Can one be a pro landscape photographer anymore?

[Drew Wiley]

I had a couple of very well connected people try to rep me, but I simply couldn't keep pace at my end. They had the ability to sell significant quantity orders, but I wasn't willing to risk my health messing around with that much color chemistry at one time. I pace both Ciba and RA4 very conservatively or risk sensitization,
and additionally, print only during seasons when I can run the drums completely outdoors. I don't regret that decision, given what I've seen happen to certain
other people. Black and white doesn't have that limitation, but when I started out and I got a lot of early traction by strictly printing color. That was kinda the thing
then; but now, with the glut of color inkjet work out there, it seems black and white is gaining a lot of appeal again. I intend to do both going forward.

[dsphotog]

Roman Loranc seems to be doing ok.

[Drew Wiley]

He's doing OK because he is willing to live in a low-rent rural inland area and keeps to a very simplified workflow in terms of materials and equipment. Trying to make it financially here on the more temperate coast would be a completely different story. But due to that, his first body of work featured a part of the world most other photographers neglected - out in the miserable clammy dreary, deadly tule fogs of the Central Valley. That's not the friendly enveloping soft fog we get here on the coast. It's oppressive and very dangerous to drive through unless you carefully time things. Glad he kept at it and got enough traction to spread
his wings a bit. Some of his European work is superb too. Of course I have no way to guesstimate his actual income, but even with the degree of recognition he's
gotten, he'd probably be homeless around here. But when it can be 115 degrees in June some of those places, it can be 55 here. So go figure just how bad you
really want that photo career!

[dsphotog]

You're right, low overhead is a must in a low profit industry.
I knew Roman when he got his first 4x5 camera, he had a very supportive wife paying the bills until he got established.
A while after he "made it" they split up, and he moved to Weed, an even more rural area than Modesto.

[njrfoto]

"To tell a photographer that they could earn a living selling personal work would be just cruel." There are exceptions, though. My advice would be to keep your day job, keep working at photography, and, maybe, some day the balance will shift and you'll be on your way.

This is all too common a reality these days sadly... One can hope, dream and wish for the state of play to be like it was back in Ansel Adams day... imagine...

[Kodachrome25]

Talented shooters with focus and resolve are going to make a fine living off of creating dynamic and immersive landscape photographs.

And haters are going to continue to hate.

[jbenedict]

This is all too common a reality these days sadly... One can hope, dream and wish for the state of play to be like it was back in Ansel Adams day... imagine...

Remember, AA did an awful lot of rote commercial work in his career. Unless one has a wealthy benefactor, that is pretty much how it has always been in the arts.

[Drew Wiley]

AA was well well past Social Security age by the time he could have hypothetically made a living as a fine art printmaker. Even his famous picture books didn't
break even. His trust did make a ton of money after his own time.

[Jim Andrada]

I was visiting a friend who is also a very good photographer and he brought out a portrait of himself that had been done by St Ansel. He said his parents had St Ansel do portraits of all their children.