engineer which took me all over Europe but I always had an interest in Photography since I got my first film camera at 18 while living in Guernsey. My interest in wedding photography peaked after my own wedding in 2003 and I learned as a second shooter for some of the top wedding photographers in the North West. When the downturn hit in 2007, I was made redundant and took the leap into full time photography.
Some tidbits:
What do you shoot, and when did you start your business?
I mainly shoot Weddings but also do Portraits, PR, Commercial & Events mainly around Sligo and the North West. I started in 2003 as a 2nd shooter but went full time when I was made redundant in 2007.
When did you join the IPPVA and why?
I joined the IPPVA back in 2016 as I wanted to be part of something bigger, obtain opportunities to meet other like minded photographers and develop my business through education and advice.
When and how did you start volunteering on the IPPVA Council?
I only joined the council this year ! To be honest, I was complaining about the lack of things happening in the association and decided that it’s more productive to just volunteer and get involved in helping to build the association and hopefully make a difference.
What are your thoughts on becoming the IPPVA President?
I’m pretty excited about it as I have lots of ideas on how we can grow the association. I want to start the conversation on providing help in areas such as access to resources, education and networking and build a roadmap for 2023 and 2024 so members can see what we are striving for.
What do you hope to achieve as President?
I want to focus on the business side of Photography, how we can help our members make their business more efficient and more profitable. It’s becoming increasingly hard to make a living at photography and we all feel overworked and underpaid. I want to help members take a step back, look at their business, pricing, marketing, etc and find ways of improving their work life balance.
The past few years have been tough for any of us to meet up with other photographers and now there seems to be less opportunities to meet due to the overwhelming workload in the past year since Covid.
My goal is to help members by finding out what areas they struggle with in their business and create more opportunities for members to learn, network and grow their business through meetups, workshops and mentoring.
Have you any interesting photography projects currently in the pipeline?
I’m working on a podcast to raise awareness of the Irish photography industry. It’s going to be an interview style podcast with some of our members, chatting about how they approach their style and hopefully give us a few tips and advice on improving our craft and business.
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