Lead Photographer and Studio Manager
Fulcrum · Canberra · $118,000–$129,000 (stated in the posting)
Fulcrum | Canberra | On site
We have partnered with a major Australian cultural institution on a newly designed role leading their photography studio. They hold a collection of national significance, only a small part of which is ever on display, so photography is how most of it reaches the public. The studio is heading into a period of real investment and unusually high access to the collection, which makes this a good moment to take it on.
The role
This is a player coach position. You will lead a small in house studio team, and you will also shoot.
Object and studio photography makes up the bulk of the work. The rest of your time goes to the things that make a studio function: the standard the team photographs to, the priorities you agree with curatorial and exhibitions colleagues, and the judgement about where the studio's effort is best spent when the requests exceed what a small team can deliver.
You will also set the direction on capture. Stills remain the core of the work, and there is appetite to develop 3D and emerging imaging approaches where they earn their place.
What you will do
Photograph the collection yourself. This is a hands on role and you will carry a meaningful share of the shooting.
Lead a small team of photographers, covering standards, workflow, priorities and development.
Set the technical standard the studio photographs to, and hold contractors to it when the team scales up for busier periods.
Agree priorities with curatorial, exhibitions and collection colleagues, and decide which objects come to the front of the queue.
Plan how the studio works through periods of high collection access, when objects are photographed at the point they are handled.
Photograph the institution's significant public events with a considered style.
Keep the studio current on capture technology, and build those skills across neighbouring teams rather than holding them in one unit.
Oversee studio spaces, equipment and environments, including input into facilities as they are upgraded.
What you will bring
Professional photography experience where the image itself is the product. Studio, object, product, editorial, food and agency backgrounds are all relevant.
The ability to shoot to a studio standard at pace and outside a controlled set, not only under ideal conditions.
Real leadership experience. You have set standards, managed workload and shaped how a team works together, not simply held the senior title.
Sound judgement on prioritisation, including the confidence to decline work that does not warrant your team's time.
A working knowledge of contemporary capture and imaging technology, and a view on where it is heading.
Cultural or heritage collection experience is welcome but not required. What matters is that you grasp quickly how object handling, access controls and conservation requirements change the way you work.
Who this role is for
You are a photographer who has stopped measuring success purely by your own portfolio. The work you are proudest of now includes work you did not personally shoot.
You are patient. Access to the collection is mediated and controlled, and the pace reflects that. You will wait for a conservator, a logistics officer, a truck. The best collection photographers use that time rather than resent it. They watch an object as it is retrieved and unboxed, and they are composing before they pick up a camera.
You are as comfortable managing people as you are behind the camera. Both are genuinely half the job here, and the leadership half is not something you can pass to someone else.
This role is not for you if:
You want to be left alone in a studio to make beautiful images and nothing else.
You need commercial speed and will be frustrated when a shoot depends on other people's schedules and a controlled environment.
You would rather be the best photographer in the room than build the standard the room works to.
You have little appetite for the process and governance that come with a public sector institution.
Why you will enjoy working here
Hands on access to a collection of national significance at a point when a large part of it is being handled and moved, which is when it can properly be photographed.
A clear mandate to define what this studio stands for, rather than maintaining a standard someone else set.
Investment going into studio facilities and equipment.
Your images become the primary way the public experiences a collection that is almost entirely in storage.
An ongoing position with public sector conditions, flexibility and long term security.
The details
Location: Canberra, ACT. Hybrid working.
Package: $118,000 to $129,000 total package, inclusive of superannuation
Process: an initial video screening, followed by interview with the hiring team
Ready to apply
Send us your CV along with a link to your portfolio or website. We will come back to you quickly.