UGC kills professional photographers

The NY Times has published an article about the dying profession of professional photographers. This is another profession that has become a victim of new technologies and the Internet era. The reason for the dismissal of many professionals and the plight of the rest is the boom of digital photography, improving the quality of amateur photos, and as a result of this - the sharp reduction in price of photos in photo banks, reduction of print press runs, etc.

In the era of film cameras, to take a high-quality picture from the first time, a lot of practical experience and knowledge was needed. According to some estimates, it took 10,000 hours of hard work to become a professional.

Now just look at the digital camera screen and adjust the settings if the white balance or exposure is not optimal, and take another shot.

Even the most ordinary amateur on a digital camera can take some really beautiful and high-quality photos (there are many such examples on Flickr). And they are happy to sell these photos at the lowest price (one dollar, for example) or give them away for free. Accordingly, professional photobanks are almost completely packed with quality and super-cheap amateur content. Not surprisingly, Getty Images has entered into such an agreement with Flickr.
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For comparison, in 2005 Getty Images licensed 1.4 commercial photos for sale, and last year it was already 22 million, with all the additional content coming from the UGC sector. You can imagine the scale of falling prices and reducing the income of professional photographers.

According to the NY Times, as a result, many photographers are now forced to combine their work with other activities, for example, with the creation of banners for online advertising.