Though the virus does not discriminate, the economic fallout of this health emergency is affecting some more severely than others. As the founder of a software company that provides workflow tools to photographers, I have seen the wedding industry provide freelance photographers with the ability to earn a dignified living while using their talents. Unfortunately, the current hard times for the industry are cascading out in every direction, affecting individuals whose living depends on people coming together.

With more and more cities and states issuing stay-at-home orders, the events that allow wedding and portrait photographers to make the bulk of their income have vanished, nearly overnight.

State-wide lockdowns, bans on nonmedical personnel in delivery rooms, and prohibitive measures on travel, social, and business gatherings have meant canceled wedding after canceled wedding and lost booking after lost booking. The end result leaves photographers with only a small deposit in the best cases, and zero income in the worst.

According to a recent survey I conducted with 200 photographers, the environment is devastating. Eighty percent of those who use my startup’s editing and photography publishing software said they have lost 100 percent of their work. Just a few weeks into this crisis, a staggering 87 percent of photographers are worried about their financial future, and 44 percent report they are on the brink of quitting photography to seek other forms of employment.

As we sit in our homes and apartments, it takes some imagination to grasp the breadth of the human cost of this pandemic. Think of all the people and businesses in our lives, before this, that we took for granted. From the mom-and-pop shop down the road to the domestic workers who can’t feed their families while sheltering in place. Close to my heart are the photographers who touch our lives, making their living off the personal moments that bring people together—a wedding, the birth of a child, an engagement, a graduation. Needless to say, the consequences are real.

Freelance workers such as photographers are one segment of the 57 million people in the U.S. who work for themselves, making up the so-called “gig” or micro-business economy. This entire segment of earners is largely overlooked by our social safety nets, and up until now, they did not qualify for unemployment insurance or other benefits that traditional employees can access.