Almost twice as many professionals exercise an artistic profession today than at the start of the 1990s. In 2009, 365,000 people's main line of work was as artists, authors, photographers, graphic designers, designers, craftspeople or artistic workers or even technical artists for shows. These professionals exercised their profession in the field of artistic activities, but also beyond, for example in industry, advertising or trade. Artistic professions are not particularly feminised and are exercised by highly qualified individuals, often from the Ile-de-France region and from a privileged background. They operate under very diverse forms: craftspeople, photographers or authors are to a great extent self-employed while professionals for shows are often paid a wage with a short-term work contract. Within these professions, the duration of work and pay are unequally shared and organisation of working time is very flexible (flexitime, evening, night or weekend working).