a storm is brewing…..90% chance of rain ..a cold front has moved in , trapping a lot of warm air, so violent tornados possible….close your windows….stay inside….eventually this storm will pass…they all do…but, be totally prepared for extensive property damage….
i am sure that all of you know that the photography licensing business as we know it, is going through dramatic changes…Getty Images, heretofore the largest photo licensing agency in the world, is up for sale..so far, no takers….even though they grossed around 800 million dollars last year, they "lost" 31 million….Corbis is losing money in licensing….so is Magnum (a very small "player" in the mega image sales arena)..so are all photographic agencies…the traditional licensing agencies are now subject to getting slammed by the the biggest "storm" to come out of the skies ….EVER!!
there are many reasons for this…first and foremost is just the simple fact millions of pictures each day are being uploaded to sites which started out as "personal photo sharing" , but have turned into a place to buy photographs….cheap….art directors have to wade through a lot of junk to get what they want, but there are some gold nuggets in there…..as i have said before, it is "raining" pictures…lots and lots of tomatoes in the market….fewer discerning buyers who know a good tomato from a bad one…OR, just willing to go with "good enough"….
now, this does not mean that photographers are "out of business"…the licensing of photographs is only a part of most professional photographers income…but, a significant part….there is good news too…the "collector print" business is up and growing by the minute….book publishing is booming and self-publishing is definitely the "go to" new outlet for today’s emerging photographers…the net provides unlimited possibilities….there is so so much out there to be "invented" or "re-invented", which is always the job of the "next generation"…get to it!!
i have two questions for you:
first, how do you see these developments?
second, and more important, do you have the copyright (ownership) on all of your commissioned work???
in two hours i am off to my beloved Oaxaca, Mexico for two weeks….Oaxaca is one of my favorite places to photograph in the world…the weather is almost always perfect….however, this time i will take an umbrella…you never know…
I have some of Panos’ respect! Woohoo!
Your children are “yours” despite the fact they are someone elses as well…can you copyright them? If you have twins its cheaper right?
If I die broke, its ‘cos photo workshops cost too much and I’ve got a lot to learn! Or they put up the price of real ale.
Rene, those expressions are’nt selling the waiter job!
Good luck with the Islam work Mike!
What is our generation going to produce I wonder…..
As always, a very interesting topic being discussed care of DAH.
It amazes me how you guys and gals have the time free to keep posting on here.
For what it is worth, here’s my thoughts on it all:
For those of us that are not deterred by the “raining pictures” situation, and soldier on trying to fight our way through the ranks regardless, I think we are faced with the simple fact that we have to embrace all of this technology and squeeze as much out of it as we can to our own advantage.
I personally think that the industry will become over saturated with the number of images being thrown at it and eventually a system will appear in which the quality work will rise to the surface. Remember, in the grad scale of things, all of this digital photography stuff is still very new and a little chaotic. But order will eventually be restored I think.
Plus I also believe that there will eventually be a rejection of the technology (by a certain number of people, maybe) and they will want quality products, instead of the mass-produced rubbish in which we are drowning. Hopefully photography will become part of this and there will be a return to high quality books and magazines etc., which publish work of the highest caliber.
I review photography books now and again for Source magazine in the UK, and I feel that a lot of mediocre books are getting through the system, both self published and those from established publishers.
Following Bob’s comments, I like the idea of self publishing. I’m in the midst of slowly winding up a long term book project this year and thinking about how to use all the technological resources available to me to not only produce the product, but also market it.
I’ve just finished making a “dummy book” of the work. It was a long and frustrating process, especially for a luddite like myself, but I now have a tangible book in my hand. This was a great learning experience though and I can now see that the project works as a book and this has given me the confidence to go the whole hog and try and seek a publisher and see what the reaction is. And if that fails I know that self publishing (in some form) is an option.
Yes I screwed up along the way making the dummy. Although I agonised over the prints, I still think some are a little dark, and although I proof read the text a hundred times, a spelling error still got through and decided to jump out at me as soon as I had had the book bound. But without all the digital tools available to us today it would have been impossible for me to have done all this myself. And I will soon make another one, correcting the mistakes and adding some new photographs.
