Is it worth it to minor in Photography or major?

In the 1970s I attended a workshop in New York City to learn photographic lighting and other skills that were essential for being a professional photographer. The instructor noted how difficult and complicated photography was at that time by saying "if it was easy, everyone would be doing it." Well, now that photography is digital and complicated lighting is not as essential, it seems everyone is doing it. While there may be the need for a few highly skilled photographers, in advertising for example, there just isn't much business that pays enough for a photographer to make a decent living in my opinion. After years of working on assignment for magazines, I did primarily stock photography of world travel and for about a decade earned a six-figure income. But digital photography and the internet caused that industry to collapse. Images that could once be licensed for hundreds of dollars, many over and over again, now pay only a few dollars and seldom sell at all with millions of images competing on the internet. As for assignments, those became more scarce as well.

My advice to my own children was to go into the medical field and leave photography as a hobby. Once you could struggle for a decade to get a photography career off the ground and make it succeed. Now I'd be very skeptical that it could be done without someone financially subsidizing your career. I've led photography tour groups of lawyers, doctors, and business people, many of whom were excellent photographers, to countries around the world. They could afford the travel because they were educated in fields that provided very good incomes. And they could afford workshops and photo tours to improve their photographic skills.

So my advice would be to get a degree in a marketable skill and learn photography on your own and through workshops. You'll probably enjoy it more if you don't have to struggle to make a living at it.

I would recommend that you schedule some time with one or more professional photographers as share days. This will allow you to get a firm idea what life may be like as a professional photographer. It can be very rewarding, creative, and even lots of fun. It is also highly competitive in many areas of photography and may take several years for you to network efficiently and build your portfolio. I would recommend that you major in a related field that you have interest within and minor in photography. Many photographers struggle with areas such as marketing and business, consider these as majors. Of course, if you have a company that wishes to hire you straight out of school that would prefer that your major is photography, I would say definitely more forward with that major.

Hey Brayden,
You ask is it worth it to major, or minor, in photography. I guess I would ask you, "what do you hope to do with a photography minor/major?" What are your interests? Do you want to be a professional photographer?
So, here's what I would suggest. Determine what interests you at this time in your life. You can change your mind as you move forward. Making a living in any of the arts is difficult. I suggest you pick a major that allows you to get a job and make a living. Use your photo minor to pursue photography as an addition to your regular job. Then, if your desire to shoot for a living is your true passion, you can explore ways to make that happen without starving.

Hi Brayden,

I was neither a minor nor a major in photography and I'd do it that way again.

I say this because doing photography as a business is just that - it's a business and it requires communication skills, appreciation of art history, a bit of psychology to understand concepts for advertising and branding, and a lot of organizational (and even math) skills. So take what interests you. There's lots of time to learn to take pictures.

Plus, there's no right and wrong way to shoot. You make a vision your own and that doesn't always come from school. You can see my work at my commercial photography website www.davidshopper.com. I took two photo courses in college, but the rest was just doing it and assisting/interning for some great shooters. Start working on your vision now!

Good luck!

I would need to know more about your end goal in order to comment on the route I would suggest.
I can say that any and all information and education you can gather, process and implement is a good thing.
Photography entails knowledge and insight to almost all aspects of life, so just living each day doing something with a sponge type of absorption will make you better at photography and life enjoyment. Good Luck - CHEERS!

I love photography and do it as a hobby. I'm not sure what the market is to make a living from photography. You can but it is very competitive. I would suggest you minor in photography and major in something you enjoy and can know you'll make a living at. Then you have this vision. If you can make a living as a full time photographer great, but if not you can do it part time and make a full time living doing something else in the meantime and build towards a full time photographic career. Good luck to you