The myth goes something like this…
In the beginning the photography gods created professional photography. The brides were plentiful and checks were big! It required much skill, talent and knowledge to succeed. The hurdles were huge and the cost of entry even bigger. Not to mention one needed the ability to be able to walk up hill both ways in the snow.
Then the photography gods created the digital camera and it was good! All the sudden every Adam & Eve was a “Professional” and the “Professional” photography world collapsed faster than my 401k in 2009.
Blah! Blaming digital photography for this shift in our industry is simply being narrow-minded. We should really be calling this by it’s real name which is evolution. Indulge me whilst I revisit history and show you how it’s actually just beginning to repeat itself. My rather exaggerated timeline goes something like this…
- End of the World as we Know it! (aka Today)
- Digital Camera
- 35MM
- Medium Format
- Large Format with black powder sticks
- Some Dude with a Camera Obscura
- The Renaissance
- Hieroglyphs
- Cave Paintings
- Drawing Lines in the Dirt With Sticks
I bet you a nickel that before and after each of these periods in time (at least the ones where we had spoken language) somebody started running around (they had to run around because they didn’t all have blogs back then) like Chicken Little screaming that the sky was falling and the world as they knew it was coming to an end! Gasp horror now anyone can pick up a stone, crush some red berries and start scratching buffaloes onto the cave wall! What horrible and bleak days those must have been for the Neanderthals. Oh wait, the sky never fell, we’re all still alive and people are still trying to capture images like a bazillion years later. Who’d a thunk it! I do wonder how many of the cave painters picked up sticks and started etching on clay tablets though…hmmm evolution anyone?
But I digress, back to this urban legend, if you will, that photography studios used to require overly complicated equipment, big overhead and talent that the average mortal did not posses and that newer, simpler, cheaper more widely available tools are the death knell of an industry. Poppycock! Granted sometimes the gear is expensive but ever since that pesky Industrial Revolution thing happened we’ve been riding the bell curve. The next big thing is invented, it’s expensive, it’s mass produced and it becomes cheaper. Soon more people own it and what do you know… the next big thing is invented and we start all over again this time at an even faster rate. The New York Times recently perpetuated the myth when they all the sudden noticed that professional photography is once again perched atop evolutionary bell curve in their article “For Photographers, the Image of a Shrinking Path“.
…digital photography took off. “It used to be you really needed to know how to use a camera,” said Keith Marlowe, a photographer who has worked for Spin and Rolling Stone. “If you messed up a roll, you couldn’t redo the concert.” Now, though, any photographer can instantly see if a shot is good, or whether the light balances or other technical aspects need to be adjusted.
You used to have to KNOW how to use a camera? Bull! For the last 15 years cameras have had do the thinking for you modes and before that it was methodical repetitive button pushing experience. Set it and forget it. But none the less photographers across the internet are eating this article up and links to it are spreading like wildfire. Another great invention of the 20th century… Media Hype!
So you can see what we’re up against here. Debunking that myth that it is in fact digital that is killing the professional photography industry is really nothing more than a history lesson in thinking bigger. Digital is not the final nail in professional photography’s coffin. It’s simply a sign of change and a tool born of human evolution. Here are some inalienable truths that you can take to the bank.
There will always been a wide-eyed entrepreneur waiting in the wings who wants to put you out of business. There will always be a renaissance and re-invention of your industry about to take place. This is called evolution and it’s part of human nature. We will always be on the cusp of something new. Those who adapt and adopt will survive, those who hold on to the “Good Old Days” will be left behind. I think Terry Pratchett had it right (except for the millions of years thing).
Most species do their own evolving, making it up as they go along, which is the way Nature intended. And this is all very natural and organic and in tune with mysterious cycles of the cosmos, which believes that there’s nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fiber and, in some cases, backbone.
So you see it’s not digital that is killing professional photography, rather it’s evolution that’s simply changing it into the next big thing.
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12 Comments at "The Great Digital is Killing Professional Photography Myth"
So true!
