75% of photographers said to lose all jobs due to COVID-19

It’s a tough time for photographers and filmmakers. For most of us, our work relies on being able to interact and engage with other people in the real world. But social distancing and lockdown measures in place around the globe have put a stop to that. And the consequences have hit a lot of us very hard.

Lensrentals held a survey of more than a thousand professional photographers and filmmakers about how COVID-19 has affected their business. According to their results, more than 96% of those who responded said that their income or work had been negatively impacted by COVID-19, with an average of 78% of bookings cancelled during April.  And May doesn’t look like it’s going to be that much better.

The cancellations are continuing way beyond April, too. Despite some countries and local governments talking about lifting lockdown and social distancing regulations starting in May, the general public has more common sense. Almost 60% of respondents have had between 80-100% of their bookings for May cancelled, too. And almost a fifth of those who participated in the survey has had over 80% of their jobs cancelled all the way up until August.

Somewhat shocking and also saddening is the fact that 18.6% of respondents (18.24% of photographers and 20.37% of filmmakers) said they’d considered completely leaving their respective industries as a result of the hardships that COVID-19 has brought to their business.

Lens Rentals says they plan to carry out these surveys monthly so that people can get a sense of how well the industry is doing during the epidemic and help spot signs of recovery. COVID-19 is hitting us all hard, and it’s going to be difficult for many businesses to recover from this if they’re even able to at all.

Have you lost work as a result of the epidemic? Do you think your business will survive?

[via Lensrentals]