The development of a large pool of inexpensive, semi-pro talent will have permanently driven down the price art directors are normally willing to pay. The permanently depressed market value of the pro photographers’ skills will force many of them to develop other skills, or accept a diminished standard of living. A booming economy will certainly help simply by offering a wide array of well-advertised alternative opportunities. But adaptation to a structural shift in the economy isn’t simply a matter of finding something else that pays. It’s a matter of finding something you want to do that pays. People, like photographers, accustomed to relatively creative and non-monotonous work might find any of the available options hard to accept.
