Is Photography Still Relevant In 2022? And What About In The Future?

Photography is bigger in 2022 than ever. There are probably more photos taken this year than ever before. So photography is still wholly relevant in 2022, with the growth being driven in part by the massive global popularity of social media. And this demand is only going to grow, with a growing population and technology becoming more and more accessible.

Photography is changing with trends and technology but is alive and well in 2022. There is a reason for this episode, which I will get on to in the next episode.

Hi and welcome to Episode 138 of the Photography Explained podcast. I’m Rick, and in each episode I try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.

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Or you can read on - it’s entirely up you!

In this episode, my thoughts on the relevance of photography in 2022 and beyond.

OK – here is the talky bit

Yes, straight into the talky bit. Well, this is one of those questions requiring a talky type of answer.

There is still a demand for photographs. The internet has transformed the world, and having everything available to view online means that there is a much higher demand for photos of erm, anything.

Like products. In theory, any product that is sold online needs a photo of it. If not, you do not know what the product actually looks like. We used to look at products in shops. But now?

Well, we have the internet. So, any product sold online. Blimey, that’s a lot of products, and a lot of photos.

When I say product I mean anything. Holidays, cars, clothes, garden sheds, bricks, watches, phones, cameras, headphones, beer. This gives you an insight into how my mind works does it not? These were the first things that came into my head.

Any product that is for sale needs a photo. So that is good, right?

Well yes. And no. I will touch on this later, but yes you potentially need a photo of anything that you sell online. That is good. But what is not so good is that a significant number of people are looking at these things on phones and other mobile devices. Much smaller images. And that means that the quality of the images is not that important.

Services

Any service, window cleaner, architect, photographer – again you need photos to advertise your services. And again, the quality needs to match the viewer's needs and what the viewer is looking at the photos on.

Obviously, the photographer will need high-quality photos, but as for everyone else? Not so much.

Buildings

Building photography – this is what I do. There is and will be, a demand for high-quality, professional photos of buildings. More on this in the “What Do I Do?” bit.

News

Yep, news photos. Photojournalism. News services are a never-ending source of demand for photos. And the higher the quality the better, but for many uses these days phone photos are fine. And I am not being derogatory in any way to photojournalists, who are amazing and I am in constant awe of the work that they create. No. Not at all.

But we are back to the point that people are looking at photos on small things. Well smaller than they ever used to be.

Advertising

The high-end version of product photography, again there will always be a demand for advertising photography, and for the foreseeable future a demand for high-quality, professional imagery.

Weddings and portraits

Well, photos of people. People will spend money on photos of family, friends, and loved ones. And this is one area where I see a longstanding future for professional photography – there will always be a difference between the photos taken on a phone, that are shared on social media, and the photos that you hang on the wall in your house.

Pet photography.

As for people, and in some cases much more so than for people. Just saying.

Travel

Travel photography is massive. And I am not talking about those idyllic Instagram feeds where every photo shows beautiful people in amazing locations. No, photos of destinations. There will always be a demand for these. People want to see where they are going after all.

Although I do fear that there is so much out there that if we are not careful we will have seen everything before we get to our travel destination. I have a special skill to make sure this does not happen to me – I do not research places before I go to them, I explore them when I am there.

This works nicely for me thank you very much.

Art

Stuff that you hang on walls. Again, there will always be a demand for this. Any building pretty much will have some photos or other somewhere within it.

Social media

The constant demand to create new content to keep those social media feeds thriving just grows and grows. Now, regardless of your opinion of social media, we cannot deny that this is exploding photography in a way like never before.

Social media has created a boom in photography, but my question to you, dear listener, is this? Who is actually looking at all this stuff? And don’t get me started on where all this stuff is stored, and how many similar photos of the same thing there are out here.

I know there are other types of photography, but these are the ones that came to mind to illustrate the point.

The future of photography?

Tech, 360, immersive photography, live streaming, video, 3D walkthroughs, Heads Up Displays, virtual reality. The possibilities are endless. And even with all this tech retro is still there, which I find quite reassuring.

