Archives: December, 2007
News
Agence France-Presse invests in citizen journalism venture Scooplive
Agence France-Presse (AFP), one of the first news agencies in the world (created in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas), has teamed up with IAM (a company founded by Xavier Gouyou Beauchamps and Pascal Josèphe), to become a minority shareholder in Scooplive (which has been renamed Citizenside), a pioneer in citizen reporting. The investment follows the acquisition of Scoopt by Getty images in March 2007 and further signals a change in traditional media outlets embracing citizen photojournalism as a legitimate source for editorial images and video content.
Features
PRODUCT REVIEW: Spark*y Pro GREEN, a production guide for professional photographers
Cost: US$95.00
As any good stock photographer knows, success requires as much business sense as artistic talent. And, like any business person, a photographer must manage every aspect of their operation as efficiently as possible. This applies as much to the management of their creative processes as to the economic and technical parts of their business activities. Spark Visual Research offers a new tool, Spark*y Pro, a market research report and photo shooting guide wrapped in one document, created to help professional photographers manage the creative process more efficiently. To photographers looking to ensure the fruits of their labors meet the demands of the market, the Spark Visual Research production manual is as essential as the right lenses or lighting equipment.
News
Photolibrary brings Index Open subscription to the UK
The Australia based Photolibrary Group has announced the launch of a UK version of Index Open, a stock photography subscription product originally developed by Index Stock Imagery (Acquired in 2006), located at http://www.indexopen.co.uk. The new site has been rejuvenated with additional content boasting more than 250,000 images (IndexOpen.com claims to have 100,000 images). In addition Photolibrary has stated plans to expand its subscription offering into several of its other territories and will also launch an updated http://www.indexopen.com into the US market.
News
Myrold Studios offering platinotype photographs expected to last thousands of years
Minneapolis based Myrold Studios was launched this year with the aim of creating specialized personal photographic collections with a focus on creating archival images for those looking to preserve their history. The company was launched by Jason Myrold who intends to produce Black and White ‘Platinotype’ images harnessing the stability of the precious metal platinum on high quality paper resulting in photographs with the potential to last thousands of years.
News
New Zealand firm Keedup to provide outsourced research services to photo libraries
Keedup, an Auckland, New Zealand keywording company, has decided to add another service to its offerings to stock photo libraries: picture research. The company believes many photo libraries miss out on sales because their staff can't keep up with research requests during regular business hours or simply don't get to off-hours requests soon enough to meet clients' deadlines. According Kevin Townsend, managing director at Keedup, "This is a particularly big problem for small to medium size libraries and photo agencies who are based in one country. When the day comes to an end there is often no one around to deal with customers' research requests."
Features
Writer’s Guild strike: Old labor meets new media
For those of you outside the United States, this past month's strike by the Writer's Guild of America may not have been high on your minds. For those of us Stateside, the strike meant broadcast re-runs and a slowdown of the TV and film business. While the strike has had a real-world impact on the livelihoods of individual writers and large media corporations, it has also served as a great illustrative example of the shifts in industry and labor over the past 100+ years.
News
photolibrary awaits PACA’s assessment of the facts in commissions snafu
The Sydney-based photolibrary finds itself in an uncomfortable position over a November 11 email to Index Stock photographers from photolibrary’s then recently hired controller, Carlos Santos. In the email, Santos contradicts earlier claims by the company that it had paid all outstanding commissions to contributors of Index Stock, which photolibrary acquired in October 2006. In fact, Santos wrote, the company still owes $2.2MM to photographers. Santos has since lost his job, the Stock Artists Alliance is crying fowl, and the Ethics and Grievance Committee of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) has agreed to review the case.
News
Corbis partners with SendMe Mobile to deliver red carpet images to mobile phones users
Corbis has announced a a partnership with SendMe Mobile, a leading entertainment platform for mobile phone users, to deliver red carpet and celebrity images to mobile phones consumers. This agreement marks a big step by Corbis to bring commercial entertainment imagery to the consumer market. In addition, the entire Corbis mobile library will also be available through SendMeMobile.com with a wide range of premium photos.
News
Image Source woos high-end clients with members-only section of web-site
Image Source has launched an intriguing marketing ploy by creating a members-only section of its web-site for high-volume clients. Called “The Black Zone,” clients given access to it will find exclusive content and features and special offers and gifts. As the world's largest independent producer of royalty free stock photography, Image Source reaches customers through both channel distributors and directly with its own web-site and direct sales team. In a market where the low-end clients are steadily migrating to micro-stock, the high-end customers become even more important. The Black Zone is designed to help the company cultivate deeper relationships with its most valuable clients.
News
News Brief: Alex Leslie appointed CIO at Masterfile
The Toronto based Masterfile Corporation has announced that Alex Leslie has been appointed to the post of Chief Information Officer (CIO) responsible for all areas of technology at Masterfile supported by a staff 30.
News
Photocase reaches 100,000 image milestone
Photocase, a micro-payment stock photography site based in Berlin, is celebrating that it has reached the milestone of 100,000 photos on its site. The total number of images may seem a bit small compared to the millions of images offered by other micro-stock companies but Photocase claims to "focus on quality over quantity" while still adding 28,000 images this year alone.
