Photography is an important part of the world in which we live. Without it there would be no pictures in newspapers and magazines, we would have an Internet full of words only, and movies and television would be only a dream. Without photography most of our scientific efforts would come to a halt, for photography is the ‘All-Seeing Eye’ of health and science. Also our defense efforts would be seriously crippled; missile, outer space research, satellite weather forecasting and surveillance would all be affected, because they all depend on photography in so many ways.

All of this means that photography is very important, and, because of its widespread importance, there are many opportunities for rewarding careers within the field photography. In fact, the United States government has forecast that careers in photography will grow 35% between now and the year 2010.

A prerequisite for a career in photography is training and experience in a much broader arena than photography alone. The commercial photographer, for example, is a businessperson as well as a photographer. A newspaper photographer is a journalist and a photographer. A magazine photographer is also a journalist, but of a different kind. The architectural photographer must know architecture to photograph it intelligently, and a photographic engineer must be capable of understanding the engineering problems they are helping to solve. In short, photography is not a career in itself, but is part of a career; a career that involves much more knowledge and experience than image making alone.

The broad field of photography today offers a wide choice of career opportunities, each with many worthwhile areas of specialization. The portrait photographer, for example, may specialize in child photography, wedding photography, or in portraits for publication. The commercial photographer may select buildings and construction, fashion, food, furniture, etc. The photojournalist may make pictures of today's news for daily newspapers or produce picture stories involving several months of research and photography for a magazine. A local television photographer may work for one or more local or national outlets. The opportunities are endless!

In all areas today, except for freelance work where a high degree of personalized service is rendered, large organizations are gradually taking over a greater share of the available business. For example, there are several organizations making school pictures that do tens of millions of dollars worth of business each year. In addition, there are chain portrait and boudoir studios with branches all over the country. Similarly, the photofinishing industry has almost wiped out the small local photo lab with highly automated plants with large managerial and operating staffs.

All of this results in a shift in the kind of opportunities available in the field. The individual portrait photographer finds it hard to meet the competition of the large, widely publicized organizations. But within the organization itself the number of job opportunities, such as in management and technical supervision, is on the increase.

But working for a large organization is not for everyone. That’s why many photographers find their own 'niche' and profit from fulfilling that 'niche'. There are local portrait photographers who can and do compete with the larger, well-publicized companies. There are local custom photo labs that can outperform even the largest chain of photofinishers. Many a photographer has started out working from their apartment to find themself in a lucrative studio business a few short years later. What makes all this possible - what makes all these opportunities endless - is neither our industry nor the professionals within it. It's you, the person looking for a career in photography!