A quick online search of Cade Martin Photography will get you to a showcase of exceptional commercial work, video reels, sought after portraits and much more. But if you’re trying to find out his secrets to business success – or even what he looks like! – you’ll have to keep looking.
I’m Susan Soroko, Director of Creative Economy at Arlington Economic Development in Arlington Virginia. The role of Economic Development is to retain and attract businesses where workers can live and thrive in a great community even when the work world is changing. We support (small) business through programs like BizLaunch and value the importance of placemaking and a sector devoted to creative economy and the arts.
Today we’re going to talk about art and business and the huge shifts in professional photography. Cade Martin’s work is rooted in collaboration, flexibility, and sparks of creativity. Every image tells a story, whether in the spotlight of campaigns or in the moments in between. Cade lives in the Washington, DC area. He has worked with brands from Starbucks to Target, FDA to NPR, National Geographic to Sesame Street, bringing campaigns to life on budgets large or small.
Resources
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https://www.cademartinphoto.com
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Small Business Saturday, November 30, 2024
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Transcript
Note: This was AI-generated and only lightly edited
Susan Soroko: A quick online search of Cade Martin photography will get you to a showcase of exceptional commercial work, some video reels, sought after portraits, and much more. But if you’re trying to find out his secrets to his business success, or even what he looks like, You’ll have to keep looking. I’m Susan Soroko, Director of Creative Economy at Arlington Economic Development in Arlington, Virginia. The role of economic development is to retain and attract businesses where workers can live and thrive in a great community, even when the work world is changing. We support small businesses through programs like Biz Launch, and we value the importance of placemaking and a sector devoted to creative economy and the arts. Today, we’re going to talk about art and business and the huge shifts in professional photography. To help me discuss this, I’d like to welcome Cade Martin, exceptional photographer. Cade, welcome to the show.
Cade Martin: Hi, Susan. Thank you for having me.
Susan Soroko: It’s really quite a pleasure. You’ve had years of adding your magic to an industry that now has everyone believing that they are pros if they just upgrade their phone. So let’s start with your background. And what was the moment you knew this would be your life’s work and art?
Cade Martin: Well, I grew up in Richmond, Virginia. Both my parents worked at VCU, Virginia Commonwealth University. And so my dad, my father, my dad, he was in the painting and printmaking department. So he was there for 32 years. So I grew up in this community of artists, sculptors, printmakers, writers. I think I got sort of a visual education just sort of by osmosis growing up. You know, a lot of people, a lot of my dad’s friends, my mom’s friends asked me if I was going to do something creative when I grew up. And I was just like, no way, no way. So when it was time for college, I went to Virginia Tech for engineering. You know, I sort of, I guess that was my rebellion. You know, I’ve always got along great with my folks. I wasn’t really rebelling against anything, but I was sort of just very unsure of who I was and which direction I was going and what I wanted to do with my life. And so I guess that’s sort of a part of college. I was at tech for a year and a half. Great school, but it just wasn’t for me. And so I came back to BCU in Richmond and just sort of took a hodgepodge of classes. I think I took an art history class, history of socialism, a basic economics course, and a basic photography course. And it’s funny because right now I’m calling in from Nags Head, the Outer Banks. And this is a place that I’ve come since I was like probably a couple months old. And before I took this basic photography course, my dad was doing a series of paintings, big, large paintings on waves, just sort of abstractions. And I was heading down to the beach with a friend of mine, Matt Hyland, who I’ve known since third grade. and actually he is with me in this house right now, not in this room, but we went camping with another buddy of Fires from high school. So my dad goes, hey, I’m doing this painting, this series of paintings on waves. I’m going to give you my camera. Can you go down and take pictures of waves? And I was like, sure. I’ve never taken a photo of my life. And so I left Matt, John Brandt, walked the beach, and I got completely lost in the frame of this camera. And I was taking pictures of the sand. I was taking pictures of little crabs. I was taking pictures of waves on assignment for my father. And I just sort of was able to sort of escape into this sort of little horizontal box. And I just absolutely just loved it. So long story short, I go back to Richmond, I give my father the camera back, he goes and develops the film. Every single image was completely black, 1000% underexposed. And he was like, Well, what did you do? And I go, Well, I took some pictures and he goes, well, did you like do the exposure, you know, in the camera? And I was like, well, what’s that? So there’s my story of starting off.
Susan Soroko: It’s an auspicious beginning, but obviously you didn’t let that deter you. So how did you get to figuring out that you were going to go back to that and do it again? And what was your first camera?
