Technology today seems to make everyone a photographer. The introduction of inkjet printers and digital cameras in cell phones seems to make everyone believe they can contribute to the royalty-free market. While I encourage the gospel of photography and love to see new photographers evolve, the evolution of a slow photography market didn’t start recently with the current economic state and the evolution of digital cameras. Though it should take some credit, the real dilemmas facing photography started before digital cameras in the late 1970’s when the first one-hour mini-labs entered the market, thus creating a slow, chain reaction as photographers and the photo industry today scramble for new ways to survive.

When the first mini-labs entered the market, from the Nortisu QSS systems to the smaller KIS systems, the face of photography changed. Some may argue it all started with the Canon AE-1 a few years before, but in realty, the AE-1 only forced camera manufacturers to spend more money on research and development for cameras that provided more than manual modes of operation.

These one-hour, photofinishing, assembly-line machines opened the door for a new market, initially mom and pop photofinishing labs that would evolve into photo studios (by offering passport photos and baby pictures), photo copying factories and even camera stores. The long-standing camera stores, which rarely made profits on actual camera bodies (low turn-over inventory items) and only on point of sale and peripherals products like filters and frames were either forced into photofinishing and adding their own photo studios, thus ultimately competing against their own customer—the professional photographer. [Read more...]