We're back!
2026 State of the Photo Industry Survey Relaunch
Rob Haggart and I connected almost 20 years ago (he was an anonymous, at the time, Photo Editor sharing inside peeks at the photography industry from somewhere deep in America and I was an agency Art Buyer trying to do the same in Canada). We have stayed in touch, bonding over our mutual and confounding passion for the intersection of art and commerce. We have both dedicated significant time to this niche and vexing question: how does one build and sustain a successful and fulfilling photography career?
Why are we so invested?
Who knows (I have some theories) but y’all win and we’re thrilled to announce that the State of the Photo Industry Survey is back and better than ever for 2026!
It was always our intention to run this survey annually. One year of data (that you’ve all been privy to—if for some reason you haven’t subscribed and received the Executive Report, make sure you do so) is great, but having comparables will allow us a whole other level of understanding.
Here are some exciting new lines of questioning in the 2026 survey:
We ask for both net (did that last year) and gross earnings for 2025. This will give us information on the average take home earnings—cross referenced against nationality and rep status… 👌🏻
We ask the direct question: Did you do better in 2025 than 2024? Pretty self-explanatory but an important measure.
But then let’s actually compare the levels of net income between 2024 and 2025 and see what’s really going on.
On the comparables theme, between 2024 and 2025 do we see:
A change in average creative fee?
Shifts in approach to charging usage?
Mindset changes (queried as Optimistic/Neutral/Pessimistic about the future)?
Though we consciously avoided an AI-related question last year, it’s definitely included this time around.
In feedback sessions, photographers wanted a question that asked respondents to think holistically about their career choice—amid the doom and gloom, there are many amazing elements of being a professional photographer. So we ask about that too.
And another excellent suggestion was to ask about the percentage of inquires to bookings. Added.
And there are several more tweaks and opportunities that this survey will enable. The data will be rich and super informative but only if folks fill it out.
Please do the survey and share in your networks—you can find posts about the survey on Instagram at @hmphotoprof. 1067 respondents last time around allowed us to have a good look at some crucial aspects of the business. Even more will be… even more.
Head to the link here: https://sheridan.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cYNyjLtriH7Uybk
It’ll take about 15 minutes and, fair warning, it’s helpful to have a few numbers with you as you do it (or some accurate guesses); particularly: net and gross income, days worked, and your top genres. Survey closes June 1st. Results to be shared summer 2026.
This study has been reviewed by the Sheridan Research Ethics Board and received ethics clearance: SREB No. 2025-03-001-005