Survey shows pro photographers' worries in changing market

View from the front line

As a staff photographer for a weekly newspaper I find the art of photography more and more in the decline.

It's wholly disheartening when an amateur or journalist with a mobile phone, gets prominent space, despite the usual terrible quality.

By-lines are virtually extinct, substituted by the company for a code with your initials in to help flog your photos.

As for the 'average' earning of 34 grand for a staff photographer - show me the job!! I know for sure I am well wide of the mark on that one, understandable being on a weekly perhaps, but so is the same for photographers I know, working on the local dailies.

Police are a constant uneducated problem with the usual pantomime, you can't photograph here - yes we can - no you can't - yes we can - no you can't.

I used to love photography, now I'm afraid its becoming a tiring fight.

..in a nutshell,of course it's true.

Pro photography has been in decline for some years,thanks mainly to the digital camera and everyman and his brown dog owning one,thus selling his soul for half the price.(or maybe not even that).
The fuzzy picture has become the 'new' in-thing on mobiles,you are up for a million dollar award if you get it right...
Thank goodness I lived through the golden era of press & media photography in the last 20th.century, where quality was appreciated.And not an amateur in sight.Thank goodness I've retired.

Like the survey says,an honest and frank report that's come out in the open,whereas before was only spoken in whispers.