"Cracking angry jokes about school-photo prices has become something of a parental pastime. If families buy in, those with multiple children might spend upwards of several hundred dollars each year. Those with one kid could still have to fork over more than a grand by high-school graduation. In the packages I've looked at, if parents want just one photo to post on social media, it'll cost them $65-the price of a single digital download, no physical prints included."
"Polaroids, for example, remain popular, despite costing more than $2 a shot. Digital and film cameras have also made a comeback. Disposables are on the rise. Photos taken on these older styles of camera tend to look dated and a bit less polished, but that's part of the appeal. As with school pictures, they might tap into a yearning for a time before smartphones allowed anyone to compulsively take as many photos as they wanted. The few shots you do get end up feeling unique."
School portrait packages frequently cost between about $28 and over $100, with single digital downloads sometimes priced at $65. Families with multiple children can spend several hundred dollars annually; one child can accumulate over $1,000 in photo costs by high-school graduation. Some parents ignore the pictures while others seek online hacks to avoid paying, and some of those methods are illegal. Nostalgia for Polaroids, film, and disposable cameras boosts demand despite higher per-shot costs, because such images feel unique and less polished than ubiquitous smartphone photos.
Read at The Atlantic
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