PODCAST: AI vs. Photography—Heather Morton and Rob Haggart

The photo industry has been running on gut feelings for years. Heather Morton and Rob Haggart brought receipts.

They’re the team behind the new State of the Photo Industry Survey, a rare, data-driven look at how photographers are actually making a living, right now.

Heather is a professor in the Honours Bachelor of Photography program at Sheridan College, mentoring students entering an industry flirting with existential crisis. Rob is a former magazine photo editor and the founder of the APhotoEditor and Photo Folio, long-running platforms focused on the business of photography. If you’ve worked in editorial or commercial photography, you’ve almost certainly encountered his work.

They both live and breathe photography and after decades of guiding, teaching, and connecting photographers, they are deeply invested in the health of this industry.

What caught my attention is that the survey didn’t even ask about AI directly and yet it still shows up, especially where people feel most uneasy about their future.

This episode isn’t simplified into a pro-AI or anti-AI stance. Rather, we foster a nuanced, practical conversation about the business of photography, and the real feelings behind it.

If you’re a photographer, hire photographers, teach photography, or are trying to figure out what future you’re walking into, this one’s for you.

Links for more detail:

* State of the Photo Industry Survey [Substack, Heather Morton]

* HM Photo Prof [Instagram, Heather Morton]

* APhotoEditor.com [Blog, Rob Haggart]

* APhotoEditor [Instagram, Rob Haggart]