Perhaps David’s blog could serve as a central location to help follow how the projects some of us are working on develop and try to get to the surface under this downpour of photographs which we face.
Thanks,
Justin
What is our generation going to produce I wonder…..
———————-
Interesting angle on the topic, on photography, and probably the only one that matters, in a couple decades and more.
I know it’s got little to do with the camera, but it would be nice to see established and well-known (Photo)journalists, and their outfits be more public about the ordeal guys like Bilal (freebilal.org) and a few others are going thru.
Just think the outcry if Nachtwey (or another accredited westerner) spent even a night in jail….
Not to be totally negative, I had lost that URL with the computer crash last summer, finally came across it again. Some really great work (if “singles”), many years worth of it, at one a day:
http://www.aphotoaday.org/fronts.html
DAVID:
WROTE U AN IMPORTANT EMAIL ABOUT THE MERCY PROJECT. WHEN U RETURN FROM MEXICO, CHECK UR EMAIL….I WOULD LOVE TO SEE U GET ON BOARD :)))>>>
hugs
running
bob
Changes abound but are we improving?
http://xkcd.com/339/
It would suprise me if no-one had tossed Nachtwey in jail for a night. A year might be another matter, especially without trial!
David,
It’s truly a mess to be a photographer right now. Every wedding I go to there is someone trying to be the professional also. They get in my way, shoot over my shoulder and interfere with the portraits. I had to sneak the bride and groom away at my last wedding. I think that’s reflective of many other types of photography right now. I really struggle with knowing that my customers don’t always have the sophistication to know the difference between decent photography and great photography because they don’t spend a lot of time looking at professional photographs.
In my opinion this really needs to be addressed in the art schools. Professors who were very successful in the old markets don’t necessarily realize how things have changed and are sending graduates with little money and no understanding of the new professional photography world. And it’s not going to get easier or clearer anytime soon. I’m feeling a bit neverous about the oversaturated market myself.
Sharon
Today I paid new higher price for E-6 developing in sole laboratory in my town… Hmmmmm what should I choose? develop three films or buy a new mercedes?
so forget what I wrote above…
Bloody art….
who need art?
do you? do you?
my advice; we should buy EOS-1Ds Mark III and start taking famili snapshot…
or go to the pub…
it’s all the same…
what should I do? what should I do?
I go to the pub…
peace
Marcin,
I’ll meet you at the pub. First round’s on me!
Like many professions in which the means of production have been completely changed by new technologies, there is a new onslaught of work. This is good for the buyer and less so for seller, but for photography itself, it is a good thing: a whole group of good artists now have the ability to create when they may have been able to before.
This also means there is a glut of imagery — both good and not so good – out there, but as a consumer (viewer or purchaser) the key of course is sifting through it. It just points out the value of sites that aggregate/edit/curate photos. The next opportunities for photographers may not yet be obvious; they are still waiting to be invented.
The third collection of Photo Friday can be found here:
http://www.humanfiles.com/pages/photofriday.htm
IT’S FUNNY BUT IT TURNS OUT THAT MARCIN SHOULD BE MY BEST FRIEND….
HE TOTALLY SUMS IT UP :
“…my advice; we should buy EOS-1Ds Mark III and start taking famili snapshot…
or go to the pub…
it’s all the same…
what should I do? what should I do?
I go to the pub…”
COMPARING THE CANON EOS “LSD” IIIIV… WITH ALCOHOL…??
THE “LSD” CANON….?!!!, DEFINITELY HAS NO CHANCE!!!!!
THANK YOU MARCIN….
FUCK YOU CANON….
LET’S ALL GO TO THE PUB…
…AND WHAT’S BETTER TIMING THAN THAT????
THE FIRST ROUND IS ON MICHAEL K….!!!!
YEAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Dammit Harvey, to be in Mexico while I’m snowed in yet another storm is bad enough, but to not deliver a fresh post fix is unconscionable!
David McG…!