Cade Martin: I took this basic photography class, and I remember the only thing I was ever interested in was playing basketball. I was bouncing the basketball. I took this basic photography course. I went in, had my basketball with me, and I sat down, and it was in the basement. I totally remember it like it was yesterday. Everybody in there was just dressed in black, and they were all philosophizing about cameras, about art, and all this. And I was just thinking in my head, it’s like, there’s no way that I can compete in the space, I have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m going to drop this class as quick as I can. And I think I went and played some basketball and I forgot about dropping the class. And then I kept kind of doing it. And so at that point in my life, I really wasn’t really interested in much else, sadly. And so this sort of kind of put its hooks in me. My first camera, I think, was a I was using my father’s cameras, a Mamiya that he had gotten from his brother. And I think the first camera I have, which I still have, it’s in Richmond. I have a studio in Richmond. That’s a Pentax 1000 film camera, all manual, nothing automatic.
Susan Soroko: That is amazing. Do you still have it?
Cade Martin: Oh yeah. No, I still have it. I haven’t used it for years, but I still have it. It’s one of those things that you can’t sort of throw away or sell.
Susan Soroko: And harder to find the film. You know, our job in BizLaunch is that we try to give entrepreneurs tools and a solid footing for success. And creatives can be reluctant to focus on getting the business side right. But as a photographer, you’re not just an artist, you’re also running a business. And how do you balance the creative side with the entrepreneurial side as we kind of move forward in your career?
Cade Martin: Well, I may be jumping ahead, but, you know, sort of when I got my start out of school, I really kind of realized I didn’t know anything about sort of making the living aspect of it. You know, when I was at VCU, great school, great teachers, but it was more about just go out and take cool pictures. It was nothing about the business side, how to market or anything such as that. So when I got out, I really kind of figured, figured out really quickly. I was kind of flying blind. And so I was an assistant, sort of an apprentice. And so I worked for this one photographer full time for, I don’t know, almost two years. And then, you know, I started freelance and working with different photographers, which was great because you sort of came across a lot of times the same same problem, but you saw different solutions. But also you sort of saw how people interacted with clients. You saw how they marketed or didn’t market. So I certainly learned what to do, but I think I also learned what not to do, which is just as important. And, you know, completely, I think, you know, somebody that’s really an amazing photographer with no marketing business sense, they’re not going to do as well as somebody, a mediocre photographer who’s great at marketing. So I may fall into that latter category because I think I’ve been good at marketing. And, you know, when I first started, it was sort of the days of the portfolio and you would just go to a printed portfolio. And actually, I still have a printed portfolio, but it seemed a lot easier where you could say, hey, I want to come by, you know, the shop, you know, agency or graphic designer, mom, pop shop, you know, to show your work. So, of course, when I started out, you know, I had a lot of time. So, you know, I just beat the pavement. You had to call people, you couldn’t email people. And I guess I’m dating myself here, but you showed up and you showed the portfolio. And then, you know, also sort of a part of this is, you know, how you get along with people. And, you know, I think people want to sort of work with people, you know, you certainly have to be able to back it up talent wise, but, you know, they want to hang out with people that they like. You know, I’ve done a lot of travel over sort of my career and, you know, you’re spending long hours with people, you know, on the road or whatever. And so. I think, you know, chemistry and all that sort of plays a big part as well. But, you know, there’s certainly, you know, there’s a balance of art and commerce. So, you know, I think personal projects, again, I may be jumping ahead, but personal projects have certainly been the wind at my sails. You know, when I first started, you know, I was, you know, busy sort of right off the bat, which was great. I’ve always, I’m much more inspired going to the cinema, you know, looking at photo books, you know, vanity fairs, you know, that sort of stuff. And, you know, I would see this great work and I was like, God, I would love to do that type of type of stuff. And, you know, I was the first to admit that I just didn’t have the abilities and capabilities at that time for anybody to say, Oh, I want to hire Cade for this. So I started self-assigning myself projects and I’ve done that. I do that to this day. And, um, you know, over time, you know, those images that I sort of wanted to do, I wanted to make. I started weaving those in my portfolio, and then all of a sudden, I had the work that sort of maybe spoke to projects that I did not have that ability before.
Susan Soroko: You’ve just described a fairly typical, I would say, kind of a trajectory for a lot of photographers who came up through the film side of the business with relationships as a real backbone to how their businesses work. We’re now hearing a lot about businesses, creative and otherwise, that have struggled. They’ve struggled to make the necessary changes to their business models by not keeping up with technology. I mean, that’s probably one of the biggest impacts to your business. So tell us a little bit about what you’ve done to keep your skill sets and your business model ahead of the curve.
