Zenfolio has published its 2023 photography industry report. It aims to answer questions about the current state of photography and the evolution of the industry.
This report is the result of a Zenfolio survey of 2,248 photographers in 78 countries who primarily specialize in the portrait, landscape, wedding, sports and family genres. The company adds that most of the respondents to the survey were also part-time or full-time self-employed photographers with more than 10 years of experience.
Key takeaways from the survey are the overall health of the industry, the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in workflows, and how photographers feel about technology.
Nearly 20% of photographers surveyed report their business is up from a year ago. Photographers earning at least $100,000 reported a distinct increase in earnings over the past year, while in all other tiers he reported a 40% decrease in earnings. Of him, 66.6% of photographers report that their business is underperforming or performing as expected.
That may sound bad, but it’s actually an improvement over last year, when 76.2% of all photographers surveyed reported a negative impact on their bottom line. Still, the majority of photographers who say their business isn’t growing aren’t great.
Many say they are still dealing with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of rising inflation.
AI is playing an ever-growing role in photographers’ workflows, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Nearly 50% of survey respondents say they have integrated AI into their photography workflows, and only 11% believe AI developments are having a negative impact on photographers.
The survey found that 41% of photographers would like to spend less time editing if they could choose one thing to save time. 34% say they are using AI to make tedious work easier. The use of AI is spread across a wide variety of tasks overall, but editing was the most common use. That percentage is likely to rise in the next few years, especially as more platforms come to market that do an increasingly better job at imitating a photographer’s particular style.
You can read Zenfolio’s full 2023 Photography Industry Report on the company’s website.
Image credit: Zenforio