Photo Friday… Looks good!
should I invite myself?
what’s the deadline?
Hey Panos – no deadline – it’s just an email list that goes around every friday and we share one shot. I’ll add you.
DAH: how’s the fake watch holding up? Watching Cuba on the news?
Mike.
Message from the Commander in Chief
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/febrero/mar19/mensaje-i.html
A question many are still asking…
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/100/314065586_ab6dade094_o.jpg
rember! Castro is everywhere!!!
http://marcinluczkowski.com/dia_0092.jpg
I hope this is first step in good direction…
peace
remember!!!! Castro is everywhere!!!
http://marcinluczkowski.com/dia_0092.jpg
I hope this is first step in good direction…
peace
David McGowan
I’ve been a bit of a now show on the friday photo thing..work etc.
Will be back next week…although my emails changed. will send you the details. Be great to see more people joining :)
Yes, of course I own the rights to everything. I am not concerned with the current situation. Photography has had it’s up and downs from the very beginning. It’s like the independent music business. When it becomes too easy to produce your own work and release it, the market becomes flooded with half-ass product and people buy it. They buy it because “good enough,” is good enough. They don’t even know the difference anyway. I remember an article in PDN about top stock earners and I checked some of their work out afterwards and it was total shit. I don’t need to see another “ethnic” call-centre staff shot. Hell, even wedding photography, a former haven for people who needed some extra bucks has become bloated. Seems like everyone and his dog “knows some guy who will shoot it for you for cheap.” What does all of this mean? People will be forced to take pictures because they love it, not as a career choice, and the art can only improve for that reason.
oil hits $100 today…
Wall street crashing.. Retailers dying…
Who can afford to pay a photographer?
time to reload my waiter(-tress) skills…
DAH was prophet…!
Storm is coming….
AND SINCE THE GAS GETS EXPENSIVE…. LOOK WHAT AMERICANS DO TO FORGET ABOUT IT….
CHECK BELOW…. definitely not buying hybrids….
look what i found this past weekend in my neighborhood!:
http://blog.panosfotografia.com/
DAVID “”collector print” business is up and growing by the minute”
Would you define this market? $500-$75,000
or $30?
Thanks,
Michael
HELLO ALL…
my apologies for not being here….a combo of my Oaxaca class and personal shooting and , most of all irregular internet access, has kept me from posting…
i will try to post a new story later today or tomorrow….i am sure you understand…you all seem to do very well without me and i see some lively chat…but, i will give you new “food for thought” soonest…
running, cheers, peace,
david
Mike,
You’re totally on to something here about the stock images you checked out.
I really struggle to understand how the many people out there producing mediocre images are making sales, and sometimes lots of them.
I was recently told by the director / owner of a small but successful and respected agency here in Britain that my work was “too poetic” for the editorial market. Although he liked the work, he wasn’t interested in taking me on because he didn’t know who he would sell my work to.
This sort of leaves me at a loss really. I’ve spent all these years trying to develop a personal way of seeing and create an authorship to my work, and now I am the “poet” with unsaleable photographs.
Of course, there is a market out there for my work somewhere, as there is for most peoples’, but these days it is just harder to find it I think.
You’re right, “good enough” has become good enough for many of the editors out there. You just have to look at many of the magazines or weekend newspaper features – they can be very hit and miss these days.
Justin
Bob, your post of Feb 15th was a delight to read. I feel quite replenished having internalized your wise words. I’m looking after my kids this weeks as school is out and I’m loving it. All sorts of ideas are swirling in my brain for re-launching my career on the far side of my move back to Europe in July.
For now I’m going all out on my book projects. Between now and the time I leave I will promote aggressively online to expand my market and my brand. Archival prints are hard to sell at the moment but I have found a growing market for large poster prints which people seem to love.
I’m figuring it out as I go along but I’m relishing the photo future for myself and my family.
It’s all about the branding these days. Figure out your brand and aways you go.
Best regards,
Paulyman.
Justin, you’ve gotta consider the PhotoShelter Collection. Your situation is exactly what they’re after, seems to me.
