Archives: January, 2009
Mazer Corporation closes its doors, seeking buyer for creative services division
The Mazer Corporation, an educational publishing company based in Dayton Ohio, had recently launched a stock photography licensing business called Mazerstock. However the Dayton Daily News is reporting that company has closed its corporate and creative services divisions Tuesday, Dec. 30, and fired its staff, according to an internal to an e-mail by David Mazer, the company’s chief executive officer.
Jeff Downey appointed Director of Sales and Business Development for PicScout
PicScout, a technology company with offices in San Francisco and Herzelia Israel best known for helping stock licensing companies monitor online distribution of their content and PicApp a platform offering free images to bloggers. Has announced that it has appointed Jeff Downey to the post of Director of Sales and Business Development. Downey joins the PicScout team with more than 20 years experience in the photo industry including experience at Getty Images where he spent the last nine years streamlining operations and creating effective sales practices and tools.
News
Remembering Betty Freeman, photographer & patron of the arts
Betty Freeman, who died at her home in Los Angeles on January 4, 2009 at the age of 87, was a leading patron of new music in the late 20th and early 21st century. She was the force behind such modern classics as John Adam’s opera Nixon in China, Steve Reich’s electronic string quartet Different Trains and Harrison Birtwistle’s Antiphonies, and the dedicatee of works by Cage, Feldman, Berio and dozens more. She found Harry Partch living on the streets of Los Angeles and gave him shelter in her garage. In all, more than 80 composers were beneficiaries of her support, in over 400 works. Betty was also a close friend of the artists David Hockney and R B Kitaj and a gifted photographer in her own right. Her portraits of modern composers, taken with the privilege of close and prolonged collaboration, are exclusively represented by Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library.
Features
Mr. Stock Smarty Pants weighs the merits of content vs. distribution for stock photographers
Finally, it’s here: a new year…a new outlook…a new President…a new opportunity to apply to Congress for a bailout! Yes, I can reveal to you, my loyal readers and confidantes, that Mr. Stock Smarty Pants invested considerable time and energy over the holidays figuring out just the right angle to use in applying for his own, personal “bridge loan.” And, unlike Sarah Palin’s bridge-to-nowhere, this bridge is going to carry MSSP right into a brand new condo in Aruba! And hey, why not? Why are a bunch of overpaid idiots who have run The Big Three right into the ground more deserving of millions of dollars from the public trough than a fellow like me who has unselfishly devoted his life to helping photographers around the world figure out how to cash in on their photos? OK, OK…maybe I haven’t devoted my whole life to that endeavor…maybe it’s been more like a half hour every few weeks…still, I think it’s my constitutionally-granted right to get my own little stimulus package (though I must admit that I normally prefer to get my stimulus from my buddy Hugh Hefner’s overflow). But, as always, I have a back-up plan: if the bailout scheme falls through, I just might embark on a whole new career…politics! Can you say: SENATOR Stock Smarty Pants of Illinois? Well, enough about me, and on to your trivial little problems…
News
Obama appoints Ohio University professor Pete Souza as White House photographer
Barack Obama has announced the appointment of Pete Souza, an assistant photojournalism professor at Ohio University,to be the next official White House photographer for the Obama administration. Souza is no stranger to Obama and the White House, having documented Barack Obama’s arrival in the Senate for the Chicago Tribune, and serving as the official photographer for President Ronald Reagan. Souza, who joined Ohio University in 2007, published a book documenting Obama’s rise to national prominence which became a New York Times bestseller released in July entitled The Rise of Barack Obama.
News
Medicimage to be exclusive provider of medical imagery to imense Picturesearch
Medicimage, a specialist library from the UK, featuring a medical & healthcare stock photography collection has announced an exclusive distribution partnership with imense Picturesearch to be the sole medical specialist library providing images appearing on the service at imense.com. “The imense picturesearch portal has been created to present the ‘best of breed’ imagery and we are delighted to have been granted exclusive status because it is an independent endorsement that our content is high in production values and originality” stated David Davis, co-founder of Medicimage.
News
Steve Caplin launches thefullmontage a specialty photo library for Photoshop artists
Steve Caplin, a leading photomontage artist and author of several books on digital design with Photoshop, has launched a new stock image library for photomontage artists. The library contains both finished royalty-free (RF) artwork and montage components intended to make it faster and easier for Photoshop users to complete complex photo montage artwork. “Photoshop is the image tool of choice, both for professional designers and for home users. thefullmontage offers images that are both time-saving and inspirational and gives users of all abilities the resources they need to bring their ideas to life,” stated Caplin.
News
SIPA Press now representing NBC Universal Photo Bank
NBC Universal has announced a partnership with SIPA Press appointing SIPA Press as a distribution partner for NBC Universal archival television photos offered in the NBCU Photo Bank. The NBCU Photo Bank was launched In July 2006, as an in-house business unit and online photo archive to handle its own photo licensing and distribution of its collection of more than 15 million (digital and analog) images dating from the present time back to the 1920s NBC Radio Days. “NBC Universal Photo Bank is delighted to partner with SIPA Press to further expand our distribution opportunities in Europe,” said Ray Slay, Senior Vice President, NBC Universal Photography and New Media. “We are looking forward to this valuable new relationship which will make NBC content even more readily available to our international clients.”
News
POLFOTO becomes exclusive representative of Corbis RM collection in Denmark
Corbis, widely believed to be the world’s 2nd largest stock licensing company, has announced that it has signed an agreement with POLFOTO, one of Denmark’s largest photo agencies, to exclusively represent Corbis’ rights managed (RM) stock photography collection in Denmark. “We are honored to work with Corbis with this new agreement,” says managing director Kirsten Anker Sørensen. “Our partnership with Corbis will provide Danish media, designers, publishers and advertising agencies with access to world-class collections.”
