Supporting the careers of talented Canadian artists, aged 35 and under, working behind the camera

Meet this year’s winners and discover their works

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 20, 2023 /CNW/ – Until January 7, 2024, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) presents works by the three winners of the 2023 Scotiabank New Generation Photography (NGPA): Hannah Doucet, Wynne Neilly, and Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez in an exhibition organized by the NGC in partnership with Scotiabank and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Through videographic and photographic works, the three artists explore the many challenges in contemporary representations of the body, identity, culture, and history. The works on display were produced between 2019 and 2023.

The public is invited to discover the exhibition in the company of the three artists during a special edition of the Gallery’s free Thursday evenings, this Thursday 21 September from 6 to 7 p.m. EDT in the exhibition space C218. To take part and visit the Gallery for free between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. EDT, simply book your ticket online. The presentation of the exhibition and Meet the artists are supported by the Scotiabank Photography Program at the NGC.

“The National Gallery of Canada is delighted to celebrate the vision of talented artists at the beginning of their careers. We are grateful to our colleagues across Canada who have nominated artists whose work deserves to be known. Our partnership with Scotiabank and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival plays an important role in giving impetus to younger generations of artists from communities from coast to coast,” said Jean-François Bélisle, NGC Director and CEO.

“With great visual sophistication, care and curiosity, the 2023 Scotiabank NGPA winners demonstrate the continued power and significance of lens-based images to both probe shared concerns and anxieties and offer new insights into negotiating an image-saturated culture,” said Andrea Kunard, Senior Curator, NGC Photographs Collection, NGPA Jury Chair, and curator of the exhibition.

Winnipeg-born Toronto artist Hannah Doucet explores how society deals with childhood illness by invoking fantasy and wish fulfilment. Through images, videos and an installation, she revisits her wish trip to Disney World at the age of 10 after two years of treatment for lymphoblastic lymphoma. In her brightly coloured, saturated work, featuring friendly mascots and motifs borrowed from children’s animation, Doucet draws critical attention to the corporate messaging conveyed to children about illness and its focus on living life “happily ever after”.

The intimate portraits presented by Toronto-based queer artist Wynne Neilly pay homage to his queer and trans subjects and highlight the strength of the ‘chosen family’. Each of the large-format portraits is presented alongside a photograph of a natural or urban landscape that, like his portraits, underscores Neilly’s meditative approach to image-making. 

Vancouver artist Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez is interested in the shifting meaning of the photographic image as it passes through different times and contexts. The works exhibited here originate from a box of photographs by an unknown photographer taken between 1987 and 1993, which he bought in a Mexican bookstore. Rodriguez combines these photographs with images from his personal archive. The installation includes a video work featuring two of the artist’s colleagues who examine the photographs looking for clues that would allow them to define the unknown person depicted.

Launched in 2017, the Scotiabank PNGP was created in partnership with Scotiabank and rewards outstanding work by Canadian artists aged 35 and under working in the photographic arts.

About the National Gallery of Canada
Ankosé: Everything is Connected / Tout est relié

The NGC is dedicated to amplifying voices through art and extending the reach and breadth of its collection, exhibitions program, and public activities to represent all Canadians, while centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Ankosé—an Anishinaabemowin word that means “everything is connected”—reflects the Gallery’s mission to create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, one another, and our diverse histories, through the visual arts. The NGC is home to a rich contemporary Indigenous international art collection, as well as important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian and European art from the 14th to the 21st century. Founded in 1880, the NGC has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years.

To find out more about the Gallery’s programming and activities, visit gallery.ca and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. #Ankose #EverythingIsConnected #ToutEstRelié.

About the Scotiabank Photography Program at the NGC

The Scotiabank Photography Program at the National Gallery of Canada embraces digital content creation, education, exhibitions, the NGC initiatives Leading with Women, and Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award. The National Gallery of Canada’s photography collection is one of the world’s most comprehensive holdings of photographs and related materials. It represents the entire history of the medium, revealing and reinterpreting the most important stories of our past, present and future.

About the National Gallery of Canada Foundation

The National Gallery of Canada Foundation is dedicated to supporting the National Gallery of Canada in fulfilling its mandate. By fostering strong philanthropic partnerships, the Foundation provides the Gallery with the additional financial support required to lead Canada’s visual arts community locally, nationally and internationally. The blend of public support and private philanthropy empowers the Gallery to preserve and interpret Canada’s visual arts heritage. The Foundation welcomes present and deferred gifts for special projects and endowments. To learn more about the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, visit ngcfoundation.ca.

SOURCE National Gallery of Canada

For further information: For media use only– For more information, to book an interview, or obtain images, please contact: Josée-Britanie Mallet, Senior Officer, Media and Public Relations, National Gallery of Canada, [email protected]

Rumors about upcoming cameras and lenses are a staple of the online photography community. Manufacturers nearly always hate them and photographers often love them. I land somewhere in the middle but tend more toward the idea that rumors, even when intriguing, can be damaging.

