Street Photography as a Career: Facing The Cruel Reality
Street photography is amazing. When I discovered it, I was in awe of all the street photography that drew me to the craft. They were all making a living doing it, right? Wrong!
The answer is more nuanced than that, of course, but it’s complicated.
Upon learning about history’s great street photographers, I looked up to them, and I wanted to be like them. I thought that since some of them did it, I could somehow blaze a similar path for myself. What I found, though, is that it’s just extremely difficult to make it as a street photographer, and even if you do, the financial rewards might not be everything you had hoped for.
Street Photography Can Be a Profession, with Major Caveats
I don’t want to say that it’s impossible to somehow make a living from street photography in some form or another. A select few street photographers have made it work in the past and today.
However, the path to doing this is anything but easy. I think it would be cool to have some data on this like a percentage of street photographers who do it for a living compared to those who do it just as a hobby. Well, I don’t have that data, I’m sorry haha. But I would wager that the majority of street photographers do it as a hobby/passion on the side. We do it for the love of the game, baby!
Coming to this realization can be a tough pill to swallow. I know it was for me, but I wouldn’t say all hope is lost.
How Some Street Photographers Make a Living
Based on the street photographers who I’ve studied, there’s a broad range of ways they make a living. These are the ones that come to mind.
Selling Prints and Books
This is most directly street photography compared to the other monetization methods I’ve come across. I’m on Magnum’s email list, so I hear about when they run their print sales.
I don’t know how many sales this brings in and whether it’s a viable source of income for the photographer, though.
Then, of course, there are books. I love photo books, and I think it’s the ultimate expression of street photography. It’s like the street photography version of a musical album. From what I’ve heard, though, is that photo books aren’t a very large or dependable source of income.
Street Photography Workshops
This is a common one I see.
Many of the best street photographers in the world put on photography workshops. And why not? The photographer gets paid, and the participants get to learn from the best.
I don’t see a problem with this, but for me, I think I’d rather be out doing street photography than teaching it. I don’t know, though, as I’ve never taught workshops.
Photojournalism
I know of several street photographers whose main gig was as a photojournalist. I think this must be a good fit for street photographers, because there’s a lot of crossover in the ways you compose photos between the two types of photography. The problem in today’s world, though, is that there are very few photojournalism jobs to go around.
Commercial Photography and Other Services
There are all sorts of photography services you can offer. Everything from food photography for restaurants to product photography, brand photography, and beyond.
The big one that comes to mind for me is Elliot Erwitt. From the sounds of it, he was ballin’ quite hard from his commercial photography.
Jobs Related to Street Photography Have Disappeared
I touched on this briefly previously when I mentioned photojournalism, but the prospects for many photography careers have unfortunately been destroyed. It used to be that you could get a well-paying, stable job in careers like photojournalism. That’s not the case anymore, and it stinks.
Pursuing Art or a More Stable Career
I love street photography, and if I could do it all day, every day, I would. That sounds like my dream life.
But I’m realistic and I know how incredibly hard it would be to make a living out of this, in any way.
On top of that, would I want it if I achieved it? Would it be stable enough? I don’t know, and so maybe it’s best to go the safe route and find a new career path and have a stable career while doing street photography for fun.
All I know is that I’m at least going to try to make street photography work on some level.
