Inside the Growing Profession of Professional Photo Management

What if the thing you love most about photography, helping people see their memories differently, could also be how you make a living?
About this Event

This session is part of Save Your Photos Month, the international campaign dedicated to helping people organize, protect, and preserve their photos before they're lost. This year's theme, "One Photo, One Story," is about more than saving files; it's about the stories behind them. And for photographers in the room, it's also an invitation to see this movement as more than just a movement: a career. Learn more about the campaign at

What if the thing you love most about photography, helping people see their memories differently, could also be how you make a living?

Professional photo management is one of the fastest-growing careers in creative services, and it's not one AI is coming for. It's built on judgment, taste, and trust, knowing which photo tells the story, how to organize a lifetime of images, and how to sit with a family and understand what actually matters to them. That's work a person does, not an algorithm. Photo managers work with families, estates, executives, corporations, and archives to organize, protect, and tell the stories behind their most important images, and photographers make exceptional photo managers, because they already understand the value of photos and the tools to simplify the process.

No two photo management businesses look the same. We'll show the many different ways professional photo managers have built thriving small businesses, from scanning and converting old analog photos and home movies to creating high-end travel photo books to helping busy moms tame growing Apple photo libraries to organizing a family's entire collection into one shareable, priceless heirloom.

In this candid, practical session, Cathi Nelson, founder of The Photo Managers, and Isabelle Dervaux, who built a thriving New York City photo management practice after a career as a professional illustrator, pull back the curtain on what this profession actually looks like. What do clients hire you for? What does the work involve day to day? What can you realistically earn? Attendees will leave knowing how to:
- Understand what professional photo managers do - and the wide range of clients who hire them
- Learn the path to certification through The Photo Managers
- Walk away knowing their next step, whether that's a side project or a full career shift

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