I have to start this article with a warning. It may not go in the direction you think. Now we have got that over with, let’s begin.

The number of people choosing to study photography is declining. It has been travelling in a downward direction since I started teaching in 2011. I hope the two are not connected. I don’t think they are! There are many economic and social reasons for this in the UK, but I think there is one major mistake that is being repeatedly made across the nation, in institutions with photography programmes. I’m sure it is also occurring outside of the UK.

It is this. Not explaining the importance of photography to the world today, outside of being a photographer.

There was a time, one I remember well, when it was exciting to be a photographer. An aspiration for many young people to enter worlds they wanted to join. Music, fashion, celebrity, conflict, politics, publishing, advertising, sport etc, etc. The camera was a passport to these worlds, it opened doors, promised excitement and income. There were not many courses to sign-up for, but there were enough for those who were interested in photography. That is not the case today. Today there are more courses than there are students to fill them. This is because the lure of being a photographer is no longer as strong as it once was. Why?

Where once the promise of excitement and adventure, a freelance career offered was enticing. Things have changed, students today want security and a monthly pay cheque. They have no idea about the role of a photographer before they begin their studies. They have few if any photo heroes and no understanding of the creative industries in which photography exists. This is not their fault, but it is a problem if you are attempting to turn them into a ‘photographer’, within a three year degree, of which they will only be on campus for approximately half of that time. Away from the campus, learning within semester time needs to be implemented and that requires a passion for the subject of photography, even if you have decided you do not want to be a photographer. That is not easy.

It is natural for people who studied photography and have identified as photographers for decades, to see their teaching role as a replication of their own learning and working experience. However, to consider that the study of photography is only a stepping stone to being a photographer is, today, deeply flawed. This presents a problem for universities who are currently suffering a case of schizophrenia. On one hand they are bastions of academic research, that exist as a home for learning and the love of learning for the sake of inner growth. Many lecturers feel this way. On the other hand, they are promoting themselves as places where you pay fees to find out how to get a job. Marketing teams usually use this interpretation, as it is the one which young people are using to make their decisions. The issue for photography is that there are fewer and fewer jobs for photographers.

Let’s be honest, the world doesn’t need the amount of photographers that education is producing, but it does need people who understand visual communication. Young people today do not want to be photographers, especially when they find out how hard it can be, but they are excited by digital images, social media and creativity. That is something those of us involved in teaching photography must respond to.

So, what is the answer? Well, I think there is a simple solution, but it is a difficult implementation for a sector that has been singularly focused for so long. Firstly we have to dispel the myth that the only reason to study photography is to become a photographer. We do not study law, just to be a lawyer, we do not study history, just to be a historian, we do not study science, just to be a scientist. It may happen, but it is not a predefined singular option. To change perceptions of studying photography we have to redefine what we are teaching and how we are teaching. We also need to consider who is doing the teaching. Should only photographers teach photography? I don’t think so. From my perspective photography has many touch points and as many people from these, that can share their knowledge, the better. This is one of the reasons why I have introduced the new ‘Commissioners Speak’ thread on the A Photographic Life podcast. In my opinion, photographers should not only be listening to photographers, when it comes to photography.

This is not an advertisement for the photography programme I wrote and lead at Oxford Brookes University, but it does include everything I have mentioned here, it forms the basis of that course. I am talking the talk and walking the walk, as they say. I know that what I am saying here does work and is possible. However, I also know that a lot of what I am saying, will not be universally met with positivity within academic photography circles. The problem is that by not questioning the past within photographic education, there may not be a future. A recent article on Tech Radar reported that “from 2021 to 2025, Chinese universities closed or paused 12,200 undergraduate programmes and launched roughly 10,200 fresh programmes. The restructuring affected over 30% of undergraduate programmes nationwide, and arts, humanities and language courses absorbed the heaviest cuts.” The Communication University of China has reportedly closed five programmes, among them visual communication design, comics and photography. “Traditional photography majors can no longer exist as an independent discipline… today everyone can be a self-media creator and recorder,” said Liao Xiangzhong, a top official at the University. Liao later confirmed that the majors were merged into other disciplines, instead of being cancelled outright, with photography being absorbed by film and television photography. These changes are directly informed by a state campaign to direct potential students towards chips, robotics and AI. Industries which the Chinese authorities regard as vital for national prospects. Will that happen here?

These are extreme measures, but even if they point to only a small evolution in how the photographic image is made, seen and used in the West, it is a development that I believe we have to respond to. Is this the future for the teaching of photography? I think it is. You might not like it, I may not like it, but our opinions at this point are worthless. It is going to happen whatever we may think. Therefore, you are either on the train, or left at the station and I know which of these options I prefer. To ensure we don’t get left behind is going to a require a major change in thinking about what photography is and could be amongst all photographers, including those who are teaching. I’m happy to do that, are you?

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 foto8 magazine, 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

Image: Image from Snap Happy! an exhibition curated by Annebella Pollen, Professor of Visual and Material Culture at University of Brighton, UK,