Cade Martin: Well, I don’t know if I’m ahead of the curve, but I guess I’m old enough.
Susan Soroko: Giving you credit, you’re ahead of the curve.
Cade Martin: Thank you, thank you. Smoke and mirrors, and maybe in my case, that’s literal. I guess I’m old enough that I started with film, which I’m very grateful for, because with film, technically, there’s not a lot of latitude, not a lot of leeway. So you really have to kind of know what you’re doing technically. So, of course, digital has a lot more latitude, but I’m glad I sort of came up in the years of film. Certainly, you know, digital came about and, you know, now we have the phones and, you know, digital is great. And, you know, it’s wonderful for, you know, clients and the client’s client, you know, because you can go on set and you have a monitor right there and you’re tethered to the camera and you can see the images exactly as they appear. What we’re doing, you know, popping up on You know, the laptop, you know, we can lay the images into the layouts on set, you know, so we can sort of navigate around typography or logos or anything like that. It’s like, oh, I need a little bit negative space over here. So you create that, you know, with film, you know, you sort of have these overlays and all that. So you could do it, you know, but it was just a little more sort of, I don’t want to say crude, but, you know, it was just sort of a slower process. And so. You know, digital is pretty, pretty amazing. And, you know, it’s a, it’s a funny thing. You know, I’m not quite a Luddite, but I’m not, you know, I’m not a super technical guy. And, you know, I have a really nice camera. I have a Sony camera, sort of the flagship of the Sony cameras, but I probably know how to use maybe 1% of what the camera’s capable of. You know, I know how to do it manually, but you know, all this and that and this, it’s just like, no, I don’t know. Just for one, I’ve never had the interest either. You know, it’s funny because it’s one of those things it’s like, Oh, Kate, I love this photo. You know, and it’s like, what kind of camera did you use to make it? And it’s like, you know, it’s like a writer and a typewriter. It’s like, oh, man, I love that. What kind of typewriter did you use? So, you know, I don’t know. It’s a funny conversation, you know, and it’s like, I don’t know. Sure. You know, these days, phones, that sort of thing. You know, everyone can take a picture, but can everyone make a picture? So I think there’s a little bit difference there. And, you know, I love my phone. I was in Thailand, I don’t know, in August and went out to eat. with this family and young guy, he was like in his early 30s, and he was like, oh, man, I love your work. He goes, what’s your favorite camera? And, you know, I had my pants, a zipper, and I opened up the side zipper and I pulled out my phone. And it’s like, you know, this right here. And I love it, you know, because it’s like you can, you know, not for commercial jobs, but actually I have shot commercial jobs on my phone, but very few and far between. But the tech, you know, the quality, you know, everything is just really nice on those things and you just put it in your pocket, you’re not carrying around a big bag, all that sort of stuff to weigh you down. So, but no, you certainly have to sort of know what’s going on and, you know, you have to sort of stay relevant and, you know, sort of keep up with, you know, how you can sort of make everything as easy for, you know, the client, the client’s client, you know, as you can. And something that works for you as well, that you’re comfortable with.
Susan Soroko: Well, you’ve probably heard that Arlington has a pretty robust tech sector, and you may have heard of a few that have made their headquarters here. So where do you see the photography industry heading in the next five to 10 years, especially with the rise of AI and automated tools?
