Pino Granata: Let´s try to do the right things

 

The stock photography at all is doing very badly.

Still we have to analyze what will be the impact on the industry of the sale of Getty Images to Hellman & Friedman which is the most important event in years. This is a fact that can´t be denied.

Every day there are some more bad news. Now we get to know that Masterfile will fire some employees and other agencies will lower some prices.

But these things now happen almost every day. To lay off employees and to lower prices will not solve the problem of this industry and it will make things even more worse and this is another fact.

20 years ago I was dealing with Tony Stone to represent his agency in Italy.

 

Tony took me to see a room and he told me: "You see in this room here´s our master collection".

I don´t remember well if the master collection was made with 4,000 pictures or 20,000 pictures, but I remember quite well that Tony told me that with the master collection, they made 60 percent of their turn-over.

In the same time everybody who has been in the business for some years knows that more than 50 percent of the turn-over of the stock photo agencies came from the selling of the pictures from -- catalogues.

The success of agencies like Image Bank, The Stock Market, Telegraph Colour Library, Sharpshooters, FPG, Tony Stone and Mauritius Images, just to mention a few, came from catalogues in which were published the three or four percent of the pictures these agencies had in their files.

The prices at that time were incredibly high compared to those of these days and quality much better because photographers and agencies used to invest a lot of money in producing new pictures.

How come that everybody at that time was doing very good while today we need to fight to stay alive?

Well I´d like to know the opinion of the other people in the industry. I´m not saying we should go back in printing catalogues again, but the fact remains that until 10 years ago things were OK and now it´s NOT OK anymore.

Something must change or otherwise it will be the worse.

  

Pino Granata

   

Pino Granata is the founder of Italy-based Granata Images. Granata Images is now run by his sons and Pino works as an editorial and stock photo consultant. He is been working in this industry since 45 years.

     

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Comments

[Mark Zanzig]

You wonder why ten years ago everybody was doing very good while today we need to fight to stay alive? Well, in my view it's a matter of supply and demand.

Digitalization, globalization, and the Internet have increased the number of easily accessible decent shots, while demand for high-end photos is slowly decreasing as print publishers seek ways to reduce their cost. No wonder image prices are dropping like a rock.

Read more at: http://www.zanzig.com/blog/?p=104

[Jagdish Agarwal]

Dear Pino Granata,

You are right but there is a solution. Think global but act local. We have managed to survive in this business due to the strength of our local content. Also over the years we have kept our photographers happy. Dinodia was the first professionally managed photo library in India. It has many firsts to its credit: first to send monthly cheques to its photographers in India, first to print monthly newsletters in India, first to have regular photographers awards and meetings in India, first to print a catalogue in India, first to have a fine art exhibition in India , first to have a motivational camp and outing in India, first to have a website www.dinodia.com with online sales in India, first to start a weekly art walk in India, etc. etc..

And we have to take care of our customers.

Life will go on...

Jagdish Agarwal
www.dinodia.com

[Pete Phipp / Travelshots.com]

It will be interesting to see if Getty and Corbis with their poor percentage return to photographers from lower and lower sales fees will survive. Personally Alamy and DRR and others with instant uploads and good percentage returns for photographers are the only way that the suppliers (ie photographers) can make a living.