Photography feels like it’s fading—not because people stopped wanting images, but because images became endless. There was a time when a photographer could travel, shoot, and survive on the work itself. Today, almost any image you might need already exists online: pinned, tagged, and free.
With stock platforms, Pinterest boards, and AI-fed archives overflowing with nearly identical photographs, the value of a single image has collapsed. Why pay forty dollars for a print if you can have almost the same photo for free?
The question isn’t why photography is everywhere—it’s why it feels worth so much less.
This shift is especially visible in genres like wildlife photography, where there is rarely a direct client attached to the work. If no one is paying for the image, where is the money supposed to come from? Passion doesn’t pay for travel, equipment, or time. For many photographers, income now depends on multiple sources.
I’ve had to find a balance between what I want to photograph and what actually pays. While animal photography remains at the core of my work, I also shoot people, product advertising, and property photography. Shooting images is the easy part; making a living from them is not.
