We’ve all heard of the stereotype of the “starving artist,” but a new study from the UK has put the figures on this portrait, showing graduates with a degree real photographers (average) become starving artists. Research shows that photographers are not only on this list but also ranked worst for low-income graduates. Noisy.
Adzuna, a job search engine based in the UK, analyzed more than 120,000 CVs to find the lowest paying jobs in the 5 years after receiving a university degree. Research reveals that photography degrees offer the worst value for money, as graduates earn an average salary of £24,785 ($29,381) in the five years after graduation.
On the US side of the study, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports in 2021 that the median annual salary for photographers is $48,210.
Average college degree makes students graduate with a debt of £45,000 ($53,345). It seems that in the age of the “YouTube Academy,” traditional arts degrees are hard to justify.
I am one of the few who have completed a Fine Arts degree. Will my degree pay off? Sure. I have interests not only in film and digital photography but also in design, composition and art history that have significantly influenced my work. Did I say you need a degree to be a successful photographer? Absolutely not. Few of the greatest works in the history of photography have come from people with degrees in the field. Thankfully, I’m beyond the sizable salary range for research. Maybe my next post should be “Make Big Money in Photography: How to Really Do It.”
The question that naturally arises when one reads this statistic is: “why”? Why do we, as photographers, have the lowest return on investment in our education? Do we undervalue our work? Is it related to the trendy topic of “imposter syndrome”? Maybe it has something to do with our lowering of prices for fear of not closing the deal? The flip side of “YouTube Academy” is that now everyone is a photographer. We all get the answers: “Well, my cousin is a photographer, and he can do it because …” Is the increase in image quality on mobile phones? has reduced the need to work professionally or at least semi-professionally?
I’m grateful that I’m not outside the stats and that my clients see the difference in my work enough to pay more. In cases where clients want work at a lower cost, I find that guiding them through the image creation process helps them understand the price tag. I have charged several hundred dollars for a single shot on many occasions. Some charge thousands.
I find that education pushes the price from what the asker thinks it should cost a real fair price for the time and expertise that goes into creating the image.
What is your opinion? Why did the photographers fall into the painful bottom gap in this study? Is there any way to change that? Leave a comment below. Reading your input has always been my favorite part of the article.
Cheers, and happy clicking this week.
