Is Professional Photography Dead?

Once upon a time if you wanted a photograph you went to a photographer in the town.  It cost you a lot of money but you ended up with something that was treasured and in many cases handed down through the generations.

Fast forward a few years and someone at Kodak decided that everybody should be able to take pictures.  Great idea!  Well, it is isn’t it?  We wouldn’t be talking about photography otherwise.  However, that being said, if you wanted a photograph for commercial purposes or a decent family portrait you still went to a professional and yes, it still cost you.

Then one day someone said, ‘Lets make photography digital’ and so an entirely new even more accessible era of photography was born.  Now everyone is capable of shooting high quality photographs.  Not only that, the majority of the population has a camera with them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

The chances are that if you want a photograph for commercial purposes you may still go to a professional.  Then again, you may actually visit a stock photo site such as Shutterstock, iStockphoto etc.  

While there as always been photo agencies such as Getty, Magnum and the like they have been out of the reach of many including the graphic designers in a small business in Accrington.  The advantages of stock photo web sites is obvious; you see the image on the screen that you want and download it usually for the princely some of around $1.

That takes care of the commercial aspect but what about the personal portraits.  Well here you end up in two camps.  You can still hunt out a professional and still pay them a princely sum or you can find someone who has a DSLR and can use it.  There are plenty of us about now.  You’ll stay pay a bit but it won’t be as much as going to a studio.

Of course the other thing you can do is upload the image you want from your phone to a website, pay a little money and a few days later prints, canvases, books, acrylic blocks and even mugs will be on your door step (does anyone remember how hard it was to get anything other that a print a few years ago?).

Photography is now cheaper that it has ever been and it’s set to be valued even less.  

A new website called Scoopshot has been set up.  Say I want a photograph of a dog playing Frisbee for an ad campaign.  I would post on Scoopshot a brief of what I wanted then mobile phone photographers are invited to submit images and I choose the one(s) I wish to buy.  What’s the average price for a photograph?  US$2.50 that is £1.63 (at today conversion rate) for going out and taking a photograph.

Who is using it?  USA Today, GANT designer clothing, & the Daily Star are among companies that have posted recently.

The mobile phone is replacing the camera and video camera.  Now nearly everyone is truly a photographer and everyone has the capability of calling themselves a professional.

What does this mean to the professional photographers that remain and those with aspirations to have a career in photography?  Generally, it’s going to get harder especially as technology improves.  Are the days of seeing quality images and film (especially from a photojournalism point of view) numbered as the media look for cheaper options then hiring professionals or buying in from agencies?