Paul,
I signed up with DRr and sort of feel that I’ve thrown my lot in with them and should try and stick it out with them now after I’ve spent all that time uploading images etc.
Tell me about the PhotoShelter Collection. Is is different to just having a PhotoShelter archive? What would the advantages be?
I’m in the same situation as you with regards to book projects and marketing my “brand” etc. All of this technology available to us makes it a very interesting time to be doing such things, if you can make it work….
http://psc.photoshelter.com/
Here’s my page with lots more on the way;
http://my.photoshelter.com/photohumorist
No sales yet but plenty of interest. It has only just begun, after all. I’ve had some add to carts and add to lightbox. I have loads and loads yet to upload. I’ve got a good feeling about thought. They’ve only just started to advertise it, as you may have seen. No need for an archive account either. It’s free and 70% is for keeps.
Paul,
good to here you are getting interest on PhotoShelter.
The Collection looks like it has potential, and being free is a huge advantage. Is there any copyright conflict of interest if I already have my work in DRr and then submit some images to PhotoShelter collection?
I think the key to using PhotoShelter and DRr is to really promote the work like crazy one it is on there. I have yet to do that, but I’m thinking about producing some postcards with an image on and details of the my archive to try and launch its presence in the industry. All of this making potential buyers as members of your archive doesn’t seem to work for me. As is often said on Lightstalkers, you need to build personal relationships with these people. But you know all of this already….
The Photohumorist’s take on life in the UK should be interesting – when are you moving?
Justin
DAVID , back at the D hotel…. it’s soooooooooo bizarre as the workshop keeps coming back to my mind . Hope you are well.
Hi Justin. Moving back in July, looks like. June if we can sort out a buyer for our flat here soon. I’m really looking forward to it. Hopefully I can re-invent myself a little and concentrate on the Photohumorist branding more acutely. I’m pulling out all the stops this time. Would like to do a little teaching somehow so that I can afford myself time on the streets to make new work. Know of any institutions in the south teaching photography, perhaps an adult learning facility or something like that? I’ll call in on Photofusion in Brixton and see if they’d be interested in my prepping a workshop on street photography or some such.
Shouldn’t be a conflict between your DRR archive and PhotoShelter Collection. Why should there be? These are simply facilities and not competitive agencies I’d have thought. Right? I’m sure there are plenty of photographers that are playing both systems.
I would check the DRR marketplace small print though as they take a percentage. You might not want material duplicated in two marketplaces. I’m getting muddled up here. Am I making sense?
I have an archive on DRR for more than a year now but recently uploaded some images to PS Collection as well. I don’t see why there would be any problems in using both… Just like Justin, I got many comments how my pictures are “poetic” and it seems there simply is no market for that kind of crap. But i like it that way and no market will change how I do my photography. I am not an optimist when it comes to PS Collection or DRR; somehow we all go global using these tools but all sales I made were done through the people of flash and blood I met (prints mostly). We are so preoccupied with the global reach of internet that we forget that the best way is to simply knock on doors and meet people…
JASON….
i do not know if self publishing is “the way to go”, but it will be increasingly “a way to go”
self publishing has always been there as a possibility…Sally Mann certainly started out self publishing and it certainly worked for her…now, with the websites as a way of marketing and with companies like blurb.com to sell your books for you, i think we will see many more photographers turning to self publishing…
PRESTON….
yes, you confirm exactly what i believe….
MIKE….
i like your attitude….and you are right…the more “bad work” that is out there, the more discerning buyers and collectors will move to an elite market…human nature flat out dictates that there will always be boutique buyers….
ANNA…
how strange that i did the Che post just days before Fidel retired….
MICHAEL SHAPIRO…
i am identifying the collector print market that would purchase prints (depending on size and editions etc) in the $2000.- $30,000 range….there are much higher print prices for a handful, but there are dozens of photographers in the range so mentioned….
