"This year I left both Alamy and Getty because I simply cannot stand seeing my work sold for next to nothing.
In general photography business has suffered what I consider a “perfect storm” of changes: the internet, the disappearance of much of print, digital photography and the overabundance of imagery, and the major stock agencies taking over smaller “mom and pop” stocks agencies. Then the price war, mostly started by Getty, drastically lowered prices and led Corbis to go out of business.
I really cannot paint a rosy picture for anyone who wants to do this “dream job.” I think that boat has sailed, unfortunately.
A great portion of my income in the last five years has come from enforcing my copyrights. The digital age has made it easy for people to copy and steal photography, music, writing, etc. I am thankful that I registered much of my work with the U.S. Copyright Office before I started to find infringements.
I worked with Pixsy in the beginning and still do somewhat. Through their site, which helps you reverse search your entire website, I found something like 100,000 infringements! Most were in places where there is nothing I can do about it: China, India, or safari companies in Africa. But in the US, UK, Germany, and a handful of other countries, pursuing copyright infringement works.
In stock photography, there is this one-size-fits-all approach to pricing. A photo taken with an $8,000 super-telephoto lens is priced the same as an iPhone photo. One photo is absolutely much better than another. Doesn’t matter. Same price. One photo was taken from a helicopter that I paid $600 for the flight. Doesn’t matter."
Having made income for many years as a photojournalist I have to totally agree with Mr. Harrington. When setting up a film camera especially the medium and large format cameras, which were generally very expensive, to take 20 prints in the home that one will be the "one" took years of training. Today anybody with a good camera phone who is at the right place at the right time can make more money on the internet easily.
ReplyDeleteSad reality. I am an amateur photographer. I respect the skills of the professionals. Being lucky with a photograph happens, but a professional knows far more when viewing scenery or portrait work.
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