Earlier in December, Meero, a startup company that helps photographers devote their time to their passion, announced the result of its State of Photography report, in partnership with Picter.
Meero surveyed over 5,000 photographers and videographers across the globe. Launched in October 2019, Meero surveyed over 5,000 photographers and videographers, making it the largest pool of respondents for a survey on photography.
The study reveals that professionals are still optimistic about the future of their industries. Eighty percent of respondents felt “optimistic” or “somewhat optimistic.” U.S.-based respondents ranked slightly higher, at 84 percent.
“Despite having a difficult landscape to navigate, it’s encouraging to see photographers respond to industry challenges with positivity,” said Max Riché, vice president of photography at Meero.
From a base of 70 questions, the study focused on the backgrounds, needs and projects of image professionals, as well as how they respond to everyday life. Notable take-aways from the study include:
- Consumer photography dominates, with nearly 25 percent of respondents working primarily in the field. This is in comparison to other fields such as advertising photography or corporate photography.
- More than 50 percent of respondents earn less than $11,000 a year from their activities.
- Consumer prospecting is the most time-consuming task, according to a majority of respondents. More than 90 percent currently manage their own business development.
- Portraits are the most prominently produced, with 20 percent of respondents primarily focused on portraits. Architecture and design come next, along with travel/lifestyle photos.
“Photographers have the freedom to pursue their dreams and be in charge of their own schedule, and our study highlights business development management as one of their biggest barriers to running a creative business today,” said Riché. “With those findings in mind, we anticipate that photographers will only grow hungrier for outside counsel and tools that remove hassles and source customers. We believe that this trend will be fundamental to reigniting the passion in their art.”
You can see various statistics and infographics created by Meero below:
Meero and Picter conducted the study in partnership with the Kynos Institute and Claude Vauclare to provide a global overview of the photography and videography industries and challenges faced by creatives today.
Meero has a global community of over 60,000 photographers, and offers a suite of tools dedicated to photographers’ activities and on-demand photo production services for major brands. The company specializes in managing logistics like invoicing and post-production delivery. Meero helps develop photographers as professionals, providing providers with gigs to earn additional income, tools to simplify daily tasks and inspiration. You can learn more about Meero at meero.com.
Lead photo by Alif Ngoylung on Unsplash