SHARON…
you are right on…many very well meaning professors have just been teaching too long to truly understand the current markets…there are some clear exceptions of course like Gregory Crewdson, but sometimes when i lecture at universities and i hear about what the students are learning, i totally realize there is a tremendous gap in what teachers are teaching and the realities graduates will face the moment they graduate….
ALL…
i am going crazy with the internet here, which comes and goes in the hotel where i am staying….and i literally have no time to seek out an internet cafe where i am sure all works well..
however, i will stick with it…and i do have a new story coming with some ideas for all of us which totally hit me last nite while watching the total eclipse of the moon….
we cannot let the “statues quo” take over our lives ….WE must invent new markets and venues…. in any case, be patient and i will try to get this story out soonest…stay tuned….
cheers, david
.
@David Alan Harvey: I’ll be flying to Alicante on the 14th of March, so maybe there’s a chance to catch up in Valencia around those dates. I was planning to go to Valencia for easter and Ana Yturralde emailed me back saying you’d be around.
Dave,
Joanna Pinneo sent me your blog link.
I e-mailed you about the possibility of coming to Roanoke for the Va. News Photographers Assn’s convention. Meanwhile, Joanna talked me into asking Nick Nichols. Then I notice that you’re coming to Charlottesville for the LOOK3 festival. I hope to make it. Sounds awesome. (I missed the inaugural year).
Anyhow, if Nichols can’t make it, maybe you would consider coming…it’s March 14-15.
Heck…you can still come to Roanoke.
Visited w/Mac Okada the other day. He lives just 2 miles from me. He’s doing some amazing paintings!
Well, I’ll return to your blog now.
Kevin
DAVID, thanks for the clarification.
Can you come up with dates yet this summer for being out here for the Symbiotic Convergence? There is a lot in the works outside of it, so a time frame would help.
Careful there in Oaxaca.
Michael
MICHAEL SHAPIRO…
i cannot yet come up with dates for my summer travel…i should have a fairly good handle on my cross country road trip by mid-march….all of us appreciate your open arms, but as you probably can surmise, my schedule is always a bit of a “movable feast”…i will let you know soonest when i know what i now do not know…
KEVIN….
what a nice surprise to hear from you!!!
the VNPA convention has always been a favorite of mine and too bad i cannot make it this time to Roanoke..perhaps next year…
i have not seen Masaaki in quite some time …his talent has never been in doubt and he is such a life influence on me…i have lost contact with Joanna as well and am not even sure where she lives…please give both my personal warmest regards….if you have their emails etc., i would love to drop both a note…
thanks for dropping in….and stick around…your insights would always be welcomed….
cheers, david
JUSTIN…
i do not think you should give up on developing your personal body of work….but, i do not think that any “stock” agency archive would ever be the progenitor of this image of YOU…stock photography archives are what they are….you can never imagine what will sell in those archives…your personal work should be developed outside of these sales archives and are a totally separate business from what you may evolve in terms of your gallery business or your personal books or magazine essays etc etc….
cheers, david
MICHAEL RAWCLIFFE…
the fake watch stopped working a few weeks ago!! but, since my expectations were low , i was not disappointed…
cheers, david
Paul and some others, when do you take your pictures and where do you sell them? do you have still time apart from the time you spend on hundred blogs on the net? ;) I doubt it…
Stefan, I have little bursts of shot making. When I’m on form they come quickly. I’ve not been very active on this blog for a wee while as I’ve been traveling and making shots.
I’ve also been fairly quiet on my own Photohumorist blog too but that will pick up again as soon as the weather warms up.
Many of the poster prints I sell are in my own community. The web is fantastic for global reach, but it’s even better for reaching out in one’s own neighborhood. That’s what I’m endeavoring to do.
Inwood, northern Manhattan, is an astonishingly beautiful place. The parks up here are entirely majestic and magical at all times of the year. And the people who have chosen to live here have become one with the very geography itself, seems to me. As I have. Unfortunately, I will be leaving this place in a few months and so I’ve dedicated myself to trying to preserve this quality photographically and in order for me to pay myself to do that, I have made some of this work available to my neighbors who are enthusiastically partaking.