Take, for example, the brand-new Nikon Zf, a camera that had been rumored for a long time. Heck, Nikon itself accidentally posted a reference to the Zf on its Japanese website in early August. However, the rumors of the retro-inspired Zf began long before that.

Some of these early rumors are the impetus of this edition of Clipped Highlights because initial speculation pointed to a 45.7-megapixel full-frame camera — a rumor ultimately proved false.

Rumors Can Establish False Expectations

In an post in late July, Nikon Rumors said that a 24-megapixel camera announcement in 2023 would be “strange” and that the most likely choice for a retro-styled full-frame Z camera is the 45.7-megapixel sensor from the Nikon Z7 II. Nikon Rumors also stated that the price of the new camera would be in the $2,000 to $2,500 range.

At this point, people could reasonably start to think, “Oh, wow, a 45.7-megapixel Zf camera for just $2,500? Incredible!” Of course, the Nikon Z7 II is $3,000, so a $2,500 price for a nearly 46-megapixel Zf seems doubtful in context. The idea of it coming in at $2,000 is downright absurd.

This point was addressed in the comments on that rumor post by Jurgen Lobert, who wrote, “At $2,000-2,500, this will NOT be a 45 mpix camera. Too much competition to Z7/Z7ii/Z8/Z9. Makes no sense.” Some people pushed back on this reasonable comment, and many more took the article itself at face value.

About a week after the referenced post above, Nikon Rumors returned to the Zf rumor well and course corrected, stating that a 45-megapixel full-frame retro mirrorless camera for $2,000 “sounds too good to be true,” introducing new uncertainty and skepticism to the online discourse.

Roughly two weeks later, Nikon Rumors posted a long list of rumored specifications for the Zf, now listing the camera’s correct 24.5-megapixel full-frame image sensor, like the one featured in the Nikon Z6 II.

However, you cannot unring the bell.

Laying the Groundwork for Disappointment

Even though much of the reporting on Nikon Zf rumors has since focused on mostly accurate specs and features, floating the initial idea of a 45.7-megapixel camera for $2,000 or $2,500 established unrealistic expectations, setting some people up for disappointment.

And disappointment is just about the last thing that a camera company, especially one as passionate about its products as Nikon, wants people to feel when it does finally officially announce a new product. A product, in this case, that the company is especially proud of. Nikon’s pride is not unfounded, either, as the Nikon Zf is a very interesting and powerful camera.

Most people seem to be responding positively to the news of the Zf, too. But still, I can’t help but lament that there will be people who expected one thing and received another, to no fault of Nikon’s. This situation is by no means unique to the Nikon Zf, either, it happens with cameras from every manufacturer. There are always rumors, and some of them are inevitably wrong — frequently wrong insofar as the rumors are better than the eventual reality when it becomes official.

Several years ago, a similar situation took place around the Sony a7R IV, where the hype and buzz was so strong that rumor sites were posting just about any nonsensical rumor that floated across their desks — including a last minute report that the camera would feature 8K recording. That was, of course, never going to be true and Sony wouldn’t add 8K to the line until the a7R V.

People who read these rumors presumably put some stock in them. Otherwise, what would be the point? Rumors are always framed in the context that there is reason to believe that they are true, even if there is always the chance they are not. They are not just the wishful ramblings of someone with no real information — they are published from a position of some, albeit incomplete, authority.

I’ve been that typical rumors reader many times before. When a new product is announced that does not quite live up to the rumors and hype, I feel a tinge of disappointment. Of course, I have nobody but myself to blame.

It is certainly not the fault of a camera company. Cameras take years to develop, and by the time the rumors start floating around online, engineers are well on the way to making a different product altogether. There is no opportunity for camera makers to react to features, specifications, or prices that people start clamoring about online.

It is important that Nikon Rumors is not at fault here either. The website does not publish rumors as facts and frames rumors as unconfirmed speculation. Besides, the site only exists because people like me click on it.

I’m Part of the Problem

PetaPixel is not opposed to rumors. We occasionally write about them, albeit only from extremely trusted, reliable sources. We ignore many more rumors than we cover, including not covering any Nikon Zf rumors.

When I first got into photography more than 15 years ago, I was checking Nikon Rumors daily. I still visit the site often and read the other major photography rumors sites too. Speculating is fun and reading rumors is entertaining. But there is a cost to these rumors.

I wonder about the impact of rumors on photographers at large. The appetite for rumors is driven, at least in part, by the desire to have the latest and greatest equipment. Poring over nitty-gritty technical details is so far-removed from taking photos.

Perhaps it is not the rumors themselves that I am talking about here, but rather what sort of people have this incessant need to constantly think about what comes next. What is the next camera, the next lens, the big new feature, the revolutionary advancement?

For me, I used to read rumors because I wanted to think about what I could buy — or desperately want to buy — next. I wanted to know all about the next shiny new toy on the horizon.

The effect this had on me is twofold. One, I was so busy thinking ahead that I missed out on opportunities to enjoy the gear that not only actually exists, but I personally owned and could be using at any given moment. Two, everything I owned seemed a little more tarnished in the face of constant reports of some new model. Again, this is my own doing. I was a dumb kid with more money than sense, and my passion for photography left me with no money to spare, so you can easily deduce what that says about my reservoir of reason.

