If cameras didn’t exist at all do you think ris would have a hobby similar to photo work? Like drawing people or painting? Or a totally different hobby?
Maybe. I actually headcanon that the reason Risri took to photography was because she was amazed at how quickly you could “paint” someone and that in her younger days she was a painter as a hobby. She gave it up as she got older but she would still occasionally sketch something in her journals when she was traveling and taking notes about various things in the world.
I also headcanon that before she joined the university staff she ran a small alchemy shop on the outskirts of the trade district. Not a hobby so much as work but if she’d not discovered the camera she would probably still be doing that because she wouldn’t have been out taking pictures and spied the advertisement for the university hiring professors for the new year.
So potentially, her path could have been much different!