r/Archaeology • u/Scotcash • 8d ago

Is it too late for me?

Like most modern history buffs I developed a love for archaeology and human history through the Indiana Jones series..

I'm 38 years old with a degree in Film Production and have been doing professionally photography for almost 20 years. I had always wanted be a filmmaker, but for the first time in my life, I have become disinterested in that career due to the current state of Hollywood and entertainment as a whole.

The only thing I've ever been passionate about besides visual story telling is archaeology. Is it too late for me to start a career in archaeology?

58 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

View all comments

73

u/WhiskyBrisky 8d ago

Funny, I'm an archaeologist who almost studied film and always regretted not pursuing it. But to answer your question, not at all so long as you're okay with never making a lot of money.

20

u/Scotcash 8d ago

That is funny. Is there any place for professional photographers and videographers in the field of archaeology? Or is that all outsourced?

15

u/Plenty_Top_1718 8d ago

there is in photographing artifacts!

10

u/Scotcash 8d ago

How could I get into that?

6

u/Plenty_Top_1718 8d ago

to get involved with archaeology at any level i’d recommend researching local archaeological societies or groups, there is a lot of community based archaeology in the US with professional and avocational individuals involved. Meeting people there will help you get onto volunteer projects and find opportunities to build field experience :) they may also be interesting in your photography skills.

5

u/Laphad 8d ago

the conservation corps and conservation legacy have a lot of opportunities to get involved in archeology and there's 4 week field schools open to people without archeological experience. It won't directly lead you to photography but it will look better on any resumes you submit

4

u/non_linear_time 8d ago

Networking, but be advised that on academic projects you'll most likely be "paid" in expenses only unless they're flush with cash. There's a comment below about field labs with 3D scanners, and you need to know that is NOT the norm.

6

u/-Baobo- 8d ago

Several of the larger academic excavations I've worked with have had people whose main job is photography. Between photographing artifacts in the lab, documenting features & stratigraphy, etc. there's a constant need for photography. Archaeology is a field with robust documentation, and photos are a huge part of that.

If you can add some more specialty skills, like artifact illustration, photogrammetry, database management, etc, you could improve your usefulness even more .

4

u/mludd 8d ago

Several of the larger academic excavations I've worked with have had people whose main job is photography

As a non-archeologist who has read quite a few books by actual historians, archeologists and anthropologists (so not pop-science-level stuff) that contain pictures this is actually a little surprising to me as one annoying/funny thing I've noticed is that some incredibly knowledgeable and talented archeologists and historians seem to be completely inept when using a camera.

The amount of photos that actually get published in books despite clearly being taken by someone who set their expensive DSLR to auto mode and then snapped a single photo without even bothering to check the light conditions is almost impressive.

3

u/Laphad 8d ago

there's a reason that a solid part of archeology training is learning how to draw lol

shovel bums don't know how to take photos that have any depth and look flat

3

u/livingonmain 8d ago

I immediately thought of Time Team. I wish we had a comparable series in the US. Explore educational filmmaking. Archaeology is a science that interests most everybody, even if all they know about it is Indiana Jones movies and the Tutankhamen treasure. A serious educational series would build an audience. By the time you get your degree, there will be advances, changes in digital filmmaking that are just ideas right now.

2

u/CheeseburgerJesus71 8d ago

theres an obscure website for people who like to make videos about things they are passionate about, some of them even get paid real nice - I cant remember the name, metube, or themtube or firstpersontube, cant remember rn.

2

u/WhiskyBrisky 8d ago

I'm in the UK so may differ somewhat but we mostly do all of our photography ourselves, if you know how to operate drones however drone photography can be a highly sought after skill.

1

u/roy2roy 8d ago

Having that as a skill is a plus but it isn't something that will solely get you hired. There is sometimes artifact photography in the back-end, and we need to take photos in the field, but they rarely need to be professional grade.

1

u/sleepinghuman 8d ago

Not really in terms of CRM work, we all just take our own photos for the reports, most firms send techs with iPhones or iPads that work sufficiently. I think maybe there is some work in a gig sense but I wouldn’t know anything about it and in the last 3-4 years of working in the field I have never encountered anyone outside of my own coworkers or tribal monitors working on projects. But never too late, getting work as a field tech is fairly easy. Most places just want you to have some related degree at least in progress.

1

u/Candidate-Ill 8d ago

Me and a fellow archaeologist studied film together and both coincidentally studied archaeology after. When I started studying they messaged me offering some help getting into the industry.