Last week, I had the joys of my annual trip to Focus on Imaging at the NEC , Birmingham. Over the last few years, I have found myself becoming increasingly more and more frustrated with the event and what it has to offer a commercial photographer such as myself.
I know many of ex-students affectionately refer to me as a 'dinosaur' but I do realise that the industry I first entered nearly 30 years ago has changed markedly and this is now reflected in the exhibitors at the show. I struggled to find many of my old favorites such as Broncolor, Hasselblad and Sinar and Arri who did not appear to be any where in easy sight. This is so different to the days when the show used to be called 'Photography at Work' and was held at London and Harrogate.
Then there was a profusion of studio based photographic lighting and camera solutions with major stands by Hensel, Strobe, Balcar, Goddard and Broncolor. Now, I found myself surrounded by wedding albums, ink cartridge companies and sad middle aged men festooned with cameras snapping frantically at any semi-clad woman they could find (and they even brought there own sarnies!). Is this what the industry has become?
I realise that the exhibitors are in many ways responding to the change in purchasing patterns with in the industry and the rise of the weekend warrior snapper as the major purchaser of equipment. This new breed of photographer no longer needs photography as their main source of income as they rely on their week day job as an accountant or bus driver to fund them. To them, photography is almost a status symbol to a more glamorous life with almost Walter Mitty pretensions.
I am forever being being introduced to these types at parties and social gatherings where they spend hours debating the virtues of Nikon and Canon lenses and how their next shoot free shoot will be the 'last one' and they will then charge a massive £75 a day. Don't get me wrong, I am not bitter - just perplexed how we got to this state in the first place.
In some ways, I feel professionals and the organisations who represent them, have no one to blame for but themselves. We have encouraged through our openness new people to enter the profession but with little of the safe guards that other professional institutions have insisted upon. Given that for many of us over the age of 40, it took at least 4 years at college and a couple years as an assistant to become competent to start shooting commercially, wouldn't some form of chartered institute have been a good progression for our industry so as to protect it members, standardise rates, promote career development and present legislation to protect it's customers from cowboy operators.
I can already hear the cries now from quite a few of esteemed colleagues, that this form of protectionism is unworkable and unrealistic (it worked for accountants, solicitors, doctors, engineers etc). I would now have to agree with them. We missed our opportunity in the 90s when the first signs decline become apparent but we chose to ignore it. We now sit on the edge of the perfect storm, day-rates are substantial reduced due to flux incomers, high retooling and running costs, the volume of work has decreased due to the recession and new technologies and the quality of trade craft being taught is significantly poorer due to the dilution of teaching practices and lack of assisting places in industry.
So where do we go now? A hard question but one that needs to be confronted by all. Do we continue to defend our small patch of territory and hope that we are 'the last man standing' or do we finally as industry, decide to unite and forget our petty squabbles and confront the difficult decisions ahead.
Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
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