Architect or Photographer

FM Forums \| Pro Digital Corner \| Join Upload & Sell	Search Used
end

Archive 2009 · Architect or Photographer

sbv20
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · Architect or Photographer

Hello,

In December I'll have a masters of Architecture. Right now I live in Rhode Island with dreams of moving to NYC. I'm at a pretty big crossroads - I like architecture and have done well in school, but I've also been gaining significant interest in photography lately, with more formal portrait work and my first freelance event photography job over the weekend. Photography has been a hobby for about 6 years now. So in January, I can either look to become an architectural intern, or a photographer's assistant. The architecture job would set me up for a long career, but ultimately it's 80-90% boring office work. The photography could be an exciting career driven more by self motivation and entrepreneurship, with a good amount of creativity involved, but there are probably risks involved. There are certainly many more factors to the decision than I can convey, but based on this information, I'm interested to hear your first instinctual answers, or stories of the trade from those who may be involved in both.

Thank you,

Sam

Sep 28, 2009 at 03:49 PM

stevez32
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #2 · Architect or Photographer

Full time Architecture, part time photography, if one ends up being more enjoyable/profitable after a few years go with that.

Sep 28, 2009 at 03:54 PM

davenfl
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #3 · Architect or Photographer

You can always be a photographer. You need to take advantage of your education and get some weight on your resume in the architecture field. You can always go try photography later and if that doesn't work out you have your education and job experience to carry you through life with a profession that will always be in demand.

Dave

Sep 28, 2009 at 03:55 PM

LABRIEDL
Offline
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · Architect or Photographer

Later in life you can transition into architectural photography and have the bes of both worlds.

David

Sep 28, 2009 at 03:59 PM

GeorgeM
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #5 · Architect or Photographer

Architecture first. With a good solid education that you have that type of job will produce the bucks to put you on a solid financial footing. It will also provide the funds for ANY of the toys you may need or want. Being self employed as a photographer is a whole different business model. You have to wear all the hats to begin with and that leaves less photo work and more 'boring' office work to be done.

George

Sep 28, 2009 at 04:20 PM

Micky Bill
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · Architect or Photographer

One of the best architectural photographers I knew started off as an architect, he is in the Detroit area, Balthazar Korab.
Of course it depends what you want to shoot, portraits are different than buildings. I also don;t know how much CGI is killing architectural photographers.

There are many better ways to make money than being a photographer, why ruin a perfectly good hobby by making it pay for itself.

Sep 29, 2009 at 01:01 AM

sbv20
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #7 · Architect or Photographer

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond. You all seem to be in agreement, which makes it pretty clear what I should do. Now I can focus on school, thanks.

Sep 29, 2009 at 02:36 PM

mdude85
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #8 · Architect or Photographer

"Instinctually" I would choose Architect.

Sep 29, 2009 at 02:39 PM

John Mills
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #9 · Architect or Photographer

You will probably make a better living from architecture than photography.

Sep 30, 2009 at 12:09 AM

MSC
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #10 · Architect or Photographer

Micky Bill wrote:
There are many better ways to make money than being a photographer, why ruin a perfectly good hobby by making it pay for itself.

Amen to that!

Sep 30, 2009 at 02:44 AM

SoundHound
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #11 · Architect or Photographer

Photography is just great as long as you don't try to make a lot of money with it. You paid lots in time and money to get into the architectural profession. In my dotage I am having a great time with photography. I got a very lot of creative acceleration by forgoing any pay.

Oct 18, 2009 at 03:23 AM

FSJ_Guy
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #12 · Architect or Photographer

Greg Hawkins wrote:
Every architect makes money, very few photographers make enough money to support their hobby, let alone make a living at it.

Take the architect job, get married, buy a house and cars, raise several kids, just drink the punch like the rest of us.

Sometime after the kids are born, pick up a cheap 50 megapixel point and shoot camera, buy a copy of CS10 and come back here and start reading the forums again and live happily ever after.

Despite this guy's cornball avatar, this is good advice.

Oct 18, 2009 at 06:40 PM

Andrew Villa
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #13 · Architect or Photographer

ironically, i'm the exact opposite of you. In spring I'll be graduating with a degree in photojournalism, with hopes of pursuing my masters degree in architecture. I'd really like to become an architect and do photography on the side to help me pay through school.

Oct 18, 2009 at 09:39 PM

Duncan Staples
Offline
Dedicated FM
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #14 · Architect or Photographer

You will have to work equally hard at both. Choose what you are the most happy doing. You can make a pretty decent living at both and both require a lot of marketing savvy.

Oct 18, 2009 at 09:46 PM


FM Forums \| Pro Digital Corner \| Join Upload & Sell end