News
Construction Photography offering time-lapse HD footage of London’s Olympic Park
London based Construction Photography, a stock agency specializing in construction photography and images of the built environment, has announced that it is documenting the construction of the new Olympic Park in Lea Valley, East London, with time-lapse photography of what has become the largest construction site in Europe. Construction Photography is documenting this process with High Definition (HD) cameras overlooking the site, benefiting from the highest viewpoint over the Park. The ground breaking Time Lapse system takes two images every minute from several angles and will continue documenting the activity until 2012 and during the Games.
Features
JupiterImages responds to allegations of shaving commissions in Europe
Recently Stefan Hartmann, a journalist with years of experience covering the stock photo industry, published an article entitled ”JupiterImages accused of shaving commissions in Europe” a piece that was excerpted from an original story published in the German trade publication Visuell. In this story the author highlighted the matter of Service Fees charged clients licensing rights-managed (RM) images from Jupiter’s German and French offices, and whether such fees have been legitimately charged over and above the license fees, resulting in unfairly reducing the commissions owed to the contributors. Since publishing this article on December 18 many readers have responded with follow-up comments including two comments from Jupiter management. In fairness to Jupiter, and to allow our readers a complete and unbiased view, we have published their original comments in their entirety and subsequent follow-up questions and answers from Jupiter Management.
ImagePoint AG acquires German photo agency One to X
ImagePoint, an independent photo agency based in Zurich has announced that it has taken over the business activities of the Karlsruhe Germany based stock photography agency One to X. ImagePoint will begin integrating the images from One To X into its own platform and has assumed customer service for former One to X clients.
News
RGB Ventures, a consortium of RF supplier, buys Superstock-USA
A consortium of small RF supplier companies called RGB Ventures and including rubberball productions, Glow Images and other members of the RF production group, Blend Images, have purchased the assets of a21/Superstock, the Jacksonville, Florida, based stock photo company that filed for bankruptcy in November of 2008. The group paid $2,825,000 for the company. The new owners plan to keep the company going with Lanny Ziering, heretofore Director of Business Development at Blend, will assume the position of CEO.
News
Corbis partners with Thought Equity Motion
Corbis, a leading stock licensing company, has announced a partnership with Denver based Thought Equity Motion, a leading stock footage licensing company. According to the terms of the new agreement the two companies will cross-distribute their footage collections, giving Corbis a much larger footage offering to distribute including content from Paramount Pictures, MGM, NBC News, HBO, National Geographic, Sony Pictures, the NCAA and many other notable collections represented by Thought Equity Motion.
News
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich London launches a new Picture Library website
The National Maritime Museum has announced that it has launched a new website for its picture library located at nmmimages.com. The library features more nearly 15,000 images which are available for licensing online which have been selected from the TheNational Maritime Museum’s collection of almost three million items. Publishers and designers will find a variety of historical maritime content including oil paintings, prints, historic photographs and objects from the Museum’s unrivalled maritime collections. The library has stated plans to expand the range of images offered for licensing online throughout the year.
Features
Trunk Archive brings the world of fashion to stock licensing
Trunk archive is a relatively new stock licensing with a slightly different approach. Hailing from New York City, the company appears to have carved out a niche by consolidating the work of top fashion, beauty, interior and lifestyle photographers. “The artists we represent are the premier advertising, celebrity, editorial and fashion photographers. For example, we represent the archives of Inez Van Lamsweerde + Vinodh Matadin, Pamela Hanson, Raymond Meier, Mary Ellen Mark, Peggy Sirota Walter Chin and Max Vadukul, amongst many others” stated Matthew Moneypeny, CEO of Trunk Archive.
News
iStockphoto working with The Sony World Photography Awards
iStockphoto, a micro-payment stock photography business owned by Getty Images, has announced a partnership to become the official Amateur Selection committee for the 2009 Sony World Photography Awards (SWPA). Launched in 2007, The Sony World Photography Awards, include a week-long festival, an online magazine located at worldphotographyawards.org, and an international student program. The winner of L’iris d’Or – the best photograph for both the amateur and the professional awards – will be announced at the awards ceremony in Cannes on 16 April 2009.
News
StockFood sponsors Fab Futures Award for young designers
StockFood a niche stock photography companybased in Kennebunk Maine and specializing in Food and Beverage imagery, has announced that it is once again sponsoring the “FAB Futures Award” as part of an international Creative Awards program focused entirely on creative work done for Food And Beverage brands. The “FAB Futures Award” is for designers aged 30 or under, who are challenged to create a promotional campaign for a fictitious food or beverage brand, using an image from the StockFood collection.
News
Fotolia to offer micro-payment stock footage
Fotolia, a popular micro-payment stock photography site, has announced that it is expanding its product offering to include stock footage and the agency is now calling for users to begin uploading user-generated video submissions to be licensed as royalty-free video clips at microstock prices. Other micropayment stock archives have taken a similar step to offer footage including iStockphoto and Shutterstock who began in 2006.
Features
Interview with photographer and ephotos founder Chi Modu
As a new feature for abouttheimage readers, ephotos.com has agreed to publish regular interviews with commercial, editorial, and documentary photographers. The mission is to give fans of photography, amateur photographers, and professionals, a view from the field. Photographers are behind the camera, so we want to shine a little light on the people that open up windows to the world for the masses. They all have interesting stories to tell about their experiences. The first such interview was conducted by the ephotos staff with its founder and world renowned photographer Chi Modu. Let’s not waste any time and get right to it.