As wonderful as digital is some say that it has a cold, inhuman feel to it, which film does not.

Constantly connected.

One of the big detractors of photography and current cameras is the time taken to actually get the photos. Now this was never a problem before, but nowadays with phones and the excellent cameras in them, it feels like conventional cameras are lagging behind.

In the film days, you had to post the film, or take it to an actual shop to get the film processed and the prints printed. It could take a week to get the photos back. 1 week. Tell that to people today and they will look at you like you are insane! 1 week!!!!

And then there is what we photographers do.

Take me and my photography using my Canon 6D for example. When I take some photos I have to go home, insert the memory card into my PC, import the photos, sort them, edit them and then sync them to Lightroom Mobile, and then I am connected to the outside world.

When I take photos with my phone I am of course instantly connected. And I can share the photos immediately with pretty much anyone anywhere.

Does this matter to me? No. Not at all. I am fine with this, as I do not need to instantly publish everything everywhere.

But what about the future, and all those folks who first experienced photography through phones? Well, they are going to look at cameras and think that this is so old school. So while the future of photography is secure, I am not so sure that it is for cameras as we know them now. Cameras need to evolve, to continue to give higher image quality but with the immediateness of phones.

This is the future of photography. Higher quality quicker. Or even higher quality immediately.

What about professional photography?

Well, unfortunately, I see the demand for professional photographers and professional photos only going one way. And that is down. Phones, tech and software are advancing at such a pace that you can get excellent photos with phones. And let’s not forget the point I made earlier. People growing up with phones are used to taking photos with phones and are used to looking at photos taken with phones.

And every year there are more and more people with this view. And every year there are more and more technological advances.

Sure phones don’t take photos that are as good as those taken with pro gear. And pro photographers can take better photos than others.

But photos taken by non-professional photographers using phones, are, in a lot of cases, good enough. The question here is about future demand for higher-quality images as the gap closes.

Demand for photography is not the issue, demand for higher quality, pro photography is. And that is the problem for us photographers, dear listener.

So we have to adapt to the now. We can’t hide behind what we have always been doing. That is not the future, that is the past.

But – let’s not forget retro is back and will get bigger. There is a demand for the old days, a demand for the past. But where will that sit in the modern digital world?

What do I do?

I continue to practise photography in what might be seen as the traditional way, updated to 2022. I use the skills and techniques that I have learned over the years to capture high-quality photos of buildings and nice places. And buildings in nice places.

I use my skills and equipment to take photos that quite frankly you cannot get with a phone. I cannot get a photo of a steel frame being constructed against a bright sky and get all the details that I want in the light bits and the dark bits.

I just can’t and I have proved this many, many times. On a shoot I will take photos with my phone which I might use for social media, and for my own promotional reasons, behind the scenes, and stuff like that. But the photos taken on my phone are never, and I mean never, as good as the photos taken with my Canon 6D and Canon 17-40mm F4 L lens using the techniques that I use, and the processing in Lightroom.

And I have loads of examples of this.

And, I have never issued a photo taken with a phone to a client. And that is the point about the future of photography. There will, for the foreseeable future, always be a demand for professionally taken photos.

I use social media, but only to promote my work. Not to be sociable. And that is probably why social media does not work for me! Check me out on Instagram and Pinterest, Rick McEvoy Photography. And you will see what I am on about.

Yes, I believe that there is a healthy future for photography, but we have to accept that photography and how cameras work is going to evolve in the future as technology changes the way we do things.

Next episode

Photography Explained Podcast Episode 139 – I will be announcing a couple of changes to my podcast. Changes To My Podcast. And How Do We Get Started In Photography Today?

A quick plug for me and what I do.

Well, why not? If I can't plug myself on my podcast, where can I?

You have found this podcast, so why not check out my splendid website, where I write blog posts about my photographs of buildings and other good stuff. On my courses page, you will find my course, How to Become A Real Estate Photographer.

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This episode was brought to you by, erm, well lots of water sat here in my home-made, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.

I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.

Take care, stay safe

Cheers from me Rick