What I am about to say here is subjective but based on experience. It contains a specific suggestion but it is not a command or an advertisement. It is an option and one you may not have considered. What I am about to say here is simple, but often gets confused. My intention in writing this is to help.

It is a dream for many to have a career as a photographer or to at least make money from photography. This is something I have been involved in for over forty years. Twenty-five as a commissioner of photography and twenty-five as a professional commissioned photographer. I know that makes fifty but there was some overlap. I have spent fifteen years teaching photography and even wrote a book on the subject The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography. Therefore, I think I may have something of value to say.

I see and hear a lot of misinformation and ignorance concerning the transition from photography as a hobby or enthusiasm to professional practice online. Much of this is a result of ‘Chinese Whispers’ where information is relayed by the uninformed to the uninformed and in that process identified as fact. Sometimes this is done in good faith occasionally deliberately to encourage the sales of inexperienced photographer led workshops and online courses. A case of the near sighted leading the blind.

Some want to make money selling prints. Others want to get commissioned by brands and magazines. The majority want to photograph weddings, domestic portraits and local events. All areas of practice that require specialist knowledge of engagement and expectation. Knowledge that can only be gained from those who are currently engaged with those areas or have been recently. The world of photography is in constant flux and evolution. Therefore any information received from those not engaged is dubious at best. Often incorrect and occasionally dangerous. Dangerous because it could and can lead you to wasting your time and money with a potential negative impact on your mental well-being.

The biggest mistake is to listen to ‘experts’ on social media. To believe that what you are reading is true and that those posting their beliefs have your best interests at heart. Mostly they don’t. They will be looking for you to like, subscribe and engage for their benefit not yours. To benefit financially from inexperience.

That’s the basis of education I hear you say, and you are right, but it is not regulated, established pedagogy. It is subjective opinion based help and should be viewed and understood as such. It can be useful, but should not be considered as gospel.

To understand professional photography you have to accept that it is a business, but it is not your business. It is the business of the commissioner that you are interacting with and therefore they set the rules. You can decide if you want to play the game by their rules, but if you don’t, you won’t get commissioned. All clients have a visual problem they want you to solve. If you and your work fit their brief it’s all good, but don’t think you are in charge. They hold the purse strings.

Overtime it is possible to build mutually respectful relationships with clients and therefore repeat business but it is important to accept that your most recent photographs may always be your past for those people. You always have to be on your game and supply the strongest work you can. There is no room for ‘bad days’. Professional photography is tough.

You will never be commissioned on the basis of what you could do, only on what you have done. Commissioners will not risk their money and reputations on a gamble and will be looking for images on your website that you can replicate for them. However impossible that may seem. Clients will be drawn to you because you make work similar to what they use and like not because of what you think they should commission.

If this sounds like a minefield of negativity you are right and wrong. All I am doing here is laying out the rules of the game. The client is the boss. Agents only take on successful photographers and take a big commission on every job. Galleries are similar. Magazines have very small budgets and advertising is becoming increasingly seduced by AI and will control every tiny detail of every shoot. All commissioners will expect you to understand visual storytelling, collaboration and be empathetic to their needs. Those are facts which those engaged with the medium know.

So, how do you understand that game? Well, you need to learn from those who know. Who are open and honest about their experience and who are not afraid to deliver the truth however difficult it may be to hear. From those who know when to put a metaphorical arm around your shoulder and supply a similar polite shove when required. If you are able to find all of this in one package you have a good chance of getting where you want to with your photography. Because I identified this need I personally wrote and launched a course at Oxford Brookes University. An online MA with an international cohort that allows the students to set their own learning journeys and outcomes that gives access to the very people they need to hear from, but can’t access. The students on the course come from a wide variety of geographic, economic, social and academic backgrounds. It’s a democratic open church that the students seem to love.

I am sure that other similar opportunities exist. I am only writing about mine as I believe in it and I know that it does exactly what it claims to do. If you want to talk more with me about it by clicking on this link and setting up an online conversation with me. I’ll give you time and space to ask any questions you may have and hopefully I’ll give you the answers you want and need. www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/professional-photography

That’s the end of the advertisement. I’m not writing this to sell you anything. This website and the A Photographic Life podcast are not created to make money. They don’t! In fact they cost me to produce and host them and I’m good with that. It means that I can share information for free with no agenda. However, there is only so much you can learn through these platforms. You can’t get one-to-one feedback on your work, you can’t get support on creating bodies of work or potential contexts for that work. That’s what a good structured, well informed course can offer. I should add that the MA employs me, and therefore I get a salary from Oxford Brookes, but it is a successful course that has doubled its MA student cohort in just one year. I also lead the BA in Photography. I am not desperate for students, but I do want to make you aware of what we do at Brookes as it may be useful to know your options.

So, if you are thinking of making a change in 2026 in how you and others see and engage with your photography take a moment to breathe. Think about what your end goal is and talk if you can with those who are succeeding in the area of practice that you want to develop. Alternatively you could talk to me! It won’t cost a penny and it may be the start of a new life you have yet to consider. Happy New Year!

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2026