StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

EDIT: Another New Photography Magazine - by Getty Images

The next photography magazine in Pro Domo-style: Getty has announced to publish a new photomagazine called Edit ("A magazine by the people who create images, for the people who use them"). The press release says

Edit will be published quarterly in four languages, distributed for free to Getty Images customers. It also will be available as a Webzine and for purchase at www.gettyimages.com/edit. In keeping with the growing European trend towards smaller magazines, Edit will measure 9" by 6.5"; the first issue runs 96 pages.

The First Issue covers stories about Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly, Image Usage Rights etc.

Two New Photomagazines for Photojournalism: DOUBLEtruck and zReportage

Two relatively (Feb. 2004) new photomags are DOUBLEtruck and zReportage:

Both are not completely independent: they are powered by the photo agency ZUMA Press which represents some 600+ photojournalists and wants to "represent, promote and inspire outstanding photojournalism" with these mags:

The first, zReportage.com, is an elite editorial picture service dedicated to the presentation and licensing of complete bodies of work by today's leading photojournalists. zReportage's approach is to licensing photo essays in their entirety. ZUMA's second initiative is the debut of DOUBLEtruck, a self-published magazine that celebrates high-impact photography of important issues around the world. DOUBLEtruck Magazine offers 60 pages (Link)

Issue One of DOUBLEtruck

is presented in two distinctive sections. The first, appropriately titled the Year in DOUBLEtrucks, walks readers through storytelling images of last year's major news events. All the images presented in this section ran as double-page spreads in leading weeklies around the world. The second section, Never Been Kissed, celebrates the unseen--the best pictures of 2003 that were hot but haven't run doubletruck yet.

DOUBLEtruck is as a quarterly magazine with plans to publish on a monthly basis the year after and is distributed to 5,000 photojournalists, agency representatives and directors of photography. To receive a free copy of the premiere issue, fill out the subscription form. The images are stunning! They make you dream... .

The "Mission Statement" of zReportage says it all:

In this age of mass media and instantaneous communication, little room is left for investigative photojournalism and in-depth coverage of issues. Meaningful stories are reduced to sound bites. Tragedies in our backyards remain unreported. Images are pieced together out of context, mitigating the work photojournalists put into their story.

New essays will debut on zReportage on Tuesdays.
Thx to ZUMA for their efforts to make this possbile. Although both mags are not independent (how could this work today?), the images are best photography. Great work. Respect.

"I don't care what President Bush wants": Mother allows photos of California soldier's coffin to protest media ban

Update to the stories in "Iraq|War|Photography: The Meta Level" and "Iraq|War: Photos + Reports"

Editorsweblog/Dana Goldstein:

From the Associated Press via the San Francisco Gate: In a protest against the Bush administration's ban of photographs showing the coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq, Nadia McCaffrey, a California woman whose son, Army Spc. Patrick McCaffrey, 34, was killed in an ambush, allowed reporters, photographers and television crews to watch as her son's coffin was transported Sunday night from an airport cargo terminal in Sacramento to a hearse. Although the ceremony did not officially break the military's regulation, which applies only to coffins at military facilities, Nadia McCaffrey was clear about her motivations. "I don't care what President Bush wants," she told the Los Angeles Times. "This is enough. We have to react."

"Free" Stock Photography and Royalty "Free" Stock Photography Sites without Breaking the Bank

[© MorgueFile.com/Demon Dog by Jason Nelson]

Recenty a picture researcher from a well-known publishing house had to select about 46 images for the illustration of a new fact book. After some days of research and crawling around all he had to spend was $ 164, 57. - For 46 images. He did all this without copyright infringement, with real invoices for images that 95% of the mankind would accept to see more than one time in terms of photographic quality.
He suggested some sites where you can buy affordable stock photography with a quality that won´t hurt your eyes too much. We wanted to write a big follow-up to "istockphoto.com: "Bringing the price down to a level where everybody can afford to buy a stock photo" but we lack the time to do so right now. So here a just some links.
Yet we don´t know how all these websites pay their photographers in detail, if the photographers can make a living with it, if its all mainly burned-out five years old stock-pixel-crap, if the overall photographic quality is passably or if this is a desirable way for the future -- the fact is, that besides the RF-subscription model more and more established picture researchers are working this way; not to talk about all those "designer´s dirty litte secret" - companies out there.
Bear in mind that this list is not complete and only a personal selection. If you like to add a website -- please write a comment (this time commercial comments are welcome). And - these sites are not all "free" as they sometimes suggest, but for the "lowlowlower- budget". Some only contain a few hundreds pix,  other thousands.

