Using online platforms to find work is increasing in many occupations but a QUT case study of photographers’ reluctance to use them shed some light on why many Australian workers prefer standard pathways to employment
The gig economy is characterised by digital platforms that connect buyers, those who need work done, with sellers, people who provide labour or services online.
New QUT Business School research shows not all workers embrace these new opportunities, says Dr Penny Williams, who with Professor Paula McDonald and Dr Robyn Mayes, studied why some workers, in this case photographers, are reluctant to use digital platforms to find work.
“Digital platforms are said to provide workers with new opportunities to find work, make money and work flexible hours,” Dr Williams said.
“We have seen a proliferation of digital platforms catering to photographers such as Oneflare, ImageBrief and Snappr, because most photographers are self-employed or freelance and their work can be irregular,” Dr Williams said.
“It seems likely that photographers would see digital platforms as a useful way to generate income.”
She said photographers had a variety of platforms, which operated in different ways, from which they could win work.
“Some allow them to upload images for royalty-free sale, others provide links to their services, or ask for quotes in response to a photo shoot brief,” Dr Williams said.
“Newer platforms in the industry offer direct booking services at pre-established prices. Photographers pay a subscription to list their services and receive a booking or a quote request.
“We surveyed 51 photographers of whom 55 per cent had deliberately avoided platforms, 25 per cent were listed on platforms (two of these had not received any work), and 20 per cent were past users, most of whom had left because they had not received work from the platform.”
Dr Williams said the researchers found photographers believed digital platforms damaged the sustainability of their profession.
“Photographers felt that digital platforms often restricted their ability to develop quality, long-term client relationships while damaging their creative reputation and driving down the level of their income,” she said.
“Some felt the time, resources and costs involved in a platform-derived job outweighed the potential for income generation.”
“For these reasons, photographers resisted seeking work through many digital platforms – although some types of platforms were considered less damaging than others.
“Photographers are motivated to develop a creative reputation and social relationships with clients that bring repeated work over time and so the way a platform influenced this worker-client relationship, determined how likely photographers were to use the platform.”
Dr Williams said predictions of large numbers of Australian workers choosing to access work via digital platforms had, so far, not come to fruition.
“This study suggests that digital platforms may not be effective for photographers and other creative workers whose work differs from the transactional services provided by other platform workers such as delivery workers (Deliveroo) and taxi drivers (Uber).
“This research shows that the way platforms function is likely to have significant but different effects and usage by particular groups of workers.”
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