This article was originally posted in May 2002.
So where does photography go from here. I cannot resist a little bit of crystal ball gazing about if and how I will be working in the future. This section is called "Opinions", and this is my take on the future. Photography has a relatively short history as a profession and it would be safe to say that at no point has it ever stood still. It was only last year that I was talking to a London based news photographer who started his career using the hand help speed graphic half plate camera and flash bulbs. I am only 36 years old and even I have seen huge shifts in the way we work so it would be pretty safe to say that I will never see a period of technological stand still in my career.
The multi skilled stills photographer /digital video cameraman / journalist "Platypus" is a concept that is definitely here to stay. Many news photographers are making their living switching seamlessly between stills and moving images - often financing their stills with sales of video. It makes sense for photographers to at least learn about video, especially as the equipment gets smaller and lighter and as the mobile phone transmission technology gets around to being able to send edited video clips from ever more powerful laptops. The web is becoming ever more broadband friendly and streamed video will be the biggest single growth area over the internet.
I'm not suggesting that there will be no need for stills photography and the skills that we have, but as the quality of video gets higher and higher it seem inevitable that more and more news photographs will be single frames taken from moving images. The marketing sense that this makes is self evident - with one camera a photographer can supply stills and video and possibly doubling their market opportunity at a single stroke. The market for specifically shot still images is not going to continue to grow in the way that it has over the past twenty years and that is a confident prediction.
Well crafted photographs will continue to be an important part of visual communications right across the world as far into the future as I can see. The technology will continue to improve at a frightening and expensive rate - none of us can really comprehend what a camera of 2010 will look like or what it will be capable of so what skills will always be required?
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Composition is just as important for still or moving images, well composed images are one of the key things that separate a good photographer from an average one - and that will never change.
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Lighting makes all the difference between two otherwise similar photographs and the same is true for video.
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Well edited sets of photographs speak volumes in the same way that accurately edited video and film always has done.
- Market knowledge and familiarity has always been the difference between a photographer making a good living and not doing so. You have to sell pictures to live if you are a professional
If I knew more about the future I could tell you all which companies to buy the shares in so that we could all share in the prosperity that is out there somewhere. In the meantime I, for one, am going to continue to watch every technical and social development that might or might not affect my future and the future of the profession that I love. I am going to keep my skills bang up to date and that means that I am currently dabbling with digital video and mobile editing setups. Trying new things is my way of keeping fresh and staying in love with photography.
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