If you now add all the images available via a simple Google Image Search AND all the thousands of images from private photoblogs/moblogs (sometimes their owners just want to be credited)... . However, don´t forget: ask first.

-istockphoto.com (the more professional sister company is  istockpro.com)
-FreeImages.co.uk (2500 original stock photos)
-MorgueFile.com
-Stock XCHNG (about 90,000 images/120.000 registered users)
-FreeStockphotos.com
-Intuitivmedia
-Freephoto.com
-BigFoto.com
-Orange-Trash
-OpenPhoto.Net
-Photographers' and Illustrators' Artist Corners | Creative Commons
-FreeStock Photography
-Image*After (also Textures)
-Pixel Perfect Digital
-DHD Multimedia Gallery (5000 strange images)
-Flyerstarter (Small Fee, Great Nightclub Promotional Photos)
-Picstyle
-mimg :: free images
-Affordable Stock Photography
-stock.kriegsnet.com
-U.S. Newswire Newsphotos (free if registered; editorial use encouraged)

Real bucks:
-StockedPhotos.com (Subscription)
-Photos.com (Subscription, 100,000 images; the big player in the background is JupiterMedia/JupiterImages who recently bought Comstock)

[© Flyerstarter.com]

[This image is NOT from UglyImages.com]

True Transparency: Internet startup enables Jonathan Klein/Getty Images finally to buy a new bicycle

The Seatte Times in "CEO pay gets back to basics with hard cash" (by Monica Soto Ouchi and Luke Timmerman):

Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein, who topped this year's list with $9.5 million in compensation, saw his pay package double after converting $8 million worth of options into stock. His compensation picture, however, has evolved over time.
Klein received 2.5 million options over a six-year period as one of the founders of Getty Images. His Internet startup was similar to others — both executives and employees were awarded large stock-option grants in lieu of higher pay.
By the end of last year, Klein had 1.5 million options remaining; they were worth an estimated $37.7 million, according to regulatory filings.
As Klein's option grants have gone away (his last award came in 2001), the board's compensation committee has given him more cash. In February, the committee reduced Klein's base salary from $1.1 million to $950,000, but increased the bonus he is eligible to earn each year from 30 percent of his base salary to 70 percent.
In 2003, he received a $325,000 bonus. This year, he's eligible to receive up to $665,000.
[..]
That Klein topped this year's list underscores the shifting landscape for CEO pay. A year ago, Klein's $9.5 million pay package would have put him sixth on the list of highest-paid CEOs here [Northwest companies].

Moblogging vs. Photojournalism: The Medium is NOT the Message

[© Univ. of Tokyo]

Dennis writes in "Is Moblogging a Unique Form of Photojournalism?" about a phrase he discovered in "Photo Sharing Gone Wild" (PC World): "moblogs provide a unique form of spontaneous photojournalism".

No. It can be the digital extension of certain skills, competence and experience. It depends on who is doing it:

The medium is not the message. Imagine how tedious newspapers would be if every other story proclaimed "We use INK!!!" The writers don't care, and the readers don't care, how this message was delivered: but readers do care about quality. (Andrew Orlowski)

In Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan said "the medium is the message." Well, in the world according to John Hibbs, the medium is not the message, should not be the message; in fact, there should not be a message [...]. Rather, you focus on the preliminary content and the audience, and the medium is just a means to the end. (Richard Seltzer: "Beyond McLuhan -- many parallel media, and discussion, no message")

Orlowski more malicious regarding a blogger conference:

"The only way I would attend such a conference is with 'a bottle in front of me or a frontal lobotomy'," wrote Dwight Meridith.
"A convention for blogging is like a convention for... I dunno, handwriting. Or cassette tape recording," noted John Kusch, acidly. But John, techno-utopians can't understand that computers are simply tools, not artifacts that should be revered in their right.

Big Spenders are back: So where does this all leave the Stock Photography Market?

This is truly one of the best reports about the Stock Photography Market aka Picture Business aka Stock Photo Business we´ve ever read.
However, it is not totally evident if it is a fully independent report or some kind of Cicero and Pro Domo.

We discovered the report casually by reading our favorite news site for extraordinary reports about exquisite dining areas around the world: the A21Group.

