2024 05 28
Space for rent. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
“Nobody’s looking for a photographer in today’s wintry economic climate.” — I’m not sure why I find solace in dark humor, but this (modified from puppeteer) line from Being John Malkovich has me wanting to print it on tshirts I think it’s so funny. Clearly, I write for an audience of one.
This morning, I woke up to an email notifying us that we didn’t win a job we were bidding on. Kind of normal, these days, I hate to say (at least we’re bidding!). While the commercial projects which have historically kept me very busy have slowed down in frequency, I’m finding myself busier than ever with new and different projects. The list includes: running a photo studio; restaurant and bar photo shoots; portrait shoots; various video projects; learning to print; selling prints; art photography projects; producing and promoting events; exploring selling merchandise directly along with attempting ecommerce.
Essentially, I’m diversifying. While it’s providing me with an endless list of things to do, many of which have me very excited and motvated, the challenge is finding a balance between things that take your time and things that also make you a bit of money to pay the rent.
The commercial photography landscape has changed and will continued to change into something nobody can quite predict just yet. Will AI replace most commercial photographers? I’d bet not, but likely it will replace a large percentage of the smaller and easier projects, thus overall reducing the amount of work available to us photographers. Will even more photographers continue to flood the market in search of a career? I’d also bet yes, which will increasingly put pressure on rates and overall reduce the earning capacity of us photographers. I see things heading largely where music and fine art has gone, with many photographers pursuing it as much as a hobby as it is a job (a paid assignment being the exception not the rule). The access to affordable equipment and knowledge is so great, the barrier to entry is very low and only continuing to fall. Everyone is a photographer! Will companies continue to pursue creative new ways to get content made, opposed to hiring a top notch commercial photographer at an expensive rate? Of course! Last week I heard of a brand that brought in a dozen social media influencers for a weekend of curated fun. The amount of brand content they made over a few days with a dozen content creators is something that a traditional commercial photographer simply can’t compete with; even someone like myself who shoots fast and really goes all out to maximize the clients’ time and capture a huge quantity of images.
These are strange times for the commercial photographer, and while I have no idea what the marketplace will look like in five years, I’m weirdly optimistic that people with strong visual and storytelling skills will continue to have no shortage of opportunities as long as they are open-minded and creative in their approach to finding them.
“Nobody’s looking for a photographer in today’s wintry economic climate.” — if I print up some shirts, would you buy one from me; or should I stick to my day job?
-Clayton
