Letters from Italy with Pino Granata´s Ceterum censeo: The Stars Look Down

 

What is happening right now in our editorial and stock photo industry is unbelievable.

Getty Images is buying everything and now anybody can observe that we are under a monopoly regime.

What we do in these days is gossip. We talk of Getty Images, Corbis, acquisitions, stock market trends, but we dont talk about photographers and photography anymore.

 

It´s not clear to me what exactly is the strategy of Getty Images, but there are several options.

 

Corbis shows already the same kind of desire of controlling everything like Getty does and the next move might be Bill Gates buying everything. And Getty doesn´t want any close competitor just to hide the weakness of its company.

 

What really is impressing is the lack of any reaction of the other players in the industry, not to mention the immobility of the big publishing companies, advertising companies  and many others, which in the long run can´t tolerate to deal with only one image supplier.

 

Until now Getty has worked in the interest of its clients practizing prices which are very convenient, but what will happen when they will have full control over the market?

 

Believe it or not, I´m not really impressed by the recent events. I´ve been in this industry for more than 40 years and if I had had the opportunity and the will I could have done the same thing Getty Images and Corbis are doing with a tenth of the money they have invested and with better results for the company and for the clients.

 

Unfortunately I´ve worked in Italy, with the exception of a few years in Los Angeles, and Italy is a very small market that could be less than 1/100 of the whole market.

 

Much better than me could do people like Jim Roehrig, Richard Steadman and a few others. Let´s be honest: the market shows a lack of this kind of content.

 

Again, what we do in these days is gossip. We talk about Getty Images, Corbis, acquisitions, stock market trends, but we don't talk about photographers and photography anymore.

 

What the big agencies have done until now is to keep all the people outside who know about fine photography and photojourmalism and the results clearly demonstrate this lack.

 

Pino Granata

 

Pino Granata is the founder of Granata Images. Granata Images is now run by his sons and Pino works as editorial and stock photo consultant. He is been working in this industry since 43 years.

 

Related:

• Letters from Italy: Pino Granata´s Ceterum censeo on Corbis entering the Microstock Business (Feb. 18, 2007)
• Pino Granata: Who is the Dinosaur? (Feb. 06, 2007)
• Sipa Press Founder Goksin Sipahioglu Receives Premier French Order Légion d'honneur - A Comment By Pino Granata (Jan. 26, 2007)
• Pino Granata: Two Worlds Apart (Jan. 10, 2007)
• Picade, The New Photographer-Driven Stock Photo Agency: Forget RF Licensing, Photo Portals and Microstock (Nov. 28, 2006)
• A New Photographic Renaissance, by Pino Granata (Oct. 31, 2006)
• "Just fly in a different direction" (Oct. 10, 2006)
• The Bill Gates Mystery: An Open Letter From Pino Granata To The Founder Of Corbis (Oct. 03, 2006)
• "Is There A Future For Stock Agents?" (Sept. 20, 2006, by Jim Pickerell, Story 873, subscription required).
• Pino Granata: "Is there any future for photographers and agents?" (Sept. 16, 2006)
• Jason Pagan Launches Alternative Photojournalism Agency Anarchy Images (July 18, 2006)

 

Comments

[Ellen Boughn]

Pino: We have been friends for many years and I want to explain to you one of the reasons that I have joined a microstock company. It is because of the old-school manner in which they treat their contributors. By old school,I mean the way you and I remember when stock agencies were agencies not distributors. When it was our responsibility to look after photographers' best interests. You will say but YES look at the low prices in micro. But I say: look at the volume!

[Bryan Zmijewski]

Pino-
Well, I'd like to present the 'optimistic' side- perhaps it's because I'm naive- but I feel there are amazing things happening in photography.

With all the mergers and acquisitions, Getty did an incredible job bringing stock photos online (whether you like the tactics is a different issue). In the process, they took the 'people' part out of the business. I see this as an opportunity.

While owning a huge distribution channel is important, the internet still provides new ways to find photo buyers. It takes 'rethinking the problem'. It's not just about volume- it's about creating a network of people.

Bryan
Chief Instigator
LuckyOliver

[Itsme]

How can making .25 be good for anyone ? How many microstock sales will it take to even get your first $100 payout. Get real. The companies are making a fortune at the expense of the photographers. The art directors(and I know many) are buying the $1 photos and selling them to their clients for thousands while the photog gets. 25 and the client gets a full page photo for a major ad campaign.

Mia

[Jeff Greenberg]

"We talk of...acquisitions, stock market trends, but we dont talk about photographers and photography anymore."
==========
Keep talking about business, how to sell, how to sell more. Let shooters worry about photography.

[Ruben]

What is the point of publishing this guy's rants? He has nothing to add: just a lament about how old times were better.

And now we get the truly laughable "if I had had the opportunity and the will I could have done the same thing Getty Images and Corbis are doing with a tenth of the money they have invested and with better results for the company and for the clients."

I'm sure I am missing the historic role this gentleman played in the history of stock in Europe, but surely you could find a better analyst than he to help your readers make sense of the changes in today's stock landscape.

All of the above written with due respect....

R

[Pino Granata]

When I read the comments, I must say that I really don't understand what my friend Ellen wants to say. Of course I don't blame her for working for Microstock agency. If I had an offer I can't refuse I would do the same thing, we need to make a living. When she says look at the volume, well this is something I can't accept. It doesn't happen with any other industry, not even with the musical CD and I will never accept that is possible to sell for a dollar something which is worth a lot more and that cost a lot to produce.

Bryan claims that Getty has done an incredible job bringing the stock photos on line. Well I think stock photos were on line before Getty and anyway it was a unavoidable tecnichal process. Like the invention of the car engine or something similar. We don't have the pictures on line only thank to Getty.

With Mia I agree completely. And I hope there are more people thinking the way she does.

Jerry Greenberg advices to worry only about the market and not about photographers. Well I think it's almost impossible to care only about the agencies business and not to talk about shooters because I think if there won't be any changes will have less and less photographers shooting. And I must say that I expect to have more shooters to express their ideas about the situation of the market and if there will be a future for stock photographers.

Last but not least , this guy who calls himself Ruben. I won't respond to him since I want to know his complete name before talking to him.
Anyway what he says is hogwash!

[Ellen Boughn]

To Ruben: a couple of last words. Einstein repeated Issac Newton's quote "If I have seen further than others, it is because I was able to stand on the shoulders of giants." A lot of what is stock today was developed by individuals such as Pino Granata. And Pino: I should have emphasized not the volume in microstock but the community and the support that it gives that reminds me of the past.