No. The A21group is not a food or beverage company. But, looking back how the company sometimes described its work and the surrounding circumstances in the presence ("Guests dined on fabulous Danish fare, with wines and cognac pouring freely throughout the evening. The annual `must read´ Stockbyte produced Image News magazine was delivered during a delicious vanilla ice cream dessert" [CEPIC 2004 Congress]) and past ("Enjoying tasty hors d'oeuvres and beverages, everyone assembled around the colorful new gallery lining the front entry of the SuperStock headquarters" ["SuperStock Gallery Opening"] or "the ‘Tiki Bar’ focused on serving great tasting drinks" ["SuperStock Holiday Party"]) there had been serious complaints that the A21 Group finally would become the Zagat for the Stock Photo Industry. =:-)

Anyway, A21 reprints a report of Ron Rovtar, Managing Editor of The Stock Asylum: "Recent Consolidations May Have Major Impact . . . ", which is also available on the original website.

First off, it is a joyful impression to see someone writing about the Stock Photo Industry who does not belong to the well-known brotherhood and establishment of metawriters.

Ron Rovtar writes about the implications of what recently has happend in the Stock Photo Industry:

So far this year a21 purchased Superstock, Veer bought Solus, PictureArts acquired Nonstock and Jupitermedia absorbed Comstock. (See also "Comstock Images Acquired by Jupitermedia", "Nonstock sold: PictureArts the lucky buyer, A21 Group didn´t make it", "Veer Acquires Solus Images: Acquisition strengthens Veer's foundation for growth")

Besides the rumors (reported here: 1; 2; 3; 4; and recently at Editorialphoto) that the big two G, Getty and Gates (Corbis), are out on the street to identify new acquisition targets, Ron Rovtar examines the influence the recent take-overs might have for the Stock Photo Industry:

All four buyers indicate interest in further acquisitions under the right circumstances and all four appear financially capable of growing large enough to be considered middle-sized agencies. The industry's midlevel was decimated during the 90s consolidations, leaving significant gaps in the overall organization of the industry. [...]
In stock photography, organization comes in four forms -- style, price, subject matter and basic usage (commercial or editorial). [...]
Had stock industry leaders of the early to mid 90's done a better job of distinguishing market segments (especially the emerging low end segment) and then offered appropriate products to each level, the industry would almost certainly be much healthier today. [...]
All these first-round consolidations left a considerable vacuum in the market. While many smaller distributors remained, few, if any, had collections or sales large enough to call themselves second-tier stock marketers.
Aiming to fill this void, several new distributors sprang up, including workbookstock.com, Solus and Alamy. These new distributors slammed smack into the bursting dot-com bubble, fallout from the World Trade Center attack, the recession, and the accompanying decline in advertising spending. [...]
Considering these figures, one might conclude that a stock company would need to post at least $50 million in annual revenues to legitimately call itself "midlevel." [...]
No one interviewed for this article wanted to predict exactly where all these changes will take the market. Even if the industry starts to grow again, it will remain a finite market and agencies trying to become true midlevel will need to pull sales away from Getty Images and Corbis. Certainly the two large distributors will react competitively to any potential loss of market share.[...]

And finally:

Says one industry observer: "Every time you talk to picture buyers you hear them say, 'You know, I would like to buy stock from someplace other than Getty.' "

Picture buyers are repeating this Karma since the year 2000. But no one seems to like one solution recently presented at the PACA Annual Conference:

The PACA (Picture Archive Council of Amercia) 2004 Annual Meeting will be held May 15 & 16, 2004 in White Plains New York.
Quite interesting in this year´s program is of course the Art Buyers Panel: "Our past Art Buyer panels have been challenging, frustrating, and very informative. Those who attended New Orleans [last PACA meeting on November 2003] will remember the fireworks sparked when one art director said she prefers using GOOGLE to going to an agency, and then calling photographers directly." (Link)

[Hint for A21: you can´t release a third-party article as a stand-alone "Press Release, June 22, 2004"; this is "In the News" etc. otherwise ... . On the other hand, this "Recent Consolidations May Have Major Impact . . ." is the best Press Release ever]
[© Article "Recent Consolidations May Have Major Impact . . . " by The Stock Asylum]
[© Image Courtesy of NutcrackerUnite]

Visa pour l’Image – Perpignan 2004: Annus horribilis…

Jean-François Leroy in his Editorial (pdf-file) for the 16th International Festival of Photojournalism (August 28th – September 12th 2004; Pro-week: August 30th – September 5th):

