The Business of Free: A Radical Disruption in Commercial Photography

ABSTRACT

The commercial photography business has been among the most disrupted industries of the twenty-first century. Technology advances, greater broadband access, and the growth of content sharing platforms over the past decade have made it possible for anyone to produce high-resolution photography and share it broadly online, at minimal cost. The rise of social media has blurred the line of media creation and consumption. While social media uploads do not directly compete with commercial photography sales, there is a substantial indirect impact as many more people have an excellent camera in their mobile device and the process of taking photographs is no longer exclusive to professionals.

With billions of personal photographs uploaded daily, “authentic” imagery from “real” people affects the broad perception of what genuine captured moments look like. Hobbyist photographers, who sell their pictures for below-market rates, can be viewed in the context of the “gig economy” which impacts employment and earnings for the middle class. Stock photography has been particularly disrupted by amateur imagery, and a brief history of that field will show why.

The company Unsplash will be a case study in understanding why some photographers are offering their pictures at no cost, on photo sharing platforms, with a Creative Commons 0 license. Corporations naturally have a mission to lower their costs and will use free pictures to the extent that their creative needs can be met through this channel. Whether a consistent and high-quality stream of in-demand, commercial content can be sustainably produced by amateurs and hobbyists for the foreseeable future, is relevant to the fate of the professional photographer. While subjects such as cats and mountain vistas are increasingly available, the more complex and expensive (in terms of production costs) photography will likely support a niche for professional creators, either through stock, assignments, or platforms yet to be established.

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