How do you juggle financially fulfilling commercial work with soul-enriching personal projects? Magnum photographer Chris-Steele Perkins is well equipped to provide the answer

As a long-term member of world-renowned photographic collective Magnum, Burma-born, British-raised documentary photographer Chris Steele-Perkins is in the unique position of being able to blur the boundaries between commissioned and personal work. What starts off as one can eventually morph into the other, as the photographer is rarely given a fixed brief for editorial or commercial projects and is thus largely free to interpret them as he wishes.
“Clients say ‘here’s a subject we want you to deal with, come back with some interesting pictures’, which suits me,” the globetrotter smiles, adding that ninety per cent of projects will originate from a proposal he has made, or will be undertaken without a definite end use in mind.
The fact that Steele-Perkins retains copyright means he sees the Magnum picture library as a ‘bank’ from which he can draw funds when needed – the agency syndicating his captioned pictures into magazines and books and providing a kick back from such sales.
“You get a double hit – initial commission plus onward sales,” he notes. “Probably half my yearly income comes from the Magnum archive.” He does, however, acknowledge that times have got tougher.
“In the good old days – 15 years ago – there was little problem getting ideas commissioned. There was a ten-year period when I never bothered thinking about money because the pictures would always sell. Those days are gone but I’m still driven by things that I find interesting.”