International Life talks to Grant Scott, editor of Professional Photographer Magazine.

Professional Photographer interviewed photographers from different industry sectors to see what kind of year they'd had and how they had been affected by the recession.

The photographers universally made the best of the last year, putting a brave face on it. Almost PR for their work, but reading between the lines you get a good impression of how badly the industry had been hit. Most photographers are probably working a couple of days a month instead of a couple of days a week, though some have picked up more work by undercutting the competition.

Many are turning to personal projects and ideas they've left on the back burner to keep things going. Great for their creative output, but income has been adversely affected.

There were no real statistics on the turnover in the industry. Such as the loss of revenue due to stock libriaries (who now sell at very low prices) or the impact of open source imagery. Open source imagery is provided by the growing number of amateur websites that offer photographs for free in return for the kudos of being published at all.

Grant correctly points out that if you have a budget it will be spent on a professional you can trust to deliver the work rather than an amateur. However many commissions no longer exist as designers can base campaigns on freely available photography, rather than creating photography to fit the campaign. Corners are being cut everywhere in the recession to save money. The quality of photographers has not diminished, but the quality of published photography has.

The industry is not just suffering from the recession, more importantly it is suffering from the development of cheaper and faster tools in photography. Effectively making the entrance into professional photography much cheaper and more democratic. Good for opening image creativity to all, but bad for the revenues of professional photographers.

Ten years ago, a photographer would have to work his way up to better equipment, now a good digital camera is affordable to all. As software gets better at improving images, this will get even cheaper and the skill level needed to take good pictures much lower.

Grant points out that a lot of photographers are moving into video as the tools are now readily available at very low cost. You can now buy a good HD camera for around £1000 and an Imac with Imovie for the same. These will give you the same shooting and editing capabilities that would have cost £100,000 ten or more years ago.

Of course this means that more and more people will be competing in the video market. Anyone in video knows that most production assistants are shooting programs that would have had a professional camera man and sound crew before. The joke amongst camera crews is that if the production assistant asks you how the camera works it's time to start looking for a new gig.

Grant rightly points out that the creative industry will always need image makers, however those images are made. It is the creative rather than technical skills that will denote the successful photographers of the next decades.

We also discussed the disappearance of black and white printers and classical printing in general. Grant highlighted the increase in camera sales and digital hardwear that has replaced these industries. For those who missed it, classical printing and Black and White in particular have all but disappeared. It remains to be seen if there will be a return to these techniques in some future niche art market. Doubtful. However sales of the replacement digital tools are increasing and bring image making into the hands of everyone.

Grant is basically positive about the industry and feels that the convergence of industries for image makers will result in new ways for generating revenue. He highlights that photographers who have been successful have become great marketeers . There is no doubt that in purely numbers terms photography is one of the  most competitive industries around. Photographers are competing against more people each year for a smaller amount of work. Marketing is essential. Grant even quantifies successful photographers as being 10% photographers and 90% marketeers. The photographer's image is as important as the images he makes. He cites the example of a top fashion photographer, where you buy into the lifestyle and glamour as much as the work.

The future of image makers will lie in the convergence of skills and the diversification of creative output. The next few years promise to be very interesting.