Photographic studio

Stafhell & Kleingrothe photo studio, 1898, in the Netherlands.

UK-based Remix Monkeys Dance Clan, photographed in a modern studio.

A photographic studio is both a workspace and a corporate body. As a workspace it is much like an artist’s studio, but providing space to take, develop, print and duplicate photographs. Photographic training and the display of finished photographs may also be accommodated in a photographic studio. Accordingly, the workspace may possess a darkroom, storage space, a studio proper - where photographs are taken, and a display room, as well as space for other related work.

As a corporate entity, a photographic studio is a business owned and represented by one or more photographers, possibly accompanied by assistants and pupils, who create and sell their own and sometimes others’ photographs.

Since the early years of the 20th century the corporate functions of a photographic studio have increasingly been called a “photographic agency,” leaving the term “photographic studio” to refer almost exclusively to the workspace.

Today many studios have sprung up to serve the ever growing media industry. Some of these studio have a resident photographer others operate mainly as a space fore hire.

References

• Art & Architecture Thesaurus, s.v. "studios (organizations)". Accessed 31 January 2008.
• Art & Architecture Thesaurus, s.v. "studios (work spaces)". Accessed 31 January 2008.