Is portrait photography gone? In decline? No longer popular? I guess it all depends.

It mostly depends on context. 

I'm sitting at my desk having just read a blog from a photo commentator who wrote that people are no longer interested in photographic portraits. This is not at all my experience. 

In fact, I am sitting here because I'm waiting for my swimmer friend Julie to arrive at my studio for her portrait session. This will be the 18th portrait I've taken for non-family people since the first of August. And I no longer advertise or market much for photo work. Professional people in Austin just seem to like to have current photos of themselves for things like LinkedIn, their websites, their book covers, their theater programs, public relations, speaker photos, and sometimes just because they want a portrait for their significant other. It hasn't slowed down.

I will be 70 years of age in a few months but I have approached many people half my age or younger and asked if I could photograph them. All but a tiny handful were happy to oblige. So it can't necessarily be be an ageist thing.

Most of my commissioned portraits are done for corporations. Big businesses with deep pockets and a need to maintain a human looking presence on the web. My rates for making portraits on location for advertising have gone up, not down in the last few years. A good day in the portrait business for advertising agencies, as opposed to "retail" individuals who want something for their family, is enough to cover my burn rate for a month ---- and I live in the most expensive city in Texas. 

If something was "going out of fashion" I think we'd see the trend line first in Austin. Currently the #1 city in the country for business. And a cultural hotspot for millennials and Gen Z.  But we aren't seeing anything like that. If anything businesses are looking for images that convey a sense of authenticity for their customer-facing people. People need to be represented. Good portraits are a great introduction.

Okay. So that's the business side but what about the other side of the coin?  What about artistic portraits of people that I just want to take because they look interesting, good, beautiful or compelling to me? Do the beautiful people now shun photographers? Have we become pariahs?

My recent encounters say no. It's really a very person specific thing as to whether someone says yes or no to a portrait request from a photographer. That is, specific to who is asking. We exist within networks of people. Our ability to connect is part of the equation. Our approach is important.

But first of all you have to speak to opportunity. If you live in a bustling, healthy city filled to the brim with bright and happy faces you can just play the numbers and be certain you'll find a large group of people who might want to participate in your art portrait exercise. If you live in a sparsely populated, rural area the demographic of which skews older, poorer and more conservative your mileage may differ by a great deal. The people in a region like that are less likely to see the value of a collaborative portrait exercise. 

Once you eliminate that variable you have to look to your own presentation. Do you look kind and benevolent or are you cold, stand-offish and malevolent? A happy extrovert or a brooding introvert? A "high energy" or "low energy" person? Do you fit in, culturally, with the people you want to photograph or do you present yourself as an outsider? Do you have a rationale that explains to the person you'd like to photograph what your use of the photograph will be and what is in the transaction for them? What is their benefit in sitting for you? And, in 2025 it's probably not going to be a print. 

If I lived in the Antarctic I think I might have a tough, tough time getting people to pose for me... But a major metropolitan area? One filled with other artists? Not so tough. 

I may be about to step over the line to 70 but I believe that I think younger, act younger and am well situated in my community and my work sphere to be approachable and verifiable. And the potential to verify someone in their community is important. I can point to work at the theater, work for known clients, and work on various social media sites. The best approach to invite a stranger to be photographed is to give them links to portraits on your website and social media and have a few people who like your work and can vouch for you willing to do so. Obviously, if you are mostly interested in photographing women it's best that have the ability to get references from other women who've worked with you. 

If you are surrounded by happy people you have multiple opportunities to connect. If you surround yourself with old codgers who think old you'll have a tougher time finding and connecting with the people you'd like to photograph. 

But the biggest thing is that you have to be clear about your own purpose in wanting to make portraits of people. And it should be a clarity that leads to being able to explain your desired collaboration in terms that resonate with the demographic you'd like to photograph. 

My friend, David Guerrero, is the ultimate pro at building quick relationships with strangers and photographing them in a solid collaboration. Here's his Instagram: dgphotoholic

Go look at David's samples on Instagram. He's been on that site since 2020. He has......1.5 million followers. ONE POINT FIVE MILLION FOLLOWERS. And his impromptu portrait work is amazing. Just amazing. So.... there are examples of about 800+ people who've stopped and collaborated with David. He's traveled extensively. No barriers from language, age, etc. Not just pretty women but older men and even cops.  He just does, and shows good work. David approaches strangers, shows them his portfolio on his phone and asks the stranger if they can make a nice portrait together right there and then. I've watched him work. When people see his past work they almost always immediately say YES. 

I think his magic, if there is such a thing, is that he believes people will say "yes."

Portraiture is not dead but if you are showing work that might compete with very old portrait styles you may be using the wrong lures...

Here are the important things that help with successful engagements:

Population density

Prosperous demographic

Well educated prospects

A city with a tradition of people getting out in public

A beautiful set of samples to show

A nice, unthreatening demeanor

An honest approach

Those things should go a long way into breathing life into modern portraiture. 

Is it regional? Or is it a difference between a tech forward, urban population and a somewhat isolated, rural population? run the numbers.