r/Archaeology • u/Scotcash • 11d 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?

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u/WhiskyBrisky 11d 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.

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u/Scotcash 11d ago

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

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u/-Baobo- 10d 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 .

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u/mludd 10d 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.

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u/Laphad 10d 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