NFIB

One Mistake I'll Never Make Again
03/ 12/ 2002

by Alan Breznick

For photographer Katharine Andriotis, a flawed contract was a real eye-opener. The 44-year-old Andriotis has run a small but thriving photography firm in White Plains, N.Y., for 13 years, specializing in corporate on-location shoots.

Early on, Andriotis conducted a complicated three-day shoot for a major New York-based magazine. Two aides attending the sessions approved the test Polaroids that Andriotis produced. But when the art director saw the proofs, he said he had something else in mind. So the magazine paid Andriotis only a minimal "kill fee," not the $2,500-$3,000 she expected.

Andriotis took her case to small claims court, eventually gaining an arbitration ruling awarding her most of her regular fee. But it took months to resolve the issue and her otherwise enjoyable two-year relationship with the magazine abruptly ended.

Her mistake? "Signing a contract with language that didn't work to my utmost advantage." The lesson? "Don't sign a contract that's hideous when it comes to photographers' rights."

Now, Andriotis sticks to the corporate market, which plays by different rules, and employs her own standard contract-which pays her whether or not her images are used. "If clients are unhappy, I work with them," she says.

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This article originally appeared in the January/February 2001 issue of MyBusiness Magazine, NFIB's member magazine.

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