I am a 34 year old female. I have been dabbling in photography for few years now but nothing serious. I do some side projects at work but again, nothing serious.
Recently, there were few opportunities where I got to do street photography for our clothing collection with a few models and I loved it.
But when I go online to look for photography tutorials to expand my knowledge I realized that there aren’t many women in the field.
Is it just me? Or is this a male dominated field? Is it possible to be successful in this field as an older woman?
Not 30, but am a woman and it’s definitely a male dominated field, but also depends on the your subject focus. I’ve met quite a few commerical product photogs who are women, but as for street photography, sports, concert or nature photography the majority I’ve met are men.
For street photography, depending on where you are located safety could be a legitimate concern. Same with concert photography. I’ve been followed, harassed, catcalled etc you name it while doing both, my male coworkers shooting 10 feet away didn’t have to deal with any of that.
When it comes to gigs I think most of us in the industry know it’s a networking/connections game as well. The intentional/unintentional bias from that can factor in while hiring. I’ve had promoters tell me they never thought “someone like you [me] could take such fire pics” and when asked what they meant they straight up have said because I’m a woman lol
A lot of times when I go into a shop the guys at the counter love to mansplain basic things like ISO, even AFTER I mention how long I’ve been doing this for.
Have met a lot of male photogs who also don’t treat me any differently. But I’ve definitely noticed it’s harder to be taken seriously. Can’t really speak to the age factor but I’ve absolutely seen a lot more older male photogs at gigs compared to a handful of older women (by old I mean looking 50+)