These days, I read rumors for entertainment and out of genuine curiosity. I have sold considerably more gear than I’ve purchased in the past five years. “The next great thing” doesn’t matter to me like it used to, but it still matters a lot to some people.

I am not trying to dunk on any website for publishing inaccurate rumors about the Nikon Zf. That is very much part of reporting rumors — they are sometimes wrong. I would know, having reported on rumors about the iPhone 15 last month that proved only partially accurate — a sugarcoated way to say that I reported on something that was wrong.

For what it is worth, Nikon Rumors publishes great content in addition to rumors. The site covers official announcements about all things Nikon and photography, shares some brilliant photography from its readers, and offers an excellent community for Nikon fans to gather and chat. Nikon Rumors was also heavily involved in the early reporting of the Nikon Z8 strap lug issue, something that Nikon ultimately addressed.

This was not the first nor will it be the last time that the popular website covers important news that benefits Nikon owners. In fact, at their core, I think Nikon Rumors and other rumor sites are, or at least started out as, basically love letters to specific camera companies.

How Rumors Affect Camera Companies and Photographers

All that said, having worked closely with camera companies, I’ve seen firsthand the negative effect that rumors, whether true or false, have on the people working for manufacturers.

A lot goes into designing, engineering, making, and announcing new cameras and lenses. When a new product is revealed, it is the culmination of years of hard work by hundreds of people, all with unique roles to play.

When a rumor is false, especially when it suggests something better than what ultimately comes to market, it hurts the people behind the product. Even when a rumor is true, it steals some of their thunder.

It is thunder that they deserve to experience in full; something I am grappling with on a personal and professional level as I write this, having covered rumors many times.

Rumors also harm photographers who get riled up in excitement for something that proves to be nothing more than wishful thinking. As I know all too well, it is challenging not to get caught up in the hype. Of course, controlling hype is primarily the responsibility of those who consume content, not the ones who create it.

Assuming that rumor sites are not stealing content or gathering it illegally or immorally, they are arguably not doing anything wrong. Some of their sources almost certainly do something illicit, but that is a different story altogether. Besides, I have covered rumors and will likely do so again, so I should not start hurling stones from my glass house.

Nonetheless, when a camera like the Nikon Zf is finally announced after months of rumors — some of which missed the mark — there is a shadow, perhaps only a faint one, cast over what should be a day of celebration on behalf of photographers and a huge sigh of relief for the many people who worked hard on the product.

Having spoken with many product designers, engineers, and managers over the years, one thing they all have in common is that they genuinely care about what they make, and they put a lot of stock in how photographers react to their products. Something else they all share is that for a variety of reasons, rumors bother them.

While it may sometimes feel like companies are not listening to us, I assure you they are. They see the same rumors we do, they read some of the same comments, and their laser focus on the photography community is never stronger than when they unveil something new.

For better or worse, most enthusiastic photographers are like me and read the rumors about new cameras and lenses long before they are announced. These rumors shape our expectations and affect our perception of products before they are unveiled, sometimes to the detriment of the people behind the gear we love.

If there is interest in rumors, there will be rumors to read. When these rumors are false, an inevitable part of any rapidly-spinning rumor mill, there will be harmful consequences. The same love for photography and camera gear that makes rumors irresistible is the same passion that ultimately sets all of us up for disappointment, even when real products are anything but a letdown.

This story is part of PetaPixel’s weekly newsletter Clipped Highlights.

What is Clipped Highlights?

Clipped Highlights is a free, curated, weekly newsletter that will be sent out every Wednesday morning and will focus on a few of the most important stories of the previous week and explain why they deserve your attention. This newsletter is different from our daily news brief in that it provides unique insights that can only be found in Clipped Highlights.

In addition to unique takes on the biggest stories in photography, art, and technology, Clipped Highlights will also serve to feature at least one photo series or art project that we think is worth your time to check out. So often in the technology and imaging space we focus on the how and not the what. We think that it’s just as important, if not more so, to look at the art created by photographers around the world as it is to celebrate the new technologies that makes that artwork possible.

If this kind of content sounds like something you’re interested in, we encourage you to subscribe to the free Clipped Highlights newsletter today. You can read this week’s edition right here, no subscription necessary, to make sure it’s something you want in your inbox.

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We’ll also make sure to share each edition of Clipped Highlights here on PetaPixel so if you aren’t a fan of email, you won’t be forced to miss out on the weekly newsletter.

Image credits: Nikon

Above: The Paralympics by Patrik

During his stints with various martial arts, as well as hockey and basketball, he figured out that he loved being behind the camera as well, which led him to study at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Patrik’s affinity for sports, combined with his love of action and cinematic composition, inevitably led him to his current career.

