Like many other professions, professional photography has died due to the Internet. If a person at a party tells you he is a professional photographer, you put him in the same group as journalists and consultants: you quietly whisper in your wife's ear that the bloke over there is unemployed.
If you patent a new mousetrap and you say you have given it away, you will not get a patent because it is has become public knowledge and someone is already using the concept. Like photography, just about everyone is taking and freely distributing photos.
A so-called professional photographer who shows his work online is really doing the same thing as the person trying to patent an idea. Even if the photographer blocks a direct save to a computer by website coding, users can easily snap the picture in all its high definition glory. To expect payment is naive with the Internet as it is.
Professional photographers will not retire wealthy. They will not get sufficient income to pay their costs. It is silly for them to feel superior and hold onto a job that has no future.
✴ Technology by Ty Buchanan ✴
