Photography is not just the art form I love, it’s the one that pays my rent. Which is why I keep coming back to the photo business and its growing dysfunction. Last week, when I wrote about the difficulty of wrapping my head around new challenges, I failed to mention these challenges are feeding one another in a perfect storm.

The storm began way back at the turn of the millennium, with the introduction of the digital SLR.¹ With that great democratizer, all of the peculiar expertise I’d spent 15 years learning — about bellows compensation and film base plus fog and reciprocity failure — would become irrelevant. Gone were the days of Polaroid lighting tests. No more would I need to wait for the lab to process my chromes before tearing down a set. From here on out, inexperienced amateurs and seasoned pros alike would receive instant feedback, straight from the back of the camera. Key light too harsh, fill light too bright, composition a little crooked, whatever. With instant feedback, technical issues went from something to be addressed next time to an error that could be remedied immediately. As a result, quality skyrocketed and a whole bunch of basic assignments disappeared.²

I often refer to that first round of disappeared assignments as “low-hanging fruit.” They were simple, the kind of jobs that aren’t exciting but serve a useful purpose of sustaining photographers between better gigs. These jobs called for professionals not because the client needed something special, but because they needed to ensure shots were sharp and well exposed — which in the film era was no simple feat. But with instant feedback, even a chimp can do it.

Multiply that technological improvement by 20 years and soon the baseline quality for photography would be, in a word, fantastic. New photographers now produce imagery that a generation ago required seasoned professionals. The learning curve flattened, all thanks to that little LCD on the back of the camera. Which meant that soon — perfect storm part two — competition would increase significantly.

More than just the quality of competition, the quantity increased as well. Technology lowered the barrier to entry, and more people became photographers. Competition brings price pressure and difficulty standing out from the crowd. I’m never going to complain about more photographers — after all, they’re only pursuing the medium they love, just like me — but I don’t feel bad complaining about how the laws of supply and demand affect my bottom line. It’s a buyer’s market, and I’m beginning to suspect the buyers are becoming aware of that fact.

From weekend warriors to gung-ho novice full-timers to content creators and side hustlers. More power to them, truly, but an influx is an influx. Our ranks have swelled. It’s hard not to be a little bit romantic about photography’s meritocracy. If you’ve got the skills, you really can pull yourself up by the bootstraps and make a whole business out of any old camera and an Instagram account. Still, I get cranky about the downsides.

There are so many photographers, high schools have begun cracking down on who’s allowed on the sidelines at sporting events.

There are so many photographers, nobody needs to license stock any more.

There are so many photographers they’re rescuing the ailing camera business that just a few years ago was decimated by smartphones.

Look at this graph. Google says search interest in the keywords “photography career” and “photography business” spiked significantly in the last year.

To the challenge of more photographers who are better than ever, add perfect storm element three: fewer jobs. Not in the gig work sense, of course, but real, sustainable jobs photographing for entities such as newspapers, magazines and catalogs — the printed things that once required skilled professionals to justify the expense of all that ink and paper. These things don’t exist any more (relatively speaking) and the jobs that replaced them are more like “content creation,” which often means smaller budgets, photo with video, and doing the work of several people all by yourself.

Print is where photographs shined. Now photographs live on screens, on social media, only for a matter of hours. What, pray tell, is the value of an image with a lifespan of hours?

The good news is there’s a need for more photography and video. The bad news is, fewer clients need it to be great in the way that comes from big productions and big crews. Basic photographs these days are plenty great already.

The traditional system that funded commercial and editorial photography was designed, for a century or more, to produce amazing photographs at considerable expense. But now that system has been turned on its head. A $1,500 compact camera makes better pictures than the best pro body from 20 years ago.

It’s impressive how digital cameras changed not just the business of photography, but the creative process too. Powerful strobes are no longer necessary. Studios are no longer necessary. Large crews are no longer necessary. And a $19 monthly subscription supplies all the software any photographer could need.

If this storm is not yet perfect enough for you, how about we add one more variable to the mix. (Not economic turmoil, though that surely isn’t helping.) No, I’m talking about Artificial Intelligence, the disruptor to end all disruptors. Ever accidentally visit LinkedIn and notice how the businessiest of your acquaintances are desperate to incorporate the exciting new “faster but not as good” technology into everything they can get their hands on? These folks are convinced they’ll never need to hire an expert for anything ever again — most certainly not for anything as inconsequential as art. With AI they’ve got an everything expert always at their fingertips.³ I’m not sure how it’s going to shake out, but I can’t imagine a scenario in which it’s good for business. My business, I mean.

I’m sure AI is starting to make some sort of dent in my bottom line, but it doesn’t yet feel like the core reason why things are tricky. Notice I said “yet.”

I suppose none of this is any different than every other business dealing with the fallout from the simultaneous digital revolution, social media revolution, and AI revolution.⁴ Still, I can’t help but feel like we photographers have received more than our fair share.

I think the issues are surmountable, though it’s possible I just know that’s what I’m supposed to say.