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Like it or not, photography is here to stay. Bold statement but allow me explain why. I would like to interpret photography as a medium of rapid consumption. Think of the last time you even spend 30 seconds staring at a photo? You probably can't. Due to its nature and the development of technology which allows us to mass produce photographs (We are talking about 1.4 Trillion photographs annually as of year 2019) and share them almost instantly to the internet, photographs tend to "expires" as quickly as it is being consumed. At the very least through my observation, almost no other mediums are made that way. Of course there are exceptions to the expiration, which is if your photographs are good enough to catch people's attention for more than 5 seconds and stuck in their brain forever or your photographs are good enough to be virally shared across the globe.
As this medium gets more and more saturated, competition rises which leads to the increase of the standard in photographs. It will continue to rise to a point where a normal photographs will have no place to stand in the market and it will require the need of professionals to make things happen. Just like old days even if you shoot a photo, you will still need dedicated professionals to develop the films for you. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and photographing equipment technology improves, photo quality will no longer be the equation as everyone will be able to produce quality photographs. So what sets us apart from this insanely advance and threatening machine thinking? The only thing that is irreplaceable will be the element of art. The decisions of when and what to capture, how to setup a set, how to light a subject will be critical rather than a standard template that makes photo looks "quality". There will be a time where the emphasis on unique vision is much more important than having a properly exposed photograph. (As of today's date, you wouldn't even need to worry of exposure anymore. AI does it for you)
Will it be replaced by video? I would say not really. It's true that videos are playing a much more important role in today's environment. It is shown in the statistics that averagely a person consumes 84 minutes of video per day where it is expected to hit 100 minutes a year from now. While video consumption grows to become a more important part of our life, I do believe photographs are still playing a major role in the niche. The art and craft in photographs can almost never be replaced by videos. Unless video technology have become so great that it can do what we manipulate in photographs or we miraculously have 48 hours in a day to consume videos in full length videos every time we need to understand something simple and short. Until then photographs will never be extinct.
Lastly, as we all chase for perfection in photographs. Please do not forget, photographs plays an important role in preserving memories, freezing moments, presenting and showcasing art. These are the reason why we do what we do. It is the only medium that offers you the true experience in both digital and physical art.
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