When I look back over the last 25 years in photography, it’s staggering how much has changed. The tools, the process, even the expectations, it’s a completely different industry to the one I started out in. As a Melbourne photographer working across car photography, food photography, and commercial campaigns, I’ve seen first-hand how quickly the ground can shift.
Back then, everything was film. Shoots were slower, more deliberate, and technical in a way that today’s younger photographers might never experience. We’d carry boxes of film, light meters, Polaroid backs for test shots, and wait nervously for lab runs to confirm if we’d nailed the exposure. Retouching meant painstaking work in darkrooms or sending transparencies off to specialist drum scanners. Budgets were bigger, lead times were longer, and the whole process demanded a lot of patience and technical know-how.
Then came digital. At first, it was clunky, early digital cameras were expensive, limited, and not yet good enough to replace film. But within a decade, the quality leapt forward, and the transition was unstoppable. Suddenly, clients could see results instantly on set. Turnaround times shrank. Mistakes could be corrected in real time. By the mid-2000s, film was all but gone in commercial work.
That shift completely changed the industry. The barriers to entry, once high, started falling fast. No longer did you need a darkroom, lab connections, or thousands of dollars in film and processing just to stay afloat. A decent digital camera, a laptop, and some editing software became enough to get started. For a new advertising photographer or commercial photographer, that meant opportunities opened up like never before. With the rise of social media and online advertising, the demand for fresh imagery exploded, and so did the number of people picking up cameras professionally.
Of course, that brought challenges. More competition, shrinking budgets, faster turnaround expectations. But it also brought freedom and accessibility. Creatives from all backgrounds could step into the space and carve out a voice. Clients had more choice, and new styles and approaches emerged that probably never would have thrived under the old gatekeeping structure. Whether it was specialist car photography, carefully lit food photography, or large-scale lifestyle campaigns, the diversity of work has never been richer.
Now we’re standing on the edge of another shift, AI. Right now, it feels a bit like digital did in the early days. The results can be rough, sometimes strange, sometimes surprisingly good. But the potential is undeniable. AI will change how we retouch, how we storyboard, and even how we generate images altogether. It’s already speeding up workflows and opening up possibilities for experimentation that were unimaginable a few years ago.
Does that mean the role of the photographer is disappearing? Not at all. Just like digital didn’t kill creativity but instead expanded it, AI is simply another tool. A camera doesn’t make a photographer, and neither will AI. What matters, and what will always matter, is vision, taste, and the ability to connect with people. The craft is changing, yes, but the heart of it remains the same.
The last 25 years have been a whirlwind of change, and the next 25 will no doubt be just as transformative. But if history is anything to go by, it won’t make photography less exciting, it’ll make it richer, more accessible, and full of new opportunities for those willing to adapt.