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Why AI is a threat to the photography industry

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“Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?” So asks Will Smith in the 2004 movie iRobot. Of course, the answer back then was a resounding ‘no’, however, 15 years later it’s not so simple. An AI rapper has already been signed to a record label. Sure, it’s hardly Beethoven’s 9th Symphony but you get the idea.

If you haven’t heard anything about Artificial Intelligence (AI) recently, then you must be living off-grid somewhere in a nuclear bunker. AI has been making headlines regularly in all areas. Huge leaps in technology have been made in a relatively short space of time. The development has been staggering in just how rapid and accelerated it has been.

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Photography’s decline coming to an end? Canon believes the camera market has “bottomed out”

Canon recently released its second quarter 2022 financial results and in an attached question and answer document about the camera market and its future, the company was surprisingly open and upfront with regard to questions about the state of the camera industry. Canon says that the camera market “has largely bottomed out at its current size” and that they expect that from here on out, the only way is up.

Of course, it was never going to happen that the camera market would disappear entirely and Canon’s always known this. But they believe that numbers have gotten as low as they’ll get and that interest in photography is on the uptake again. They also say they’ll be producing both mirrorless cameras as well as DSLRs – for now, anyway.

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Report states that women photographers heavily under-represented by camera industry

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A recent study exploring the gender bias in the photography industry has reported that despite comprising almost half of the photography-related workforce, women photographers are dramatically under-represented and lower paid than male photographers.

This bias covers the industry as a whole, from day to day work and harassment, to the representation by major camera brands and news outlets. To coincide with International Women’s Day, the marketing company Wallflower Studios commissioned the report titled “Give us Features, not Flowers“. It makes for some interesting and somewhat sobering reading.

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Photo industry is coming back to life after COVID-19, survey shows

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on everyone and photographers are no exception. In fact, our industry was severely hit last year when 75% of photographers said they’d had all their gigs canceled due to the pandemic. Thankfully, it seems that the sunshine after rain is coming this year. According to a recent survey from Zenfolio, things are going for the better, and the photography industry is coming back to life.

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Here are some weird and funny photographer confessions, can you relate?

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As photographers, we’ve all had some funny, weird and cringeworthy situations. Photographer Jessica Kobeissi got to hear about some of these situations from her followers, and in this video, she shares some of their funniest and weirdest confessions. Let’s see if any of these situations seem familiar.

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This new Instagram account reveals photo industry’s most hilarious secrets

We all have our “dark secrets” and do things that we would never admit to our clients or fellow photographers. And Instagram account Industry Confessionals brings them all out in the open. It’s a selection of anonymous confessions and secrets from the photography industry, and it will make you laugh, cringe, but sometimes also relate.

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Want to Break the Glass Ceiling as a Female photographer? First, believe you’re capable

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Often times, when I walk on set to begin a photoshoot, I’m mistaken for a makeup artist. Other times, I’ll have a male assistant with me on set, and our client will assume I’m his assistant. This is no surprise to me—across the photography industry there is a massive underrepresentation of women. It’s simply less common for our clients to see females as lead photographers. And for the women who do rise to the top, we’re much less likely to be employed by large media companies (7% compared to 22% of men). Plus, according to the State of News Photography Study, not only do women hold less photography jobs, but we’re paid less than men for the same work.

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Is crowdfunding the best friend or worst enemy of the re-burgeoning film photography industry?

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There is no doubting that analogue photography is on the up – or at least, it did hit rock bottom and it has bounced. But is gravity going to take hold; is it on the verge of failure again? Or is it about to break through into the mainstream again like vinyl records have? Moreover, is the huge part crowdfunding has played in this process ultimately going to be key to the success, or will it issue the final death warrant to the film photography industry?

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Is “Copyright Troll” A Thing Now?

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We recently published the account of Internet “entrepreneur” Dan DaSilva who was successfully sued for $27,000 (plus $10,000 in court fees) by a photographer over copyright infringement (click here for the original article: Internet “Entrepreneur” Shocked that Copyright Owner Sued Him for Stealing their Work).

While most were quick to jump on Dan in a pretty negative group pile-on, one of the more interesting allegations that Dan makes is that he is really the victim of copyright trolling.

In this article, we will look at what exactly a copyright troll might be and why the internet might have been a little overzealous in it’s condemnation of Dan DaSilva.

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Could YouTube Style “Matched Content” Be The Solution For Licensing Journalism and Photography?

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Nobody likes having their creative content stolen, and everybody wants to be paid for their work.

While file sharing has altered the power dynamic of the music industry – the music industry did successfully blow up Napster (if you’re under 30 you probably don’t recognize the name Napster – but its rise and fall was a big deal in the evolving world of copyright as the internet gained popularity).

Facing a similar fate at the hands of film studios and TV networks, YouTube initiated their “matched third-party content” system – which automatically identifies copyright infringement of both video and audio content, and automatically restricts or blocks content that has been distributed without a valid license from the copyright owner.

But, what is really interesting about YouTube’s “matched third-party content” system is that copyright owners can monetize their content when it is distributed by other users.

Journalism and photography are the last outlets of rampant online distribution without compensation – but a YouTube style “matched content” system could be a very simple way for journalists and photographers to finally be paid their fair share for the reproduction and use of their work.

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