When I read that Corbis is selling pictures for the incredible low amount of 16 cents each I felt a terrible discomfort and depression.
I wondered why this nightmare is happening just to me. It looks like there´s no ending to insanity and craziness.
Talking about our business it seems to me that we are going from the stars to the stables. I´ve never seen an industry changing philosophy so dramatically like photography.
For decades we used to talk with great pride about high prices we used to charge our clients, now we see photo agencies selling pictures for a few cents.
Why is this happening?
Is it only to let a few agencies survive?
In the last days I´ve seen that the shares of one of the big stock photo agencies are dropping to a low of $1.30 from $30 and more it used to be a couple of years ago.
I don´t think we need to further comment these figures. Somebody says that nobody cares about what photographers think about this situation and it looks like photographers are out of their own world right now.
We also have to wonder if there is an economic return for this industry within this policy of small prices.
The only thing that I´m able to think is that photography is now dead and Bill Gates with his Corbis is among the ones who have killed photography.
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.
Related:
- Pino Granata: About The New Corbis Museum (June 18, 2008)
- BAPLA Fair: A Happy Island (May 27, 2008)
- New York Photo Festival: Much Ado About Nothing (May 22, 2008)
- Pino Granata: Let´s try to do the right things (March 01, 2008)
- Pino Granata: Yahoo, Corbis, Flickr and Bill Gates (Feb. 03, 2008)
- Pino Granata: What´s next? (Jan. 30, 2008)
- Pino Granata: Publicists, vile damned race! (Jan. 15, 2008)
- Pino Granata: Much Ado About Nothing (Jan. 08, 2008)
- Pino Granata: Who's afraid of Getty Images and company? (Dec. 12, 2007)
- Pino Granata: Hollywood, I'm shocked! (Nov. 15, 2007)
- Ceterum Censeo: Pino Granata´s THE PHOTO MARKET IS SICK (Nov. 01, 2007)
- Potere Fotografico: The Power of Photography (Oct. 24, 2007)
- Ceterum Censeo: Pino Granata´s NOTHING TO CELEBRATE (Oct. 18, 2007)
- Pino Granata: The Rise and Fall of Getty Images (Aug. 06, 2007)
- Pino Granta: Everybody wins but not the photographers (July 23, 2007)
- Pino Granata: I´m so sad for Alexandra Boulat (July 23, 2007)
- Ceterum Censeo: Pino Granata´s We are not butchers (July 04, 2007)
- Ceterum Censeo: Pino Granata´s It's time to react (June 30, 2007)
- Ceterum Censeo: Pino Granata on SnapVillage by Corbis (June 26, 2007)
- Pino Granata: CEPIC - Time for a Change (June 21, 2007)
- Letters from Italy with Pino Granata´s Ceterum censeo: The Stars Look Down (Feb. 23, 2007)
- 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)
