France’s Ministry of Culture and Communication released a survey titled, “Le métier de photographe” (The job of photographer). The study (il est en français) is based upon a December 2014 questionnaire completed by 3,000 photographers in France.
While the results may not be surprising to photographers, it can help to have some numbers. Here are a few examples from this French survey:
• The number of people who called themselves a “professional photographer”:
1995 – 15,400
2000 – 14,100
2005 – 18,000
2014 – 25,000 (estimated)
For comparison: Canada has about 18,250 photographers and a population of 36 million. France’s population is about 67 million.
The big increase of photographers, starting around 2005, also happened in the USA and probably also in Canada and other countries, too. Not by coincidence, 2004 to 2005 marked the launch of cheap digital SLR cameras, the Nikon D70 and Canon 10D.
In France from 1995 to 2010, the number of people calling themselves a “professional photographer” increased by 37%. In the same period, all other creative occupations combined increased by only 16%.
• In the early 1990s, about 46% of French photographers were staffers of some sort and 54% were freelancers. As of 2011, 70% were freelancers. Presumably, it’s higher today.
• 90% of photographers in France run their own business.
• 80% of photographers service more than one market, for example: press, advertising, corporate, industrial, etc.
• 59% do only photography. The rest have other sources of income either in or out of the photo industry.
• 55% saw their income decline over the past three years, 25% saw an increase and 20% stayed the same.
• Total net earned income in 2013 from all sources, whether photographic or not (shown in Canadian dollars):
43% = under $20,000
31% = $20,000 to $39,000
24% = over $40,000
For comparison: Using 2011 data, the average Canadian photographer earned $23,793.
• The most important market for French photographers is corporate photography followed by direct sales to consumers. Other areas such as press, news agencies, book publishing, galleries, stock agencies, etc. are not as important or are declining.
• Revenue earned through stock photo agency sales was very marginal. Only 3% said stock sales were important to them.
• One of the biggest problems for French professional photographers is copyright infringement.
Photographers in Canada are probably in a similar situation for all of the points mentioned.