He has repeatedly worked with Nike, adidas, Universal, New Balance, the US Army, NFL, Amazon and plenty more world-renowned brands. He has also photographed some of the world’s biggest athletes including LeBron James, Michael Phelps, Andy Murray, Christiano Ronaldo and a plethora of celebrities during his work shooting portraits in LA.

During the time Patrik started shooting for sports, the industry looked very different – equipment and technology were nowhere near where they are today, and most content was shot on film, which restricted the way sports looked for audiences. But he was always an innovator. Patrik has managed to combine his old-school persistence with a novel, open-minded view on sports in commercials and photography, to ultimately create his instantly recognisable, cinematic style, putting the athlete front and centre.

LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to him to find out the secrets of sports photography, what makes him click, and how he infuses sports with his own vision of beauty and strength.

Above: Patrik

LBB> Tell me about your childhood and how it shaped your interest in creativity and sports. Did you always know this is what you’d be doing? 

Patrik> Growing up, I was into all sorts of sports, I ran around trying out as many of them as I could. I loved watching all the sporting events such as the Olympics – these competitions always interested me but then, as I got a bit older, I became exposed to creativity. I started watching movies like Star Wars. I then wanted to pursue a career in movies but people kept telling me there were other, more secure ways to make money, so I got a degree in electrical engineering. However, throughout all of this, I never really stopped connecting with my creative side. I was photographing things by myself, learning how to shoot black and white, taking a couple of courses and overall just gaining lots of knowledge. 

LBB> Do you believe that your own involvement in sports throughout your life informs your filmmaking style and why? 

Patrik> Yeah, definitely. First of all, sport taught me not to be strict, but to be very focused. I have definitely brought that focus, and determination to succeed in the filmmaking world. My style has been influenced by sport as I love the intensity and the action. Even when I shoot portraits, I always want to try to highlight the athlete, find that edge to them. Whatever photograph or image I’m working on, from a megastar to just the regular dude on the street, I want to make them look incredible. 

LBB> When did you discover your love for the camera? 

Patrik> As I started to watch films, I was like, ‘oh, I want to do that too’. Then I got interested in fashion because I had been around a lot of it when I was a little kid living in Italy – my dad is Italian. I started seeing all this photography, and I wanted to create beautiful images. 

That was the beginning of my photography for me – shooting fashion. There was no talk of sport, but what I noticed when I was doing fashion was how cool it was, the way the models moved through the shot. It’s not about just standing still and striking a pose. I was interested in their movement. I liked to shoot them in action, rather than just having them standing still. This then led me to capture dance. I love it to this day. It’s just beautiful to see the dancers move through the frame. 

LBB> You went to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena – how did that change the trajectory of your career? 

Patrik> When I went to the Art Centre I had already been working in Europe – I worked in Sweden. I decided to go back to school, which was a little bit of a culture shock. What I noticed, by going back to study, was that I gained so much more in-depth knowledge about all the disciplines. I learned how to develop film, how to shoot properly, and [about] composition. These are things that I didn’t know or hadn’t learned about before going to the Art Center. 

I was still doing sports, but at that time I had stopped doing it on a grand scale because, after 10 years playing for the national [ice hockey] team, it had taken its toll on my body. So I just played for fun. To this day, I have suffered a lot of injuries, which still pop up from time to time, so I had to switch to golf – it’s way easier. 

It took a little while for me to find my focus – why and what I wanted to shoot. The Art Center was brand new in the US and I thought I was into fashion, however, I didn’t do any fashion there. Fashion was not that great in LA at the time, there weren’t that many big brands and so this is when I started to photograph celebrities. I got hooked up with an agent who got me work shooting celebrity portraits.  

Shooting for celebrities in the late ‘90s to early ‘00s started to feel a little bit boring. There were some interesting projects, but it was always the same – looking into the camera, beautiful lighting and so on; it didn’t feel new. There was a formula that most people used, there were some people who shot really beautiful portraits but they didn’t have the lighting quite right. Whereas I was always thinking about novelty and different ways to use light, to create depth and atmosphere. 

LBB> How did your style look at the time and what were your earlier inspirations? Have some of them remained the same? 

Patrik> At the time I really liked Anton Kornberg, the way he was shooting black and white, love letter printing. Corbett and Peter Lindbergh were also two photographers who caught my eye. There were lots of people but for me, photography was not as much of an inspiration as film was. I love watching movies, and in the movies I saw moments that could work really, really well in photography. Then I started looking at filmmakers. They deal with life very differently to photographers. They create a cinematic move that moves through space, this is when I thought – I can do that in a similar way, but with photography. 

LBB> What is your favourite sport to direct and why? And what is the most difficult? 

Patrik> One of my favourite sports, obviously the one I’ve done a lot of, is ice hockey. I like martial arts too because of the action and speed. It doesn’t matter what kind of martial art it is, I like it because of the mood it portrays. Back in the day, the cameras weren’t that easy to use. We had to shoot everything on film, and there were not enough fast lights available to shoot at high speed, so you had to try and shoot in a bright environment. We started with strobes back then and with Hasselblad cameras – it was a little harder. 