I have my cameras with me all the time so pictures present themselves on a regular basis. It’s how I live my life.
When I move back to London, I will use what I have learned, in terms of finding local community support, for my personal work and for my business. Like it used to be many moons ago, for everyone.
Paul Treacy nice work..
Paul, great to read that things are working out fine for you, I just got the idea, when stumbling over your many posts in blogs and on LS, that you were having a hard time. I often read what you want to do, what you will do, what you’re up to, I thought that if it were me I’d spend less time blogging and more actually doing things. Of course that’s just my 2 cents, feel free to ignore it, but I thought I’d write to let you know what it feels like, read from a bystander, probably your sitution is completely different. I wish you the best.
David,
Thanks, yes, very wise advice I think. I must admit that I’ve been struggling a bit to get a grips on the industry in that sense. I think you’re right: these online archives such as Digital Railroad or PhotoShelter are really only designed for stock photography sales, or that seems to be their main market to me. And I struggle to “see” in a stock kind of way.
I’m starting to think that I should stop worrying about it though and just focus on what I can do and work my butt off to make THAT work.
Cheers,
Justin
haven`t sifted through all the comments here: will do that soon.
quantity will always challenge quality to the eyes of those trying to increase profit, but like all things, whether material or intellectual, quality will always triumph.
like music, photography is weathering a pretty rough storm. the past few years have seen tons jumping ship, some batting down the hatches, and overall, the steady continuation of a field that is indispensable to the modern world.
in order to differentiate themselves with amateur and low quality imagery, major publications will likely continue to hire the best of the business. this only makes sense: after all, how can a company, magazine, or otherwise try to maintain a advanced marketing image using mediocre photography?
that question is only half answered. i suppose we must keep watching the horizon. the storm isn`t over yet.
The fact of the matter is photography as we have known it is being re-defined in a big way. There are more outlets than ever for photography. And with every storm, there is re-birth, re-emergence.
David, you know my story, I ( Like an ass ) boasted about it in your workshop at Look3 last year. But the fact of the matter is, I AM proud that I did something about starving. I was homeless at age 15, I have always been broke, it gets tiring. I always envied those who could go to a good P-J school and I simply could not.
So when I left the paper I worked at with over 30,000 images of which I owned the copyright, it was not because I wanted to be greedy, it was exactly what we are discussing here that I saw coming…ten years ago.
So it is like this:
1. Fight, beg, barter or do anything to retain copyright.
2. Pay attention to trends, but don’t follow them, set them!
3. Forget *any* agency, set it up all on your own and then get a full time business person when you can afford to.
4. Find a deep niche that you can truly stand out in. That does not mean you have to fully sell your soul and never do great editorial work, it just means you *have* to identify a realistic market and stand out in it.
Bottom line, set new trends! You don’t want the art buyer who wants it for free. Believe me, there are always going to be art buyers who will pay top dollar for something that is not the same old iStock crap.
But if you are a wholly dedicated editorial shooter, this will cost you at least part of your soul to make real money at stock. As you well know David, a lot of the images I have made over the past 5 years that were from editorial outlets look a bit or a lot more like stock because I always had to keep that in the back of my mind.
I did not have a choice bro, I needed to pay my high rent and put some money away for the future. In order to even buy something in my town that is not the average of 3.2 million, you have to win a housing lottery! That means I could be renting forever!!
So now I am working from the automation of my hard work over the last 5 years and I am getting back into looking into truly meaningful editorial work and essays.
But people depend on me to keep giving them stock with an editorial slant and I want them to, so I always have to have one hand in that for it is my living and it is still a damn good one.
Photography and many of the visual arts are never going to be the same as they were in the 70-90′s. Those days are gone and so are the traditional methods of making a living with it.
Does that piss me off? Sure does. But I have no choice but to be a photographer in this life, so I not only will I continue to adapt, I will keep up with the trends, and then set them.
Innovate.
Everybody loves innovation. The internet is a powerful tool, what are YOU going to do in order to show the world you have it going on?
Because frankly, that is what it is going to take my friends.
Good luck and good light!