What’s the photo industry?

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The photography industry produces goods and services related to photography, images, and video. It overlaps with various industries and can be classified under the secondary, quaternary, and tertiary sectors. It is valuable in capturing objects, events, and memories.

The photography industry is an ever-growing sector that deals with producing goods and services related to photography, images and sometimes even video. Photography as a process can be dated as far back as the 1600s, but it only became popular during the 1800s when making portraits and preserving people on paper became fashionable. Since then, photography has become widely accessible to the masses.

In general, all industries are classified into different sectors based on the materials they use and the goods they produce. What makes the photography industry unique, however, is that its boundaries as an industry are blurred, thus overlapping with various industries. It may partly belong to the secondary sector, as the industry is also involved in the production of electronic equipment such as cameras, photographic lenses and flash boxes. It can also be classified under the quaternary sector dealing with research, design and development (RDD), as the photography industry is constantly updating its products with technological advances.

The photography industry can also be classified under the tertiary sector which hugely involves offering services instead of products, and professional photographers and studios earn an income by offering their services to cover many events. According to a February 2011 report, wedding photography is the most requested service for photography. Other services that the industry can provide are advertising and public relations. Along the streets and highways you can see large billboards displaying a company’s product, along with a famous endorser. Newspapers and magazines also rely on photographs.

Other fields such as forensics, medicine, and fashion also rely on the photography industry in various ways. The computer and programming industries have also been in tandem with the photography industry, in order to make improvements in gadgets, especially camera models. Many digital cameras already include features like anti-blink, smile detection, and facial recognition. The commercial photography industry has particularly boomed due to the many computer programs and software that can edit and modify images, brightening the light settings and even “erasing” some minor flaws in the image.

The photography industry is also a significant part of the arts and design field. Every product and service that industry produces will always be tied to the skill and creativity it requires. Ultimately, industry is valuable in its ability to capture an object, an event, and even a memory.




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