Where To From Here?

In our next issue we’re going to be taking a look at the current state of professional photography in Australia and where the industry might be heading in what are still uncertain times. It’s over 20 years since the digital revolution – and it was certainly a revolution – but the effects are still being felt in terms of how new technologies and their spin-offs impacted every aspect of professional photography. It changed both the photographic and business practices out of all recognition and is continuing to do so as the market shifts in different directions in terms of how images are used. Throw in the effects of two years of restrictions and retractions related to the Covid-19 pandemic – which severely hit any aspect of photography related to social gatherings – and it’s not hard to understand why the industry is still in a state of flux. It has undoubtedly been steadily devalued over the last two decades, moving more towards a quantity scenario – as facilitated by the digital imaging technologies – than a quality scenario. The days of photographers charging massive date rates (and material mark-ups) to come up with one killer picture are well and truly gone, but those fees supported studios, assistants and the purchase of equipment such as big studio flash systems. In advertising, for example, it was all worth it because these pictures helped sell lots of products and services. Now, big ‘scatter gun’ print-based campaigns have been replaced by much smaller and precisely targeted ones, and the medium of delivery is video via mobile devices. Of course, the camera phone has had other impacts too, all but wiping out the compact camera business and undoubtedly also doing what once a professional photographer might have been paid to do. Likewise, digital cameras that make a lifetime of technical skills accessible to anybody.

The demise of the printed photograph has also sucked a huge amount of value out of the industry, especially in the wedding/ portrait sector, but more generally too. It’s all created the perfect storm… and talking of storms, climate change may also be starting to hit professional photography. One of the contributors to the next issue’s discussions, Graham Monro, notes that the major rain events that have hit much of Australia’s east coast over the last couple of months have forced numerous postponements of portrait shoots. “I am not a studio guy, but if this rain continues I might have to become one, or reinvent the business yet again!”

So we know where we’ve come from and how that’s shaped the present, but where are we going? That’s hopefully what we’re going to try and find out, and Graham Monro believes education has to be big part of it… both for photographers and their potential clients. The biggest problem right now though is that, following the demise of the AIPP, there is no representative body for professional photographers in Australia… nobody to set standards, nobody to deal with customer complaints and, indeed, nobody to provide education and training. Clearly the AIPP had lost its way and that its membership model was no longer relevant, but subsequently I haven’t seen one suggestion for a replacement organisation that’s not the same old recipe reheated. There needs to be more lateral thinking here because while the key objectives remain the same – education being one of them – they need to be implemented in ways that’s relevant to what’s happening in the industry today. I have no idea what that might look like, so perhaps this is the first question that really needs to be addressed – just how do we keep professional photography professional?

I’d really like to hear some of your thoughts about all or any of these issues, and I’ll be publishing the more insightful contributions. Send your comments to me at paul.burrows@ futurenet.com.