For me, it’s all about timing – anticipating what is going to happen, I have to be a split second ahead of time. Therefore, when I’m capturing sports, my experience of having done the sport is very helpful. I know first-hand what that move entails. I can anticipate the movement of what that still image will be, or what the action will be if I’m going to capture the end-to-end process of somebody jumping through the air. This is an incredible feeling and skill to have. 

Above: The Paralympics by Patrik

LBB> What are some basic differences between directing other categories and sports? What are some things people who want to go into the category should know?

Patrik> I would say that working with action is totally different to working with portraits and still images. It’s much easier today, due to modern cameras that can rapid-fire. Once you start lighting and you want a certain look, it takes time. It’s about intuition too, finding the right moment to take the pictures. 

When shooting sports, I do a lot of very simple, small-scale tests. I guess that it’s due to my background and discipline in actually participating in sports where you always need to train before game day. You don’t want to be in front of a client and go, ‘What do we do now?’. One big thing when you shoot sports celebrities is that if anything goes wrong with that person, you’re liable for millions of dollars. So, you have to learn how to work fast, and know exactly what you need to get in a very, very short amount of time. 

You have to be totally on it, and have alternative plans. What can often happen is that you may ask an athlete – such as Ronaldo – to run around the pitch and dribble with the ball, and they might decline, as their leg is bruised or whatever. So then you go to your plan B. 

Most sportspeople don’t want to be photographed. However, if you get them to move and play the sport that they love, it doesn’t matter if they don’t like the branded clothes they’re being asked to wear, as it’ll be fun and they will pop a smile. You’re going to get expressions you didn’t expect to get. When they’re doing what they love, they will relax. 

The sad part nowadays is that you’re lucky if you get an hour – it’s usually much less. The most important thing is that you need to know exactly what you want to shoot, because they will change it. 

LBB> To you, what is the importance of composition in sports photography? 

Patrik> I’ve always liked 3D environments. You can play with depth of field, you can play with what’s in front and what’s behind the subject. It’s a little bit harder in a studio with one person, than it is shooting on location. To me, form is what’s in the background, what’s in the foreground. I always think about what I can blur to make the eye focus on the subject first. There are so many different ways that you can do this – relighting, composition, depth of field. 

LBB> What importance do light and sound play in sports content and why? How do you use them in your own work? 

Patrik> Lighting is everything in still photography and sound design enhances the whole image that you have in front of you. When it comes to directing, it makes it much more interesting when you have amazing sound design. Lighting and sound design work together all the time, and you can play around with it depending on the subject and what you’re trying to achieve. 

Above: The Paralympics by Patrik

LBB> What do you prefer – directing moving or still image when it comes to sports?

Patrik> I love to get that single image that looks amazing. When the athlete is in action, or the way they look at you while they are doing their sport. You get that moment when you just connect with the athlete, this is really interesting in the photography world. When it comes to motion, I like to get the vibe of the whole set up, everything that’s going on with and around the subject. With stills, you focus on the moment and with moving images, you focus on a sequence in a single moment.

They’re two different formats. For example, imagine Ronaldo taking a shot; in a still he’d be mid-air, kicking the ball. LeBron would be hitting an amazing dunk. Whereas, in a video, I can edit him dribbling through a couple of players and the ball would be flying through the air, then I’d switch to a close up on his face as he flies through and kicks the ball. It makes it interesting in a different way, it’s hard to match the coolness that you get with stills. 

LBB> If you had to describe your work in three words, what would they be and why? 

Patrik> Moody – because I love playing with lights and I love to shape bodies with lights. That’s what comes with 3D environment, 3D thinking. No matter what it is, I love the whole mood in the image, it is so important. 

Strength – especially when it comes to sport, to show the body’s strength, how they move, how well trained the athletes are. 

Beauty – as I always try to make it look beautiful. Everything’s got to look gorgeous or fantastic or impactful. 

LBB> Is there any particular camera equipment used for filming sports and what is important to be noted about the gear in the category? 

Patrik> Obviously high speed shooting helps a lot. Nowadays, with drones and stabilisation systems, you can film the athletes as if you are right in there with them. 

A light camera is always useful, because once you shoot action, you don’t need the highest quality, you just need a really good camera that can follow the subject and it’s light. This then allows you to be in the action with them. 

I use a lot of RED and ARRI cameras. What I like is RED Komodo. It’s awesome because it gives that vibe of being in with the athlete. And sometimes I even go small, like Sony FX3 cameras, they’re super light and super easy. I haven’t used GoPros as much but sometimes I do. They have a specific place and are used more for adventure, high-action stuff. However, it’s interesting to use GoPros because I can put them anywhere I want. 

Above: Jason Momoa by Patrik

LBB> How has the category changed in the past ten years and what do you expect to see in the coming ten? 

Patrik> There are two major things. One is obviously time. The biggest thing that has changed in the whole industry is time. There’s no doubt about it, it makes things way more challenging. We often only get 30 minutes with an athlete, sometimes 20 minutes. It’s hard when you want to do some really cool stuff, then we find out how much time we actually have! That’s the biggest difference between now and 10 years ago. Another thing is equipment. It’s got a lot better, a lot lighter, and now it’s all digital. It’s just freaking awesome!