Cade Martin: Yeah, I guess it’s back to sort of making an image, image making, you know, say if I have, you know, the Sony camera, my phone, you know, whatever, it’s really like your interaction with folks and you know how you can sort of make them comfortable and how you can sort of maybe capture that little moment and you know you’re photographing folks that you know maybe aren’t used to having their photo taken and you know you have a short amount of time to sort of make that work and you know you walk in and you kind of have to take the temperature of the room and you have to sort of you know just have that sort of the ability to sort of get something out of folks, as well as making them comfortable. So AI, that is certainly coming. And I think we have to embrace it. If you don’t embrace it, we’re going to be left behind. You think of CG. I’ve certainly used a lot of CG. I’ve worked with that a lot. Film, going to digital. There was a lot of photographers, older photographers at the time. It’s like, oh, no, I hate digital. I remember when, you know, websites and it was like, you know, it’s like, oh, I’m going to do a website. And it’s like, no, I have no, I have no idea who’s going to look at my website. I’m not going to do a website. So then you have to have a website. And so, you know, you know, everything sort of changes. And I think you just have to be sort of comfortable with, you know, sort of the change. But, you know, I think mixed in of all this, you know, you have to sort of have a belief in yourself and, you know, stay true to who you are, regardless of the vehicle that you’re using to sort of make an image. you know, AI, again, it’s coming. And, you know, I think how you approach that, you know, sort of the humanity of it, you know, I think how people create images is, you know, just like a photograph, it’s gonna be all over and all over the place. And, you know, especially when you think of life experiences, life lived. I saw an article, I don’t know, a year or so ago about this German photographer and he was really embracing AI and he was probably 70. And, you know, he was talking about he was heavily influenced by painting and, you know, all these great artists. And, you know, so when he goes in and, you know, uses the prompts, you know, he has all these sort of life experiences, inspirations, you know, all this to sort of bring to that and you know, I think that’s gonna be a lot different from, you know, some of it’s 21, 22 who might be like typing in Spider-Man or, you know, something such as that. So, you know, it’s almost like the flavor of the air, you know, it’s sort of, again, I’m just down an exit, I’m looking out the water and it’s just sort of, you see like the mist and atmosphere and, you know, weather patterns and, you know, I guess all that’s sort of valid for, you know, this sort of prompt and all that. With CG, a lot of the things that people come to me for is building these fantastical worlds, magical worlds. And then we photograph folks in studio. And then we composite them together, seamlessly integrate the people into these fantastical environments. And this is just a small percentage of my work. But I think AI, maybe you’ll be able to do that in the future. I’m sure you can. Right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty with sort of copyright usage rights, all that AI. I mean, right now, the federal government does not see AI as something that you can copyright. You know, you look at something like Mid Journey and you look at all the verbiage, which boilerplate verbiage, which, you know, is like the size of the phone book. And you just go through it and you still don’t know. It’s like, well, who owns this? You know, it’s like, you know, I work with AI. I put in the prompts, an image pops out. That’s kind of cool image. Who owns it? You know, it’s like all of a sudden. you send it off. But that said, say, I don’t know if you guys saw it, but I guess a week or two ago, Coca-Cola just came out with a complete AI commercial for Christmas.
Susan Soroko: Everybody heard about that.
Cade Martin: Yeah, yeah. But, you know, AI, it’s like, Oh, Christmas, how could they do that, blah, blah, blah. But, you know, sort of behind the scenes, you know, they had like 20, 20 people, 20 experts, you know, working on that. So, you know, they were sort of bringing that human element to, you know, whatever they were creating. But it was just funny, at the end of the commercial, you know, it’s their logo, Coca Cola, keep it real. And it was like, this AI experience. So it was kind of funny.
Susan Soroko: You know, you’ve touched on so many things that are so relevant to your industry and technology and the influence of technology. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in photography, especially in terms of building a sustainable business and maintaining a creative edge? And I think you’ve touched on that with, you know, your emphasis on relationships, but tell us a little bit more about, you know, what you see as you know, what’s really been the stalwart of the foundation of your work that would really be relevant to people’s just starting out?
Cade Martin: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s hard to say, you know, it’s funny because it’s like I can do whatever I can do, but I can’t articulate what I do. So I would be like the worst professor or teacher, you know, something such as that. You know, someone’s like, oh, hey, how’d you do that? And it’s like, well, you know, it’s like I went over there and I did this and did this. And I did that. It kind of worked out. But Personally, I’ve been hugely, and I can thank my parents for it, you know, because again, they were, you know, VCU and I grew up in this art community. And so, you know, I was exposed to all this stuff and as well as movies. It was like every Friday, you know, we would go down to the Biograph down near VCU. We would go to Jerry’s Pizza, which was right across the street. And then we’d go see these just great, crazy movies. And a lot of them, you know, this was like, you know, 70s, late 70s and all like completely inappropriate for the age that I was at the time. But you really see, and to this day, going to the movies is my therapy, and I’m an only child, and it’s like I can go in and nobody talks to me for two hours, and I think I can learn something even from a bad movie. But you learn about light, and you learn about composition, and all that. But for whatever reason, I’ve never been interested in making a film for myself. But that said, I think storytelling is such a huge thing. And I like, if I had to describe myself in any way, it’d be sort of very clean, very minimalistic, very sort of simplistic, you know, the images. But I feel like I want each of my images to feel like just one little frame in a film strip. So you see what’s going on, you look at the image, there’s some kind of narrative going on. So you feel like there’s a story that goes on beyond what this image is.
