How many photographers are there in the world?

The number of photographers in the world may be incalculable, but at least more than 5 billion people in the world can become photographers. According to? According to the statistics of Hootsuite, by 20 17, the number of users with smart phones in the world has exceeded 5 billion. Now that the camera has become the standard of smart phones, having a device that can take pictures is already qualified to be a photographer.

However, despite the continuous growth of "photographers", the market demand has not increased accordingly, thus breaking the market balance accumulated over the years. Photography has changed from a commercial activity or a high-end hobby to people's daily life. The name of "professional" photographer has also been delegated to the people.

Our generation generally takes photos as a way to record daily life. The emergence of social media such as Weibo and WeChat enables the public to record their daily life anytime and anywhere and share it with the world, so as to find like-minded people and attract the praise of the audience. Twenty years ago, selfie was a luxury shooting behavior, but now, selfie has become the biggest daily behavior. Even in order to help people take selfies better, they invented a large number of self-portrait tools and compiled a large number of beauty apps to make themselves look better in self-portraits.

In fact, the line between photographer and camera owner is further blurred. In this era when everyone can be a photographer, what is a real "professional" photographer?

Is it the mastery and application of photography technology? Or are you thinking about the artistic expression of the image itself? Or if you have an advanced camera that can take pleasing photos, can you still call yourself a "professional" photographer?

The purpose of taking pictures is nothing more than this: recording your life and taking pictures of those moments you like; In order to gain the appreciation of others, or to make yourself famous, take those lovely photos and share them on social networks, hoping to get more attention; "producing" photos for commercialization, or for selling money; For the needs of art or humanism, shoot the picture you want to express.

There is nothing wrong with each one. As long as the photos are well taken, everyone can become a photographer, whether to gain the appreciation of others or their own recognition. But photographers should also include a spirit, which is not empty rhetoric or mysticism attached to people, but a consistent theme in the films taken by photographers. This spirit will guide the photographer to form his own shooting style and let the viewer understand the spirit of the photographer's thought through the content of the image.

A "professional" photographer does not mean a person who owns a camera, nor can he just mean a person who is engaged in commercial photography, nor can he be called a "professional" photographer because someone is famous for taking pictures.

Only from his photos can we see whether he can be called a "professional" photographer.