Photography in a changing world...

Is it so sad that the professionals will have more trouble making a living this way in coming years? To them, it must be — and I have friends in the business, which makes this painful to write in some ways. To the rest of us, as long as we get the trustworthy news we need, the trend is more positive ... The photojournalist’s job may be history before long. But photojournalism has never been more important, or more widespread.

I was in an interview yesterday with Paul D'Hoore, who at a certain point was talking about the changes in economy due to the globalization.
His point to take notice of was 'It is true certain jobs are disappearing in our region, because of the simple fact they move towards countries that have much cheaper labor. But does it mean, there are no jobs left? No, there are other jobs, economy is shifting.

I think we see a similar shift in different things. For example music. The music shop disappears. But these people find themselves other ways.
A similar thing is happening with photography.
Due to digital era, and the fact that we, in the West, became more resourceful, and the digital era allows us to spread our images, more 'amateur' photographers are born. Good ones!
Photography will never dissapear, especially because more than ever we became a 'visual world' and large companies, now more than ever, want their actvities to be captured in pictures.
See it as the computer/printer: before it commercialized, all was written, some stuff was printed. Upon arrival of the computer everybody said paper was dead. 30 years later the rain forrest is still dissapearing due to paper production.
Now they say true news-photography is dying and professional photographers will loose their jobs.
The truth is: all is only shifting: news photography is going to be made by the public (the amateur becomes the reporter), while we will look for good filters (because of an overdosis of images) and prof. photographers get different (rather well paid) jobs.

It only just started, guys...
Frankly speaking, I am not worried at all.
(I only hope the amateur photographer does try to learn the language rather than just point and shoot.)

(Tx Pascal for the link)
Reference: a talk with Carl De Keyzer on the subject

Technorati Tags: gloabization, photography, shift