Has Photography Lost Its Soul?

Lately, I’ve been asking myself a question I never thought I’d need to ask:

Has photography lost its soul?

With AI content exploding, gear hype getting louder, and the online world pushing us to go faster every single day… I’ve noticed myself feeling a bit disconnected from why I got into photography in the first place. Not from taking photos — but from the feeling behind it.

Photography Used to Feel Slower… and More Enjoyable

Not long ago, I took a trip to North Wales with my mate Chris Harvey. Just a chilled day out with our cameras, walking, chatting — (some of the images are in this blog) and we kept circling back to this idea:

Everything in the digital world moves so fast now that it’s almost like we don’t have time to take anything in properly.

It’s always onto the next thing. Bigger, better, faster.

And maybe that’s just the result of how easy it is to create content now. Everyone’s got a phone in their pocket, a camera in their hand… and maybe we’re just getting a bit numb to it all?

That appreciation for the craft — for the process — seems harder to hold onto.

There was a time when photography was about noticing something. Pressing the shutter and feeling excited about what you’d just captured. It wasn’t about the best lens or the cleanest colour grade. It was about feeling something when you hit the shutter.

Back then, it felt fun.
Now — sometimes — it can feel like work.

AI, Speed, and the Pressure to Keep Up

A big part of that shift, I think, is down to speed.

With AI, we can edit faster, write faster, post faster. And yes, that’s incredible in many ways. It saves time, gives us new tools… but I can’t help wondering:

Does doing everything faster actually make it less meaningful?

Maybe the answer isn’t to do more. Maybe the answer is to do less, but more intentionally. Not in terms of how your photos look — but in how you approach photography, and life in general.

Step back. Slow down. Make time for enjoyment again.

Let it mean something, instead of just becoming more noise in an already saturated world.

Chris actually talked about this on his podcast (which I’ll link below). He mentioned mental capacity, and how easy it is to burn out when you’re constantly chasing the next post, the next shoot, the next project — especially when it doesn’t creatively fulfil you.

You stop shooting for yourself… and start shooting for the algorithm. Or someone else’s brief.

That pressure to keep up? It’s real. And it’s exhausting.

Creativity is delicate. And everyone’s mental capacity is different.

You’ve got to give yourself the space to recharge — to fill the tank back up. Otherwise, you’re running on empty, and photography starts to feel like a chore.

YouTube, Gear Hype, and Losing the Plot

Let’s talk about gear for a second.

Gear videos perform. If you’re trying to grow a YouTube channel, it’s hard to avoid them — and to be fair, I actually doenjoy making them. I love cameras. They’re fun. They’re exciting.

But you do fall into a loop.

You review one lens, it does well, so you do another. And then another. Before you know it, you’re just talking about specs — not photography.

The trick, I think, is to remind yourself that gear should serve the story. It should support your creativity — not become the main event.

What I find far more interesting (and way more rewarding) is talking about what I’m shooting, why I’m shooting it, how the light is shaping the scene, the choices I’m making in composition…

All the things that actually make the photo.

So maybe we should stop talking about our gear so much — and start talking more about what we’re doing with it.

Real Photography Still Matters

Now — I don’t want this post to sound negative. I don’t think we’ve lost the fun entirely.

If anything, I feel like there’s a shift happening.
A slow drift back toward more tactile, more real experiences.

You can see it in the rise of film photography. Or how people are going back to vinyl. Or how some folks (myself included) are choosing to print their photos more often.

When I went to see Oasis recently, I took a disposable camera instead of using my phone. The photos came out… honestly, pretty rough. But weirdly, they feel more like memories than anything I would’ve shot digitally.

I saw a few other people with disposables too — and while it wasn’t a massive number, it struck me. It’s not something you see often anymore. But clearly, there’s something people miss about that slower, imperfect way of capturing moments.

The videos and photos that resonate most? They’re not always the most polished.
They’re the ones that feel something.

And I think that’s what we’re all starting to crave again — content that’s slower, more intentional, and more human.

Obviously I wasn’t at an Oasis gig to think about photography but by taking photos with a disposable camera it allows you to be more in the moment instead of looking through your phone display.

So… What Made Photography Fun? (And Can We Get It Back?)

So maybe the real question is:

What gives photography its soul for you?

Is it printing your work?
Heading out with one camera and no plan?
Noticing the way the light hits a wall just right?

For me, it’s the small moments of connection — with a place, with a person, with a scene.
It’s that feeling of being fully present. Being creative. That’s when I enjoy photography the most.

And I don’t think we’ve lost that. I just think sometimes, we need to step away from all the noise to find it again.

Maybe it’s not about going bigger, or faster.

Maybe it’s just about slowing down — and noticing again.