Susan Soroko: That’s so perfect. You’ve touched on so many of the things that are so relevant to the way that we’re looking to help support these small businesses. I want to ask you, what’s next for a photographer like you that’s reached such a high level? Are you going to do a coffee table book, a speaker series, radio show, maybe a documentary? What do you think is next for you?
Cade Martin: I don’t know. Such pressure, such pressure. Um, I don’t know what’s next. You know, I guess the really, the great thing. About my business is you never know what’s coming around the corner. And usually I know what I’m doing for the next two or three weeks. And beyond that, it’s sort of just a blank slate. You know, somebody were to email me or call me about a project. It’s like, Oh, we’re going to shoot a portrait of, you know, so-and-so at, you know, association in DC and six months. You know, probably there’s a 99.9% chance, you know, that’s going to change schedules, change somebody gets sick, you know, whatever. But again, the great thing about what I, you know, my business is I just never know what’s coming around the corner. Like a few weeks ago, I guess two weeks ago now, but back up two weeks before that, all of a sudden I get a call and it’s like, Hey, I have this project in Puerto Rico. You know, would you be interested? Like, yeah, sure. And so I’ve always wanted to go to Puerto Rico. And so. Two weeks ago, I was in Puerto Rico and doing a portrait of a guy in the rainforest. So, yeah, just life experiences.
Susan Soroko: You have a great ability to say yes to things, I can tell.
Cade Martin: Yeah, or, you know, the ability to even, you know, kind of say no if you’re not the right person. And, you know, because there’s, you know, certain things that, you know, I’m not the best at, you know, I think I certainly have a range. My work sort of has a range. So, you know, I do a lot of work for, you know, say associations, you know, last week I did, you know, corporate portrait project, I did a government portrait project. But, you know, say if somebody were to call up and say, hey, you know, I have this project, we want beautiful food photography, you know, I would certainly maybe give them recommendations, you know, even for architecture, you know, it’s like, I love doing architecture, but I’m sort of a more abstract, you know, kind of battening angles, that sort of stuff. But if they wanted sort of like a clear representation where all the lines are straight, You know, you know, I’m not really that guy. And so, you know, I would refer that to somebody that’s really good at it. But, you know, I’ve enjoyed living a creative life. And I guess more importantly, I guess, as we all get older, you know, it’s I don’t know, I just enjoy working with nice people. You know, I think the pandemic, you know, I think that changed sort of a lot of people’s mindset.
Susan Soroko: Yeah.
Cade Martin: leading up to the pandemic, I was so crazy busy. And my kids, now they’re in college, but everybody was home. And this was like the year leading up to the pandemic. And I think the last three or four months of that year, I think I was home in my own bed like seven days. And I was jumping one plane, this plane, this plane. And it was just I was so depressed. It was just like, oh, my gosh, this is just unsustainable. This is unhealthy. And so I was like, I need somebody. Somebody needs to change. Of course, the pandemic happened. I was like, well, I don’t know if I needed that type of change. But but the main thing was, it’s just I enjoy. Of course, everybody does. But I just want to work with nice people that, you know, say thank you. And, you know, you enjoy being with. And, you know, I’ve certainly, you know, created a body of work. And, you know, it’s sort of an internal struggle for me a little bit, you know, because it’s like, well, do I necessarily need to create another really cool image? So I guess mixed in there a little bit, you know, maybe it’s just a sign of getting older a little bit, you know, it’s also kind of contentment to, you know, for so many years, I’m still driven, but I was like, super, super driven, but always had this sort of carrot. And then I would reach my goal. And then I would reset the carrot. And so it was this sort of weird thing that, you know, this kind of, I don’t know, the Gerber wheel or whatever. So I don’t know. I need to smell the roses a little bit.
Susan Soroko: Well, we we hope that as we wrap up that, you know, we will be supporting a little event on December 11th at Renegade in Clarendon. I’m putting in a plug so that we can help support more of those kinds of intersections for creatives and businesses and We’ll provide some details on that event in the show notes, but we really appreciate hearing your side of the story because we want to be able to allow people to find out where they should be looking for inspiration and skill building. We’re going to be giving them lots of business support links, but I want to thank you for sharing your insights into how you managed to be the amazing creative that you are. We hope to see you at our event coming up. Any last words of wisdom for our audience today?
Cade Martin: No, just belief in self. And I think that’s just super important.