What will the future look like? How will industries be affected?

I have a simple theory of what everything will follow. It all comes down to the history of images. This is the ideal industry to follow and one that epitomizes what technology does.

For this reason, I believe most industries will travel a similar path. Thus, understanding the route that images took is crucial.

In this article we will dig into it, showing how the deflationary nature of things affected things such as cost and access.

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The Future: Following The Path Of Pictures (Images)

Our research starts a couple hundred years ago. If we go back to that time, what do we see when it comes to images?

Obviously, we are dealing with paintings. People did not get their picture taken. Rather, they posed for portraits.

As we can guess, this was a tedious process. The individuals had to post. At the same time, it required specialized talent to paint these portraits.

The result was the fact that very few had their "images" taken. When we look through history, what portraits do we find? There are military leaders. Royalty. Heads of state. Wealthy individuals or aristocratic familes.

Due to the specialized nature of portrait creation, the shortfall of talented individuals, and the cost associated with it, the average person was left out.

The Camera

Things changed a bit with the camera. Unfortunately, there was a time lag. Introduced in the 1840s, even by the late 1800s, we were still dealing with a specialized realm.

Again, the early pictures were of the same ilk as listed above.

We saw a change by the Great Depression. Technology had advanced with both ease of use and cost. Actually, the former tends to feed into the latter.

Photographs of poor individuals suffering through the Great Depression became fairly common. The cost was more affordable, although it still existed.

This carried on through the 1980s.

I recall buying film for a few dollars. There were a certain number of exposures, commonly around 20. This was followed up by the cost to develop the pictures. There were companies that serviced this part of the market. Nevertheless, it was still about 20 cents per picture.

We saw a change once again in the 1990s.

Digital Camera

Kodak invented the digital camera in the 1970s. Unfortunately for them, it viewed itself as a film company.

The Japanese companies garnered market share with the digital revolution. By the turn of the century, a significant portion of the photos taken were digital.

Steve Jobs put another spin on the industry with the rollout of the iPhone. This quickly became the best selling smartphone on the market, a device that had a camera built in.

This was a major shift in that people didn't even have to buy cameras (or iPods) anymore.

The obvious advantage to digital cameras was the absence of film. This removed the cost associated with buying and development of photos. From this perspective, it was free.

We also saw the expansion of the Internet. This led to free distribution of pictures. People were able to post images on things such as Facebook in the 2000s. This spread in ensuing decades with the explosion of Instagram, Twitter, and messenger applications.

Abundance

What is the result?

Today, we have abundance. There are over 3 trillion photos taken each year. They are posted and distributed through hundreds (if not thousands) different mediums. Millions can view a single image, while also helping it to go viral.

The variable cost is effectively zero. It is free to take a photo, store it, and share it. Some might have a carrier (data) charge of some sort, but that is it.

We also have a situation where few have dedicated cameras. This narrowed to professionals and hardcore enthusiasts. The majority of the population use their phones, a device purchased for reasons other than the picture taking capability.

Automated Production

Up to this point, we are dealing with images that were taken in the presence of the individual. For example, to get a picture of the beach, one has to physically be there to create the photo.

This is changing. Generative AI is really starting to take over this field.

Today, it is possible to get a high quality photo created by AI. Image generators are becoming very popular. There was a time when photographers took photos that were sold for companies promotional materials or brochures.

As we can guess, generative AI completely disrupts this. The marketing department, with a bit of skill, can generate whatever photos are required to convey the message sought.

All of this means we are dealing with another step in the abundance. It is also a major deflationary force. It keeps sending the price down even more.

I can get a unique, never seen before image of the Eiffel Tower without ever leaving my home. There is no need to travel to Paris to get it.

Certainly, there is a difference from the experience standpoint. However, when focusing upon the production, distribution, and cost, this is the model.

It is also what I think most industries will follow. I write often about the death of Hollywood. Again, this is on the same path, albeit a bit slower than photography.

Robots are going to introduce another layer to the equation, one that takes physical products and puts them on the same curve. Photographs were able to explode due to the fact they were digitized. Obviously, this is not the case for everything.

However, the physical world will be forever altered (and abundant) through the introduction of robots. There we will see things broken down, such as cars becoming rides. Automation accelerates the creation why causing an explosion in the numbers.