“Respect your integrity, build your personal brand, and stand on it”.

The 22nd of November was dedicated to capturing culture. In partnership with Bread & Butter Studio and moderated by Jordan Hall, FORE hosted a panel that brought together emerging and established voices across curation, culture, and art to speak on their experiences building their creative practices.

From self-doubt to collaboration, pricing your work to protecting your integrity, the discussion struck a chord across the room.

Overcoming Hurdles

The first theme to emerge: self-belief, or sometimes, lack thereof.
For actor and DJ turned visual storyteller Kid Circus, the biggest barrier early on wasn’t technical skill; it was constantly comparing himself to peers and role models, questioning whether his work had a “style” or needed one at all.

The panellists nodded along, and Armzy, creative strategist and director, added that this insecurity is often compounded when people don’t respect you early in your journey, before your work has been externally validated.

So what’s the remedy? Livia Rose Johnson puts it eloquently, describing her process as “transcending the anchors that articulate what your reality is.” Over the past year, she has focused on letting go of the assumption that other people’s career positions are objective truths, choosing instead to see them as opinions rather than facts. Sat in the room was the question: what separates someone with a camera from a photographer?

Collaboration or CollaROBation? Knowing the Difference

Speaking as a photographer, Mr. Brown acknowledged that collaboration can sometimes act as “a scapegoat for free work”, but emphasised “context is everything, it can actually be something that you both equally needed”.

Mr. Brown shared that if you love a brand or an idea, you don’t necessarily have to sell the work to them to create it. The advice? Simple but sharp: use your critical thinking to recognise when you are being used, and when you are building something meaningful.

On Avoiding Undervaluing Yourself

How do you decide how to price your work? Armzy stresses that there is no universal formula. It depends on the market, depends on the context, and it depends on the leverage you hold. But you got to start by recognising the value of your intellectual property and in building on what makes your ideas unique; then that first £50 can become £500, then £5,000.

Kid Circus shared a memory of almost charging a quarter of what he was eventually paid, how he only avoided this by asking his peers what they were charging. The panel was clear: don’t underprice yourself, and don’t let brands take advantage. If a brand has £10,000 in its budget, asking for £3,000 only harms you.

Livia shared her own three-pronged criteria: she is either a) paid two-thirds of her highest rate or more, b) the project is genuinely fun; or c) it’s for the community.

Vawn, a documentary-led photographer with over a decade behind the camera, offered a practical tactic: ask brands directly what their budget is, effectively flipping the awkward power dynamic. Armzy added to inquire about how brands are allocating their budgets. The common goal is to break the taboo around money.

The Price of Success

As the time began to run out, the panel addressed a question from the audience: Does monetising your work take away from the art itself?

Vawn reflected on his early days making documentaries purely for enjoyment, and the moment he realised his work could generate income. For him, this realisation sharpened his focus. His priority now is refining his craft, with the belief that brands investing in him are investing in him as an artist, not just a service provider. FORE founder Jordan Hall summed it up succinctly: “respect your integrity, build your personal brand, and stand on it”.

The final remark of the night came from Mr. Brown, cutting through everything else with clarity: it all means nothing if you don’t believe in yourself. With that sentiment, the answer to the question posed earlier is what separates someone with a camera from a photographer. The difference, the panel suggested, isn’t equipment or access, but conviction.

Though when all was said and done, my favourite piece of advice came from Livia, who shared the cheeky trick that creatives without managers create a fake manager email address to negotiate through, introducing distance, confidence, and professionalism to the hustle. Definitely taking that one forward.

Thank you to all the panellists for all your brilliant insights on how to be confident in running your own creative practice. FORE aims to give our community access to knowledge and guidance that is often limited in the creative industries, and what better way to learn than from these incredibly inspirational artists and professionals.

@kidcircus - Photographer blending fashion, portraiture and culture with striking intimacy. Clients incl. New Balance, END,  Universal Music.⁠

@armzybam - Director & creative strategist helping brands move past the surface and into meaning, process and mindset.⁠

@vawn.creates - Hackney-born photographer capturing music, fashion and identity with raw visual storytelling.⁠

⁠@mr.b.rown - Culture, food & music photographer with work in GQ, Gal-dem, Time Out. Known for imagery rooted in energy and truth.⁠

⁠@liviarosejohnson - Culture producer & strategist behind campaigns for Wizkid, Doja Cat, SZA and more - building communities, not just marketing.⁠