ИСТИНА

Abstract: In manufacturing professions qualitative and quantitative parameters of the final product can be reliably set, whereas in the work of some specialists the definition of "standard" implementation of the activities and results is almost impossible. Musicians, artists, photographers, writers, conductors are guided by the best examples of performance and achievement of the work objectives, they are familiar with style features of the leading professionals in their field, but, nevertheless, create their own, subjective evaluation structure of "final products", sometimes fundamentally different from the samples they had studied (Boddy-Evans, 2002; Nodine & Krupinski, 2003; Polzella et al., 2005). The purpose of our study was in searching and justification of criteria of success in professional photographers’ work - representatives of creative professions. Setting this goal provokes several interrelated issues: 1) understanding of creativity in connection with the variety of its manifestations; 2) the concept of "successfulness of activity"; 3) allocation of objective and subjective criteria for its evaluation; 4) development of diagnostic tool kit for certain parameters. Conducted professiographical analysis of photographers allows us to allocate the following indicators as criteria of their successfulness, defining different approaches to its treatment: 1) objective (the level of fees, the demand, publications); 2) subjective (photographers’ self-esteem); 3) features of photographers’ motivation, prompting productive work; 4) expert. On the basis of the allocation of these criteria we formulated a study hypothesis that the description of the success of photographers’ professional work includes consistently changing estimates for the four selected criteria. Our sample consisted of 160 subjects, who estimated 69 photographs, and 32 photographers, who filled out questionnaires that detected features of: 1) self-conception, 2) motivation, 3) subjective image of successful results. The obtained data supply the understanding of the peculiarities of the creative activity of respondents, the main factors of the evaluation of photographers’ results and can justify the program of psychological support of creative professions. Results of the study allow us to describe successfulness as a complex construct, which should take into account four types of indicators: objective, subjective, expert and motivational. Keywords: successfulness, job results, professional photographers’ work, evaluation criteria, semantic differential, creativity, motivational orientation