> there was some gatekeeper group with a monopoly on it (to some extent true right up until digital photography became common) Bollocks. There were consumer ph

> there was some gatekeeper group with a monopoly on it (to some extent true right up until digital photography became common) Bollocks. There were consumer photography options widely available for decades before digital photography became available - everything from point and shoot cameras to decent SLRs, with a dozen kinds of film available, all at a price point pretty much everyone could afford. Disposable cameras were even a thing for a couple of decades before modern digital photography took off...