where have the photographers gone?

thanks John, an excellent article. Change is certainly not happening on this side of the lake, where newspapers are looking to crowdsource pictures, just like most everywhere else.
 
With cell phones there are more photographers now than there has ever been. If you can't see them you are not looking.
 
I had some correspondence with a couple of the staff photographers of the main broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne. They are great photographers. A new High Court judge was photographed by Simon O'Dwyer (http://www.smh.com.au/business/man-of-choice-words-and-keen-judgments-20130215-2eimq.html) and I just had to write to compliment him on the portrait and the lack of law books for a background and the wonderful warm Ektar-like colour.

He was working as the photographic editor overnight when he emailed me back. So far as I know he is still employed by the paper.

Ironic that when pictures are more important than ever, so many potential employers are settling for any old junk. To tell you the truth, in the linked article I loved the first photograph, and thought some of the next few were examples of how it goes wrong without an experienced staff photographer!
 
emraphoto said:
A must read for any new editorial photographers/photojournalists/enthusiast.

I once received $12, after agency cut, for a half page in one of the very big names in the US. The image was taken in Northern Syria after a night of being shelled by mortars. I fired said agency about 1 week later.

https://medium.com/@kennethjarecke/dumb-photos-for-dumb-people-2821a8f6b3a
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I looked at your portfolio. Nice, strong work.

Unfortunately photos are very cheap nowadays. With the millions of cell phone cams out there editors are flooded with pix left and right.

Take it or leave it, but know there are plenty of people queued up to take your place.


Sums it up.

The author of that article is in fantasyland. Nothing changes just cause he is feeling it in his wallet. Our world has changed forever as long as the electricity is on. Don't like it? Give up taking pix.

I have worked on great projects for nearly a year full time, I produced a landmark, important project full of great photography. I spent nearly $15,000 out of pocket for expenses and failed to even give it away for free. That is a photogs world.
 
sig said:
With cell phones there are more photographers now than there has ever been. If you can't see them you are not looking.
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I suspect the point of the article was missed. Of course there is a tsunami of 'photographers' in this day, when the term is stripped to the most literal sense.
 
Some people are saying that the days of cameras as a stand alone piece of equipment is near its end... With digital camera sales in free fall, one can see why such claims are made... Already, most digital cameras are video cameras as well, and their video capability is the one area that is progressing while the still part is plateaued for now.

Once the stand-alone camera is no longer produced for mass market, that is when the word photographer will also slowly fade into history... How long before that happens? Not very long.
 
IMHO this has much to do with the hollowing out of the "middle-class" professions by technology. IT, in particular AI, will resign many once respectable jobs (book-keeping and accounting, banking and finance, much law related activity etc) to history. How long before disposable AI-enabled drones shooting and downloading high speed video in real time replace most press photographers?

Hsg said:
Some people are saying that the days of cameras as a stand alone piece of equipment is near its end... With digital camera sales in free fall, one can see why such claims are made... Already, most digital cameras are video cameras as well, and their video capability is the one area that is progressing while the still part is plateaued for now.

Once the stand-alone camera is no longer produced for mass market, that is when the word photographer will also slowly fade into history... How long before that happens? Not very long.
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zuikologist said:
IMHO this has much to do with the hollowing out of the "middle-class" professions by technology. IT, in particular AI, will resign many once respectable jobs (book-keeping and accounting, banking and finance, much law related activity etc) to history. How long before disposable AI-enabled drones shooting and downloading high speed video in real time replace most press photographers?
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I was going to mention the AI but I didn't.


I have asked myself, how long before AI learns to take 'aesthetically' pleasing photos, all by itself?

How long before AI learns to edit photos based on what it thinks are good pictures, learned by looking at database of photos by all great photographers and museum exhibits?

How long before taking photos of people on the street becomes illegal because of Ai face-recognition? Or wearable cameras that anyone can wear and take photos or capturing Hi-res video without anyone knowing?

The future does not seem very promising not only for photographers but for most people.
 
The publishing industry, even when times were much better, always wanted to pay less and get more. Now it's worse. Many of the photos editors had a higher code back then. They're all gone now.

I did chuckle at the term beholders -- it's accurate. People who can't take a picture judging others who can. The contests that exist to generate entry fees, the paid portfolio reviews promising pathways to success -- sad.

If you love photography, you get a day job and shoot for yourself. Even actors have Actors Equity -- and can get benefits. Musicians get royalties. Photographers get hahahahahaha.

You can earn more selling cameras than shooting with them. Of course from time to time a photographer may have a good run for a few years -- but it's the toughest go. And motion is more salable.

Bumped into a guy I went to photo school with around 1980 -- he was working for the LIRR Railroad. That guy was a visionary :) Nonetheless, photography for many years allowed me certain freedoms...
 
NY_Dan said:
The publishing industry, even when times were much better, always wanted to pay less and get more. Now it's worse. Many of the photos editors had a higher code back then. They're all gone now.

I did chuckle at the term beholders -- it's accurate. People who can't take a picture judging others who can. The contests that exist to generate entry fees, the paid portfolio reviews promising pathways to success -- sad.

If you love photography, you get a day job and shoot for yourself. Even actors have Actors Equity -- and can get benefits. Musicians get royalties. Photographers get hahahahahaha.

You can earn more selling cameras than shooting with them. Of course from time to time a photographer may have a good run for a few years -- but it's the toughest go. And motion is more salable.

Bumped into a guy I went to photo school with around 1980 -- he was working for the LIRR Railroad. That guy was a visionary :) Nonetheless, photography for many years allowed me certain freedoms...
Click to expand...

This is all true.

And - you will get hundreds of favs and superlative comments on flickr by posting photos of... cameras, especially if they're vintage and shot on some vintage wooden floor, close to vintage books... :D
 
emraphoto said:
AI can understand the rules however it does not do well with challenging rules in a constructive manner. This is what made Telex Iran such an important book. It was a direct challenge to conventional approach.
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Imho a book is only important, if it remains important throughout history - like Thucydides and his History of the Peloponnesian War. Now that book will always be important and relevant, even if Ai did take over.

Telex Iran, must have been an important book when it was released, but now, it seems out-dated and its images are not very different from the work of Abaas.

I think, what professional PJ journalism has experienced in the last few years have been a brutal and traumatic ego-deflation. From star celebrities to unemployed, that is the reality of most famous PJs, perhaps even of Gille Peress or Abaas...

Sometimes, its good to be a nobody, and for me as an armature who has never made any money from photography or has never had a show or a book or anything like that, there is also no claim to the label 'photographer'.

To answer your question, the photographers are there, but the need for them has evaporated.
 
An "armature?" Teachers, cops, bus drivers, and more all have unions to protect them. They demand a living wage, and they get it. Many people do not -- these days the young are sacrificing their youth for nothing -- they live with roommates, have no savings or chance of it, postpone having kids -- if they ever can, and it's a nobody can have anything so a few can have everything, and this will leave all with nothing. Photographs have no value? Okay, take a magazine and cut out all the photographs -- or white out every photo and see who wants to look at it...
 
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