The only thing that will threaten photography is people’s appreciation of the art and skill required as well as a point of reference for what is good photography. As education in the arts diminishes, mediocrity is photography’s worst enemy, not the process by which it is performed.
Part of the point is also that “Photography” is changing. The way consumers are utilizing “Photography” is changing and as you pointed out Lou the value they place on it is changing.
People used to appreciate a good cave painting but you can’t put on the phone in your pocket and upload it to Facebook from your car going 70 down the freeway.
Digital photography definately changed my life for the better. It enabled me to charge more for my photography through improved product offerings which led me to start a flush mounted album business. I also made some very good friend in the process because we were all on the DWF learning and adjusting to the changes together.
Amen to this. People need to realize that it’s not the camera it’s the person taking the picture. If you give a paint brush to Picasso and a monkey I guarantee Picasso will paint a better picture every time.
Photography is more accessible than ever – but the people who think that anyone can take great photographs of their wedding probably wouldn’t have used a professional way back when. How many of our grandparents don’t have any wedding photographs and if they do I bet it’s one or two rather than an album. I do think changes in stock/editorial and PJ photography have been more difficult to deal with than the problem of everyman and woman with a digital SLR at weddings.
I’m totally in agreement with this post! I too would like more adaptation, less whining. Unfortunately, it’s almost a direct contradiction of nearly all other discussions of the photography business on this blog. (Does this mean you’re finally going to put away the “Uncle Bob” crap?)
I’ll still be busting on Uncle Bob when I get a chance. It’s nothing personal. There is a difference between a newbie photographer who’s trying and working at being a PRO and an uncle bob. Bob works for FREE.
Most of my uncle bob jabs are in pure jest.
I think it’s still too early to tell. Let’s remind ourselves to re-read this post in 2-3 years and see what we think. It wasn’t evolution that took out the dinosaurs… its was the eruption of a massive volcano (which, by the way, is overdue…but I digress). Is this evolution, or a volcanic eruption?
Ah but don’t forget this part of the NYT article:
“I never followed any traditional photography rules only because I didn’t know of any – I never went to photography school, never took any classes,” she said. “People don’t know the rules, so they just shoot what they like – and other people like it, too.”
I recall in art school they taught us design principles and such things that helped make our work better. Oh sure, people liked what I could draw before I had any training. But that’s what training does, it can make you even better. Well, that’s lacking when someone picks up a camera and the next thing you know they proclaim to be a photographer, just shooting any which old way.
That’s not evolution. That’s an economizing of product, which has been economized exactly because of digital. It’s a choice to accept lower quality in graphic arts, it’s not some natural progression. The same has occurred with graphic design because of the proliferation of computer programs. I even saw a graphic design school advertise on television with the pitch: “Can’t draw? It doesn’t matter anymore”.
We all know there’s a ton of sub-standard work out there, be it in photography, graphic design or anything else that’s been economized. If Kodak had economized the medical industry by getting into the business of making pro-sumer grade scalpels instead of cameras, people would be butchering each other in amateur surgery too. I mean, how difficult is it to carve out a tumor? You just cut the darn thing right? That’s what barbers used to do, true?
But seriously, the answer, I believe, is to become even better at the art of it, just as surgeons are way more skilled than someone certified in first aid. For even with talent or a knack, without training, talent alone isn’t enough. I think of legendary acting teacher Stella Adler’s admonition that to rely solely on talent only works when the going is good. Training is what gets you through the harder assignments, or when things don’t fall into place or you just aren’t feeling it. It’s a profession.
If your photography is ART, then should one expect it to really be profitable? How many Artists of other mediums do you know that live well? Just asking!
I’ve been in the photography business over 25 years and I’m 100% in agreement with what’s been stated above by Lutz, Korell and Masana.
Current perception is that “It’s so easy even a caveman can do it”. I bet though, that only the talented cavemen who mastered all the skills did the cave drawings.
For me the perceived devaluation of photography started around eight years ago. About the same time as better and more affordable digital cameras came along. Coincidence?
The fact is that I love the ability to use digital cameras and software as it’s allowed me more freedom and creativity.
Interesting times we live in.
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