More Information About Photography
A photographer records events and tells stories using images. He or she takes pictures of people, places, events, and objects. Photographers often specialize in a type of photography. Portrait photographers take pictures of people in studios or on-site at various locations. Some take school portraits or baby pictures. Commercial photographers take pictures that are used in books, advertisements, and catalogs.
Photojournalists, also known as news photographers, capture images that are usually used to illustrate stories on television news broadcasts or in newspapers or magazines. Aerial photographers take pictures of landscapes and structures from aircraft. Fine arts photographers sell their photographs to the public as pieces of art.
Many people who work in this field are freelancers who operate their own businesses. In addition to taking pictures, their job description includes tasks that business owners must tend to including promoting the businesses to clients, purchasing supplies, hiring and supervising employees, and taking care of financial matters related to operating a business.
Quick Facts
Photographers earn a median annual salary of $32,490 or $15.62 hourly (2017).
Over 147,000 people work in this occupation (2016).
More than half of all photographers are self-employed as freelancers; others work for companies that provide photographic services, broadcast companies, and publishers.
While the job outlook for self-employed photographers is excellent—employment will grow faster than the average of all occupations between 2016 and 2026 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—others working in the field won't fare nearly as well. Employment for them is expected to decline during the same period.