Their goal was to address their common problems: lack of credit lines, unauthorized reproduction of images, and uncredited copying of photographs by illustrators and artists.

[1] In the early years, a majority within the Society held the opinion that ASMP should be a labor union and bargain collectively for wages and working conditions.

[2] The issue was laid to rest by a 1976 ruling of the National Labor Relations Board, which determined that ASMP was a group of independent contractors and, thus, ineligible to be a union.

During the 1950s and '60s, ASMP also grew to encompass a wider range of photographic applications, including such specialties as advertising, catalog, architectural and industrial imagery.

After the Internet came of age, The Society's specialty groups took advantage of the free and easy interchange of ideas that bulletin boards, listservs and social networks could provide.

[7] In 1973, at the instigation of then-president Lawrence Fried, ASMP published Professional Business Practices in Photography, a compilation of recommended procedures, industry terminology, and standard forms and contracts.

Initially issued in looseleaf format (and informally referred to as the "Business Bible"), the publication has regularly been revised over the years; the seventh edition[8] was released as a trade paperback in 2008.

In 2008–2011, ASMP sponsored the dpBestflow project that, with financial support from the Library of Congress, published best practices and tutorials for preserving digital images.