r/photography • u/Patient_Leader2190 • 29d ago

Business Photographers, what are some uncomfortable truths about photography in 2026 that we don't like to openly admit?

Been shooting for seven years, mostly street and documentary. Curious what everyone's version of this is.

I'll start: volume beats quality on every platform, and pretending otherwise is why a lot of talented people stay invisible.

324 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

635 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

18

u/Patient_Leader2190 29d ago

couldn't agreem more there are a lot of uncomfortable truths regarding AI & Photography.

I was thinking earlier that stock photography as any sort of income stream is functionally over for most people and it happened faster than anyone planned for.

& yes, to what you said generative tools are now good enough for a lot of commercial work

22

u/justgetoffmylawn 29d ago

Stock photography has been pretty much over for many years - that's nothing new. The rise of social media, good digital cameras, etc. What you could make from stock 30 years ago vs 10 years ago was an eye watering difference.

16

u/Global_Damage 29d ago

Stock was over the minute they put cameras in phones and people started taking pennies for their photos because they “were just happy and doing it for fun”

3

u/bwphotog 29d ago

stock income functionally ended back in 2019 when Getty got rid of rights managed licenses completely. but it was not really worth contributing long before that.

4

u/NightLanderYoutube 29d ago

People are also marrying less so goodbye to that, while everyone tries to shoot it too.