This year, as you all realize, the very existence of Visa pour l’Image was in the balance.
We were somewhat shattered, wondering what life would be like without meeting up for this annual event.The solution finally turned up and we will back in Perpignan again this September! But this has made us aware of just how fragile we are. All your expressions of support and encouragement from around the world were certainly heartening and showed how important Visa pour l’Image has been for photographers, agencies, groups and cooperatives, magazines and the general public. Our thanks go to all of you for the trust you have placed in us.
On a more photographic concern, there has been the publication of the photos of Iraqi prisoners: amateur photos which have gone around the world, making people aware, or reminding them, of the role and power a picture has. Now, isn’t that what we’ve been saying over and over again for the last sixteen years?

This year about 30 exhibitions will be presented and numerous evening slide shows and presentations. The annual SYMPOSIUM (September 2nd and 3rd, from 2.30pm to 5.30pm) covers:

Presentations and debates will focus on two series of questions:
1) – The importance of photography in a world dominated by television
Why and how are still pictures remembered, while television visuals are invariably forgotten?
The situation seems to be widespread, with a few rare exceptions when there is no live photograph of a certain event. But even in such cases, television visuals are remembered as freeze-frames, thus a photograph becomes the intermediary for a televised shot!
While television has an immediate audience, a still picture can remain imprinted in the memory.
It is very rare for a picture produced for television to become an icon.
A photograph of an event can remain in people’s memories, can become a cultural phenomenon that goes beyond the news story, achieving the status of icon or myth.
2) – Technology and Ethics
The upheavals caused by the use of digital technology (the subject of Ignacio Ramonet’s presentation in 2002), have already changed working conditions for photojournalists. But surely there is a long-term risk of changing the job and professional practice of photojournalists.
Are ethics and the professional code of practice likely to be compromised if photojournalists are turned into “drones”?
Will technological advances affect the moral commitment of photojournalists in relation to their ultimate audience (i.e. the readers)?
What assessment (either positive or negative) can be made of the use of digital photography?

Philosophers, academics, researchers, historians, photographers and journalists take part in panel discussions, together with input from audiences of several hundred. The program is being developed with Dominique Wolton, research director (communication & politics, CNRS) and editor of the review “HERMES”; he will be present, together with other researchers, on both dates. Other contributors (tentative list): Howard S. Becker (sociologist, University of California), Patrick Bard (photojournalist), Michelle McNally (picture editor, New York Times).
Newbies should visit the section with clips for a first visual impression. Last year 174.000 visitors entered the exhibitions (TOTAL ENTRANCE since 1989: 1.649.098 !), 270 photo agencies participated. For submitters as always: "May we remind you that we are en International Festival of Photojournalism, and that we deal with current events and are not interested in art photogaphy."

New Ricoh Caplio GX and 40 GB iPod: three week trip abroad without lugging around a laptop

Ever tried to use your iPod as an external storage for pix taken with the new Ricoh Caplio GX? Derrick Story, author of "Digital Photography Pocket Guide" and "Digital Photography Hacks" in iPod as Digital Photographer's Best Friend:

Yes, the iPod can store thousands of songs. But now you can use it to upload thousands of pictures too, directly from the memory card. And thanks to Panther, that's only the beginning of what is sure to become an indispensable tool for many digital photographers.
For the digital photographer on the go, the iPod can be a valuable addition to the camera bag. It entertains while stuck in airports between flight connections, stores your appointments so you know where to be and when, wakes you up if you oversleep, and stores an entire trip's worth of photos.
Panther users have even more flexibility thanks to the Image Capture app that comes bundled. With it you can share pictures from your iPod over a Rendezvous network, build web page catalogs, or download selected images to your Mac's hard drive. (macdevcenter)

Senate Upholds Ban on Photos of GI Caskets

Update to the stories in the Categories "Iraq|War|Photography: The Meta Level" and "Iraq|War: Photos + Reports"

We have to report the sad news that

A divided Senate votes to uphold a Pentagon ban on media coverage of the return of war dead. Two months ago, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Air Force released hundreds of photos of flag-draped coffins. The Pentagon says no more will be made public. (June 22, 2004, NPR.org)

Obviously they haven´t learnt a thing at all. The next Tami Silicio is right behind the next corner.

[via Ed/Mira]