This week I fell prey to having a project cancelled, for the first time, attributed to the credit crunch. Sadly, online forums tell the story that architectural practices are indeed beginning to feel the pinch, with my client at least not in the position yet where they are having to lay off staff. While my business may suffer in the next months, at least I am not in that terrible position of having to make staff redundant. The business of being a photographer is very much one of ‘ducking and diving’ and keeping a basket full of different eggs.With that in mind, I’ve begun to work harder on the interiors side of my business, being joined by Fleur Brady my new stylist, who has brought some great touches to my recent shoots. The best advice I can give to anyone who wants to enter photography as a career is to do make work and invest in your photographs instead of the latest digital gadget. Fleur and I have put our time and money into some of the new interiors, and in the end, this is the best way to boot up a new income stream. In some ways photography is the easiest business in the world. Just produce photos people want to buy, and you are off. (I am being glib).

Recently I heard an anecdote about Irving Penn, and I was fortunate to get up close and personal to some of his vintage platinum prints. Being close to the prints was like being bathed in an iconic aura. Still, its a powerful message to realise that he fell out of favour with clients for a long time and the great man spent many years in the business wilderness, with little work coming his way. During that tough time, he worked away in the darkroom producing his incredible prints. This reminds me that while you may be down, you ain’t out until you tell yourself that you are. If Mr Penn can have many tough years and survive, maybe we can be inspired to make it through the coming recession with creative results. There is always personal creative work that can be done, even if the commissions are fewer, and once you have your digital camera, there’s no film costs to hamper personal project work.

While I think we are probably just at the beginning of this downturn for architects and photographers alike, I think that if its not the beginning of the end, at least we have reached the end of the beginning. The news from America this morning gives me great hope and I applaud the US electorate for reinvigorating democracy. No one person has the answers to some of the problems facing us, but perhaps we are lucky today to have on the world stage a new statesman.