And when it comes to the next 10 years – we recently did a shoot on an LED volume using virtual production – a lot of TV shows are going in this direction. In one day, we shot four different stadiums  that we created digitally. We actually built the stadiums digitally, allowing us to shoot basketball, ice hockey, baseball and then gymnastics. Virtual reality will help a lot with allowing us to shoot athletes without us or them having to travel. 

LBB> With more women in sports and in sports advertising, is there something to be said about filming women in sports – are there still prejudices that impact the way sports ads with women in them look, or are these being slowly pushed out? 

Patrik> I definitely feel like it’s being much more pushed out, especially lately. It all depends on the countries and their ideas and ideals about women. Different countries have different ideas about sports as well. For me, I’ve always shot women in the exact same way as I shoot men. You want to show the same strength and determination. It doesn’t matter who’s in front of the camera, it’s about how good they are at doing what they do, that’s all that matters. I definitely feel like prejudice has been pushed aside much more, especially in the US and Europe. 

LBB> What’s the coolest thing on the horizon for you right now? 

Patrik> My friend and I are in the process of making a short film written as a three-part movie series. We have lots of options for it. Hopefully we will get it going in the near future. This is what we’ve been looking to do, it’s full-on action. It ties in with the sports world, but it’s more like ‘John Wick’ meets the samurais. I’m using all my skills and knowledge from sports and adapting it.

It’s no secret the camera industry is highly volatile, but the bigger story lies behind people still buying and using cameras in 2023. Whether you’re a pro or amateur photographer, the landscape is changing rapidly from year to year. As camera manufacturers increasingly prioritize video users, is the market starting to move away from photographers?

Who’s Still Buying Cameras in 2023?

It’s difficult to get reliable insights on the relative market sizes of professional and amateur camera buyers. If we use Zenfolio’s 2023 The State of the Photography Industry report as a guide, 88% of respondents consider themselves professionals in the photography industry, leaving just 12% declaring themselves as hobbyists or students.

I find it hard to believe that’s an accurate representation of the whole market, but insights from Allied Market Research support the theory that most camera buyers are professionals. They also support recent comments from Canon that both pro and amateur markets are growing, although the amateur market is growing faster.

Canon specifically mentions the “advanced amateur segment” as a key target market in 2023 and beyond.

Even more telling are comments from the major camera manufacturers, as published by DPReview. At the 2023 CP+ Expo in Yokohama, Japan, the industry leaders made one thing very clear: camera manufacturers are “laser-focused” on content creators, driving the market forward.

If the decision-makers at Canon, Nikon, etc. are right about this, their primary target market is no longer photographers, amateur or pro. Instead, they’re going after content creators who are mostly interested in video: YouTubers, vloggers, influencers, etc.

Video Driving the Camera Market Forward

If 75% of kids want to be YouTubers when they grow up, camera companies have to the content creator market seriously. The great illusion in this space is that anyone can pick up their phone and start making money from content. Of course, only a fraction will make a serious career out of this and the percentage will get even smaller as more people enter the space, but this doesn’t really matter.

When almost everyone owns a smartphone with an internet connection, the entry barrier couldn’t be much lower. You don’t need to come from a rich family, pay for years of acting school or study medicine for half a decade to enter this space; you don’t even need to be of working age.

In terms of career aspirations, content creator is the new actor, doctor, astronaut – and everything else – all rolled into one, ultra-accessible industry.

For camera manufacturers, their products will be ready for all the aspiring creators who want to step up their production quality. Of course, they’ll still be there for professional photographers, too, but we have to anticipate a change in priorities if their forecasts about the creator market materialize.

Photography as a Niche Within a Niche

In a world where most cameras are smartphones, dedicated cameras are already a niche product. If video is taking the lead, then photography is becoming a niche within a niche, and this raises a lot of questions for stills shooters. Most importantly, how much will cameras and gear, in general, pivot away from the priorities of photographers for the sake of video production?

For example, will the average camera body grow in size to allow for larger batteries, cooling fans, and video accessories? Will lenses get larger and more expensive to reduce focus breathing and other issues that mostly affect videographers? You could argue that this is already happening if you look at the latest mirrorless hybrid models and lens refreshes, especially from Sony and Fujifilm.

Camera equipment is one thing, but what about the photography market itself? Going back to the Zenfolio survey from before, the sentiment among photographers has improved since the peak of the pandemic, but the outlook isn’t great: 39.4% of photographers say business is slower than expected (down from 63.8%).

If the photography market continues to shrink while camera manufacturers profit from content creators, the shift towards video will only accelerate. Photography’s commercial value has plummeted in the digital age, despite a surge in demand for imagery. An online publishing boom didn’t do much to help, either, instead fuelling a market for stock photography.

Now, the digital publishing industry is on its knees and big names are increasingly turning to free, AI-generated visuals to fill space on their pages. At this point, it’s difficult to see the business value of photography increasing in commercial spaces.

