Zenfolio has published its 2023 State of Photography Industry Report that seeks to answer questions about how photographers are doing and how the industry will evolve.
The report is the result of a survey conducted by Zenfolio with a set of 2,248 photographers across 78 countries who mainly specialize in portrait, landscape, wedding, sports, and genres of family. The company added that survey respondents were also mostly part-time or full-time self-employed photographers with more than 10 years of experience.
The main takeaways from the survey revolve around the overall health of the industry as well as the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) in workflows and how photographers feel about the technology.
Almost 20% of photographers surveyed reported that their business has increased from a year ago. Photographers making at least $100,000 reported that they saw a clear increase in income last year, and in all other brackets 40% reported that income decreased. 66.6% of photographers reported that their businesses were slower or performing as expected.
While that sounds bad, it’s actually an improvement over last year when 76.2% of all surveyed photographers reported a negative impact on their income. However, most photographers who say that the business is not growing are not doing well.
Many say they are still dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of rising inflation.
AI is playing a bigger role in photographers’ workflows, which is no surprise. Almost 50% of survey respondents say they have integrated AI into their photography workflows, and only 11% see AI developments as having a negative impact on photographers.
The survey found that if photographers could choose one thing to spend less time doing, 41% of photographers would like to spend less time editing. 34% say they use AI to help them reduce task fatigue. The use of AI in general is spread across various tasks, but its use for editing is the most common. That percentage is likely to rise over the next two years, especially as more platforms come to market that do a better job of replicating a photographer’s specific style.
Zenfolio’s full 2023 State of Photography Industry Report can be read on the company’s website.
Image credits: Zenfolio