Is mobile photography on the way to trample classic photography?

Ziv Koren: "The crisis is not only attacking veteran photographers but everyone involved in photojournalism - today you have to be 10 times more creative to make a profit as you did 10 years ago" * Dina Alfasi: "Cellphone photographers can today compete against full-frame cameras used by photographers professional"

Ziv Koren, veteran photojournalist

Is the classic photography profession on its way to disappear?
"The first deformation that the profession went through was the transition to digital photography. Photographers required much less technical work to operate the camera, use chemicals, development and move to an era of technology, software, processing. The entire toolbox changed in one day."

"This transition, already for many of the photographers, was a non-trivial process and quite a few photographers dropped out along the way. On the other hand, there was a very large number of photographers, an inflation of photographers. A place where photographers realized that they didn't have to study photography and that it was possible to enter the profession while on the go and preferred to experience in practice rather than going to study in an orderly manner in an academic setting."

"The second stage of the revolution is happening now, when the print is getting weaker and weaker, mainly financially and in terms of circulation, and citizen journalism is taking its place. This is also true for journalists, but especially for photographers. There are still many broadcasting bodies on all platforms from print and digital and social media, but on the other hand the critical mass goes to the public - much more than the professionals. And as evidenced by the fact that you see the most respected photographers in the world with several tens of thousands of followers on the Internet and on the other hand, figurative girls who have millions of followers, on a platform that was supposed to be a platform for photography - Instagram (Instagram)".

"We live in a world where two billion photos are uploaded to the professional network per day. I appreciate that the professional photographers in this ember are not even formal. The fact that content is still being consumed is not a question, the question is how one can make a living from it because everyone is both cutting their waistlines and cutting back on manpower - especially when the citizen in many cases does not need the photographer or the journalist to be exposed to information."

"Government or public bodies today produce direct communication with the citizen in a route that bypasses communication. The police spokesman prefers to talk to the citizen and not go through a journalist, for that matter. Everyone today, the police, the MDA, the fire brigade, and of course the IDF spokesman - all of them produce independent consciousness systems in which they photograph, produce and broadcast their own marketing content through social media."

"The crisis is not only attacking seasoned photographers but everyone involved in photojournalism. When I started 20 years ago working in Yediot Aharonot, we made a good living from the salary. Today you have to be 10 times more creative to earn as much as 10 years ago."

"And this is true for all types of photography. A studio photographer who photographs products in the negative era - received 100 dollars. Today 5 shekels. Once for an outstanding employee ceremony, a company invited a photographer to photograph the event. Today, we settle for someone to take a picture of it on the phone. Whole markets that just disappeared. Product photographers is something I'm not sure if still exists and this is true for any field of photography. If in the past photographers would sell still images to TV stations to be used as a background for articles - today they have no budget - they give credit. It's something that used to sell for 200-300 dollars per picture."

"The markets are becoming more and more blocked because the broadcasters do not have the financial ability to broadcast the images. Most of them find different alternatives like Shutterstock that sell images for a dollar, this vacuum is filled by very, very cheap visual sources. A significant discount was created, not to say in a more extreme word - a depletion of the profession as a whole."

Is there a solution?
"I don't want to be portrayed as a crybaby. In the end, you have to understand that the market is changing and you have to prepare for where you can take it and how you can make a living from it. Me personally, since journalism is only one niche of what I do - I have the possibility to succeed in channeling it to other places but there is a real question where we will stand on the spectrum of earning a living in photojournalism in five years. I don't know how to say."

Dina Alfasi, an employee of the Rambam Medical College and an amateur photographer wins competitions using, among other things, an iPhone X

"Once upon a time, photo contests would disqualify photos taken with a mobile phone, today they allow to compete at the same level."

"I participate in competitions and my photos are shown in exhibitions around the world. There is a large community in the world of mobile photographers and I am part of it. Little by little thanks to Instagram I got to know more and more people from all over the world, including countries that we are not in contact with but they all have a common denominator - mobile photography. Everyone with their own device."

"Mobile photography has a very large audience in the world and slowly there are also more and more possibilities to participate in competitions with mobile photos. It used to be limited. As soon as they saw a mobile photo, they would not enter the competition. I participate in the competition alongside photos taken with completely professional cameras."

What does this mean for the photography profession?
"Cellular photographers can today shoot with the most advanced cameras available and compete with full-frame cameras used by professional photographers. I think not every photographer needs a professional camera. dependent. I don't make a living from this, I am an architectural engineer in the construction department at Rambam. First of all I enjoy the photography. I try to challenge myself and reach a very high level in photography, but I'm still surprised every time I manage to be ranked next to professional photographers."

where do you shoot
I take street photos, portraits, train photos. While I'm going to work and coming back, I photograph people on the train and the bus. Two of my photo series were very successful in the world and were published."

"The fact that I shoot in these situations with an iPhone gives me a big advantage over someone who would come with a normal camera and would not get the same natural frame that people who don't notice that they are being photographed in the same situation and behave normally."

"First of all, I look for where the light is coming in, where the right angle is to capture the right light and how it will affect the photograph of the character I am photographing. Then I look for the interesting character, the interesting situation and if all these come together I manage to get a successful frame. You can see these two series on my Instagram."

What will the professional photographers do?
"They will have to reinvent themselves all the time. To show the things only they can capture, I'm sure it can still be done. Depends on the situations."

"If you are in demonstrations or battles, there is definitely a place for professional photographers who know how to take pictures in difficult conditions in the dark, when there is a lot of traffic. But if there is someone being interviewed and he is standing and talking, you can take a picture with a cell phone camera and it still comes out just fine. No one will look for how the lighting is set while he is being interviewed."

"I still think there is a place for press photographers, artistic photographers and studio photographers, but there is also a new opening for people who want to take pictures, enjoy photography and it is also possible to do it on mobile."