Obviously, some types of photography are more susceptible than others. You would hope a genre like wedding photography is more robust than most, but who can guess how long people’s appetite for realism will outlive the fantasy offered by filters, composites, VR, and other technologies?

Let’s face it, reality plays such a small role in people’s projections of their lives now that we can’t overestimate its value. Not to mention the fact that, if everyone’s growing up to be content creators anyway, couples will be shooting and live-streaming their own weddings before too long.

Do Photographers Need to Follow the Market?

If the camera market is moving away from photographers, it would clearly have an impact. At the very least, it would affect the new gear options hitting the market and, by extension, it would probably change our photographic processes, to some extent.

That being said, the bigger issue is the photography industry itself. If the commercial value of photography continues to decline, fewer professionals will be able to rely on it as their sole source of revenue. At this point, pro photographers will either have to follow the market or supplement their income from elsewhere.

If the major camera manufacturers are right, following the market would mean getting more involved in video. We’re already seeing more photographers enter the “creator” space with YouTube channels, and this could become the norm for new people entering the industry.

Of course, the most important thing is that photographers continue to earn a decent living with their craft. That being said, if hoards of photographers follow the market’s move towards video, it would further devalue the pro stills market for camera manufacturers. A self-fulfilling prophecy would vindicate manufacturers’ prioritizing video and, potentially, leave amateur photographers – who don’t have the pressure of monetizing their work – as the last segment representing stills photography.

As long as the photography market remains large enough (pros and amateurs), camera manufacturers won’t be able to ignore it. The risk is that, if enough pro photographers get sucked into the video market, the stills-only market could lose its most valuable customer base.

For a long time, fear was growing that the camera market would shrink to the point that gear would become an expensive, luxury niche. Instead, it seems the camera market is leveling out, and it’s photography that’s becoming the niche, as its commercial value wanes and manufacturers set their sights on a new customer base.

The auction house is offering an eclectic collection from Pier 24 Photography, including anonymous snapshots of Lucky Luciano and 1880s baseball players.

Soren Goldsmith grew up in the backyard of the forest and wetlands of Belmont, Massachusetts. After years of exploring the Mass Audubon’s Habitat Nature Sanctuary and Lone Tree Hill nature preserve, Goldsmith began his nature photography journey five years ago. Today, he advocates for that same land and is expanding his conservation and photography work in college.

“At first, it was just about getting cool photos of the birds and mammals that lived there, but as I went on, I became much more conservation-minded,” the teen photographer tells Feature Shoot. “It was a photo I took of a coyote at night that made me realize how powerful photography can be. By revealing the unseen wildlife that exists in protected lands, we can help people connect with them, and inspire people to protect them. It’s very powerful stuff.”

Goldsmith uses camera traps, which automatically trigger with movement, making them useful for wildlife photography without scaring off the animals or disturbing their habitat. He started the project at 17, using a grant from Mass Audubon that allowed him to purchase the camera traps, which cost $2,000 each. But first he had to sell the organization on his vision, despite the group never having given money to a photography endeavor or anyone so young before.

It appears to have paid off. Earlier this year, Feature Shoot reports, Goldsmith was one of the National Geographic Slingshot Challenge winners, which is open to anyone aged 13-18 with ideas on how to solve environmental issues.

But Goldsmith is not simply recording snapshots in the wild. He shares with PetaPixel that his priority is for his images to have a purpose.

“Most recently I’ve been trying to take my photos with the widest lens possible so that I can effectively reveal an animal’s environment,” Goldsmith tells PetaPixel. “I think it can sometimes be hard for a viewer to personally connect to a landscape. Intimate photos of wildlife are easier to connect to. That’s why I try to include wildlife as the subject of landscape style shots. Doing this allows me to document a threatened habitat in the most compelling possible way. It gives people an individual animal to root for and something to connect to.”

Now, his environmental passions have led him to protect the wilderness where he found his passion for nature photography.

The woods and wetlands of Belmont, Massachusetts, face the threat of development from Belmont Hill School, which owns the land. While the wetlands are protected, the school reportedly plans to build a parking lot and facilities building around that area. This, Goldsmith argues, will affect the habitat and animals that live there, some of which are threatened species.

“It is inevitable that the construction of a parking lot in this area will result in harmful runoff into the wetland. In my opinion, what they are planning to do should be illegal. It will forever change the landscape of the area,” Goldsmith explains to Feature Shoot.

And while the wetlands have some protection, the forest is completely vulnerable to being destroyed. There is a change.org petition organized by Belmont Wild, a coalition made up of local resident opposing the construction, with more than 2,800 signatures at the time of this writing.

Goldsmith’s work showcases the animals that call this area home.

“One of the things I try to do in my photography is depict animals as individuals, not ‘just another coyote,’” he tells Feature Shoot. “Consider the hundreds of animals that live in the forest every single day. They all have individual lives and thoughts. If the coyote that lives in that forest dies, there will never be another one like it. He’s a unique individual.”