News
Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Bilal Hussein informed of allegations more than 600 days after b
Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press (AP) photojournalist was imprisoned in Iraq by the US Military more than 600 days ago without ever being charged. Finally after 20 months of outcries from the AP and others, Mr. Hussein, a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, had his first hearing last week to hear more about the allegations against him; However, formal charges have not been made. According to a report issued last week by the EPUK “The nature and detail of the allegations made during the seven-hour private hearing cannot be reported for legal reasons”. The report further states “The US military prosecutor provided the Iraqi investigating magistrate Dhia al-Kinani with what the US military previously described as “compelling evidence”, copies of the documents were not given to Hussein’s defense lawyer Paul Gardephe. Al-Kinani will now privately review the evidence against Hussein, and decide whether or not Hussein’s case should proceed to trial”.
News
RightsAgent launches platform to license, distribute, and monetize, user-generated content
RightsAgent, a new company headquartered in Cambridge, MA, has launched an online platform to allow users to license and monetize content including text, pictures, and videos. The company´s Internet-based free service allows users to consolidate the work they publish across the web into a unified feed, license their work with both Creative Commons and for-profit options, and build reputation based upon the value of the content they create.
EditorialsFeatures
Editorial: photolibrary deserves better
In a complete and concisely worded release, photolibrary answered its critics over its handling of back commissions owed to Index Stock photographers for periods previous to photolibrary’s acquisition of Index in October of 2006. To this writer, the explanations given by Tim Moore, photolibrary’s CEO, demonstrate the company has acted in good faith and continues to do so. Those still inclined to suspect photolibrary of being less than forthright with the Index contributors would do well to consider the following:
Features
Visual case study: Walmart
Walmart, the world’s largest public corporation, moved to the Martin Agency at the beginning of the year. This is the same creative house that brought us the Geico Gecko, the Geico Caveman and the tagline “Virginia is for Lovers”. They have been repositioning Walmart under a new tagline “Save Money. Live Better.” In their on-air spots, they illustrate what a family can accomplish with the extra $2,500 they save by shopping at Walmart and in the process, have done a great job softening the retailer’s tarnished reputation. Meg Asaro and Karen D’Silva from Spark Visual Research take a closer look at the images used by Walmart to reach middle-class America.
News
Art Resource now representing The Kimbell Art Museum
New York based Art Resource, a specialty library featuring fine art imagery, has announced that it is now representing The Kimbell Art Museum of Fort Worth TX as its official image rights and reproductions representative. The 35 year old museum houses a small but focused collection of less than 350 works, however many of the works are considered masterpieces of world art.
News
Getty calls “web product” a success
After three months in the market, Getty Images says their controversial $49 web-product has been a ringing success. Last September, the announcement that Getty would make images from all its collections (including right-managed and rights-ready) available for web-use at 500KB for only $49 was met with much skepticism on the part of photographers and other image suppliers. Getty now says the product not only brings in new customers, but that many of those customers also purchase licenses for other, broader uses.
Features
Mr. Stock Smarty Pants sends a pre-holiday missive
Mr. Stock Smarty Pants normally reserves this time of year exclusively for lounging in the hot tub and consuming fine brandy by the snifter while awaiting his next excursion out onto the slopes here at St. Moritz. However, I was caught in an unguarded moment (not to mention a compromising position) several months ago by the editors of About the Image, and thus I’m obligated to answer one of the many annoying pleas for enlightenment they have forwarded to me. So, let us consider this tale of ignorance from a chap named Ron who resides somewhere in the bleakness of Oklahoma:
News
Image Source teams up with Fotolia to enter mid-stock market
Stock photography industry blogger Paul Melcher did some digging into an announcement from micro-stock company Fotolia regarding its entry into so-called mid-stock pricing. The announcement from Fotolia said the company has created a new collection called “Infinite,” made up of images from professional photo agencies. Melcher did some searching around and discovered that one such company is Image Source who, earlier in the year, shunned the $49 pricing implemented by Getty.
News
Crestock announces winner of 2007 Photoshop Contest
Crestock, the micropayment site hailing from Bodø, Norway, has announced the winner of their second annual Crestock Photoshop Competition. The contest was won by Jerico Santander, a Spaniard who created the composition "The music nature" (shown here), utilizing imagery supplied by Crestock for the four-week competition.
Features
Book Review: Puppies Behind Bars by Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg
Puppies Behind Bars: Training Puppies to Change Lives by Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg
Glitterati Inc., October 2007
144 pages/hardcover/168 photographs/$50.00
Puppies Behind Bars: Training Puppies to Change Lives is a seamless collaboration between photographers Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg who document prison inmates training dogs to help those in need. The project hatched when Makos met an extraordinary Labrador, a recent graduate of the Puppies Behind Bars program, riding as if human on a flight to Houston. That was unusual enough to stimulate Makos’ eye and out came the camera instead of a much needed pillow.
News
Face to Face opens new office in Paris
Face to Face opens new office in Paris Face to Face, a news and entertainment specialist agency based in Hamburg, has announced that it is expanding into Paris. The office will be run by Andreas Stenger, a German who has lived in Paris for the last 18 years, with more than 20 years experience as a photo editor, and Francois Pugnet who has a similar experience as a photographer. The two will focus on establishing the business in France with their own production and sales while representing the work of many of the contributors submitting to the German face to face agency.
