Since 1967, I have fulfilled more than 2000 writing assignments from several hundred newspapers, magazines, book publishers, websites, museums, galleries, and other clients. These commissions have included exhibition, book, and product reviews; profiles and interviews; critical reportage on photo festivals, censorship incidents, and other events; op-ed pieces; polemics; and commentaries on a wide range of issues related to photography and digital technology. Additionally, I’ve published essays on a variety of other subjects, from politics and culture to music and cooking.
Many of these have been one-shot assignments, but quite a few have resulted in, or even begun as, long-term relationships with periodicals. I’ve served as a regular columnist for the Village Voice, the New York Times, the New York Observer, Popular Photography, Camera 35, Lens’ On Campus, Camera & Darkroom, and Hotshoe, to name a few, and have been a frequent contributor to ArtNews, Juliet Art Magazine (Italy), European Photography (Germany), Technology Review, and others. I welcome inquiries regarding such extended commitments.
I’m always open to proposals for new assignments, as well as to requests for reprint permissions. because each publication situation has its own unique aspects, I do not have fixed fees. Commissions get negotiated based on the length of the proposed essay, the deadline, the work involved, and the usage rights that the client seeks to license. I do not consider commissions that require the permanent surrender of copyright or subsidiary; this means that I won’t sign”all rights” or “work made for hire”/WMFH contracts. I retain copyright and control over subsidiary rights, licensing to my clients those rights they need via amicable dialogue.
I have my own ideas for essays I’d enjoy writing, of course, as well as for books I’d like to produce, and will gladly provide proposals upon request.
— A. D. Coleman