Though Goldsmith is attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study environmental engineering, he is not leaving photography behind. The photographer tells PetaPixel he wants to continue the work he started in Massachusetts in Wisconsin.

“There are a lot of really interesting things happening here related to conservation and research that I’m excited to get involved in. The main project I’m starting right now is with the UW-Madison newspaper. I’m focusing on urban wildlife in a photojournalism project and specifically human-wildlife interactions.”

Goldsmith says he looks to get more involved with photojournalism and wildlife storytelling. His future project goals include documenting wildlife in American old growth forests, innovative conservation efforts that don’t usually get a spotlight, and getting into photographing freshwater underwater ecosystems.

To that end, he says both engineering and photographer are extremely important for conservation.

“Engineering can cover the technical side of a conservation problem,” Goldsmith tells PetaPixel, “While photography can promote it. Both tools work together to provide an effective solution. For example, compelling photographs of threatened wildlife can help inspire people to protect them. If people are inspired to protect them, it’s easier for conservationists to get funding to solve that problem. Engineers are needed to solve complex conservation issues. In other words, photography is the vessel by which conservation efforts (and engineering challenges) are brought into existence and seen by the world.”

Image credits: Soren Goldsmith

My so-called career started in the mid-70s in the punk era. I was 17 when punk arrived and its spirit influenced me profoundly. Anyone could play music or be a photographer – anybody could be anything. One of my first pictures was of Joe Strummer. I tagged along with a journalist friend and knocked on his motel door. A week later I was hanging out with the Jam in Malmö. I worked for many years as a rock photographer, and then as a photojournalist in Nicaragua and South Africa, but today I mostly work with classical musicians. My photographs try to bring that rock’n’roll energy into classical music and opera.

This photo was taken on a sunny day in Stockholm at the Drottningholm Palace theatre, part of one of the Swedish king and queen’s residences. It’s a fantastic 18th-century building, a Unesco heritage site which hosts an opera festival each summer.

I work there often so I was given exclusive access to use the backstage areas. I love this place. I even made a book about it many years ago, and I know every corner of the theatre.

I was shooting the cover for Martin Fröst’s Mozart Clarinet Concerto for BIS Records, and we chose the location because we wanted the ambiance of something old and beautiful. The theatre dates from the time that Mozart was alive. Fröst is arguably the most famous clarinet player in the world and we’re good friends. He loves to be photographed, which is convenient for me. You could call him vain but, like the Beatles, he knows the importance of a strong image.

We were shooting backstage but Martin was really stiff. He might like to be photographed but he’s overly conscious of how he will come out in the pictures, so it’s hard to get him off balance. When I shoot dancers I always want to catch them off balance to capture the movement. Similarly, portraits need to be captured in this in-between.

I had heard that fashion photographers get models to make lots of faces and move around to get relaxed, so I told Martin to start jumping about. We’d been taking photos in the shadows because the sunlight coming through the window was really harsh. I started photographing him as he was playing around making silly faces, and snapped this as he stepped into the sunlight.

The second I took it I was thinking, “I hope this comes out well.” I looked in the camera afterwards and it seemed really freaky. My favourite part of the picture is his eye: a little black dot. It has always reminded me of Edvard Munch’s Scream. It also reminds me of my most famous photograph, Iggy Pop giving the middle finger. The composition is similar but instead of the middle finger there’s a clarinet.

This crazy picture didn’t make the album cover. BIS are conservative, and it was felt that the audience for classical music are as well. But it was the biggest picture of my exhibition Mats Bäcker Classics, where it was blown up to a 2×2 metre print. Martin was at the opening at the Concert Hall in Stockholm and thought it was great fun, he really likes it. There’s a good photo of me and Martin standing in front of it, screaming back at the photo.

I only found classical music later in my life. The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm put an ad in the paper saying they wanted a new photographer. My friends urged me to apply but I thought it sounded boring. I remember thinking, “Why would I work at an opera house?” But I did apply, I got the job, and the first opera I shot was Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. I had no idea what it was about but I was in tears while shooting because I was so touched by the music and the story. It was mind-blowing. I remember thinking that I’d photographed hundreds of rock concerts and never been touched by anything like that.

Opera is very photogenic, the body language and stage design are grand and the light is fantastic – it’s served on a plate for me to photograph. I stayed for 10 years at the opera and then went freelance, shooting stages all over Scandinavia. Since that day, dance, opera and classical music have been my life.

See more photographs at matsbacker.se and @matsbacker on Instagram

Mats Bäcker’s CV

Born: Hagfors, Sweden 1958
Trained: MA in Photography at Konstfack, the University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm.
Influences: “Irving Penn, Anton Corbijn, Pennie Smith”
High point: “Quitting my job at the opera and starting to work as a freelancer again.”
Low point: “Getting depressed during my last few years at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. I got bored shooting the same stage every night”
Top tip: “Look. Practice. Specialise. Immerse yourself in what you are interested in, then you will take good photos.”

Yerevan, Armenia

Police guard the government building from protesters calling on the prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, to resign, after Azerbaijan’s military operation against the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region

Photograph: Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images