Continuation of Stock Conversation

I'd like to introduce guest blogger today, Amy DeVoogd. Amy is an illustrator I've worked with in the past, being a fan of her work I've also featured her art on this blog, she's also an avid commenter and brings the much needed illustrator perspective to some of the conversations.

In Amy's words:
I thought this might be an interesting tangent to add to the conversation about stock.

I went to this panel discussion yesterday and panel members included an illustrator, a rep, an art buyer, and an art director.

Most of the audience were graduating students, I'm presuming mostly in Illustration, although I believe there were a few photographers and graphic designers in the mix.

The panel talked about typical things graduating seniors should know, like portfolios, marketing, etc. and then sort of framed the industry from their individual points of view.

At the end during the Q+A session, I asked, "How do you guys feel about stock?" I felt like the seniors should know that it exists as a valid way to make money and get exposure, and I was honestly curious to hear how the panel would respond, especially the rep, since I myself have been told that I can forget about ever being represented because of my involvement with Getty, and I keep waiting for the tide to turn!

The rep said it was the worst thing ever to happen to the industry and that he wouldn't touch an artist who had done stock (okay, no surprise there.) The illustrator said that only the worst-of-the-worst artists do it (okay, so he's rich and famous and his phone rings off the hook for commission work.) But the most surprising response was from the art buyer, who said that in her 25 yrs she has "never, ever" bought stock illustration or photography for a project. Never? I find that hard to believe. And it saddened me, really, because I think it's misleading to these young professionals. I do understand that it's always preferable to commission work, of course, but it's not always practical. And I also understand that when stock came along it was a giant change and it hurt some contingencies like the already-famous and reps. But its definitely part of the landscape now, and there's no going back.

Personal Project - Susana Raab

above images ©Susana Raab

When I first looked at Susana Raab's images I laughed a bit at the quirkiness and subject matter. Her personal project, Consumed | Fast Food in the US, was the one that stood out the most to me. What I really love about this series however is the storytelling effect and not the typical cliche shots of fast food, obesity, and unidentifiable ingredients. It's really a cross-country journey of a photographer observing the effect and influence of fast food in the U.S.

What made you choose this project?
I returned to grad school in 2003 at Ohio University's School of Visual Communications with the intention of focusing on a long term series and redefining my career as a photojournalist. I chose fast food after reading Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation because the idea of illustrating this problem challenged me. It was an ubiquitous problem that affects us all, whether we eat fast food or not, and it's a subject that is located in our backyard. Yet the problem of illustrating it without focusing on pictures of obese people or people eating food and the resulting visual cliches was huge. Despite the difficulties of illustrating it, I was committed to focusing my time and energy on a subject I felt had not been explored exhaustively. In the end this project is about consumption which to me is one of our more interesting modern dilemmas. I also share the same birthday as Big Mac, yes, we debuted on the same day. And my great-grandfather was a distinguished professor of animal husbandry at Penn State University, author of the The Meat We Eat (sadly out of print today). So my concern with food, how we make it and how we eat it, is in the genes.

How many photos were there before you edited it down to the featured images?
This is impossible to say, the project is on-going, dovetailing nicely with another project I'm working on about America at leisure. I've been working on it sporadically for 4 years, I edit straight from the negatives and very selectively, so I have only made prints for about 30 other images you do not see on my website. But I'm getting back film today so that might change by this afternoon!

What was your favorite aspect of this personal project?
There are many aspects about this project that I am grateful for: I have found a voice in this series that very much represents my inner monologue. I've always enjoyed humor, and I believe I've found a way to express something very important, but do it in an unexpected way, so people are more accepting of it, and then the message slyly sneaks in. That's my intention at least. I like to call it the Mary Poppins effect, as a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Like many photographers I love having that passport to trespass, to travel around and familiarize myself with the American milieu, sundry as it is.

These pictures are mostly impossible to plan, as they are all documentary and unstaged (with the exception of a couple of portraits) - so it's really helped hone my awareness and presence while I'm concentrating on making the work. But sharing the work and surprising people is definitely the most fun. I love it when people tell me that first they laugh when they look at my pictures (with, not at - I hope!) and then they think about the pervasive presence of this industry and the deeper message behind these photographs. I'm an English major and one of the lessons I took from that education was that humor and tragedy are intertwined.

Susana is a documentary and editorial photographer based in Washington D.C. Check out this project and Susana's other work at susanaraab.com

State of Stock II

Apologies for a complete disconnect the past week.

So to follow up on the original State of Stock post, I have licensed stock imagery directly for photographers. I have purchased imagery from photographers directly when it was an image on their site that attracted me or the art director OR when I have always wanted to work with the photographer but never had the perfect situation arise and stock was the way to go.

Stock photography has kind of an ugly connotation to it - some people assume it's a stereotypical cheesy image with people perfectly framed and perfectly smiling directly at the camera, others (like myself) view it as an already existing image (whether photographed specifically for stock, personal, or commercial use) that is available for licensing.

I have also found that photographers are in the running cost-wise with stock houses and most often more affordable (and more willing to negotiate). In fact in the past few weeks I was working on a project with designers scouring all sorts of stock sites while I was searching photographer sites. Rony Shram came up with some amazing shots that fit the bill... in fact they liked them so much that they decided to commission him to do a small shoot for the project. AND since he's mostly a fashion shooter they loved the sexy/sleek look to his images but asked if he could apply them to cityscape... which he did. We got great imagery at close to stock pricing.

My opinion is that if you reach out to people, network, and let them know what you're doing they will most likely respond. Offering additional services and opportunities to clients makes you that much more marketable and someone they are likely to reach out to to help with the creative needs.

Delayed posting...

I'm a traveling queen this week and unfortunately have a busy schedule that I can't keep up with postings this week.

I love the responses to the State of Stock post from Monday... I will most certainly follow up with a post on this answering questions and backing up opinions.

Other things to look forward to very soon:

Creative Opinion follow up from October 6 - answers and opinions.

More personal projects to share - these are always fantastic, keep sending me stuff.

5 thing I like and don't like - I'll think of something, whether it's meetings, promos, reps, stylists, productions... dare I say it... clients (stay tuned).

I'll keep thinking of other things to come up with and share with the creative community and I encourage all of you to do the same.

Want to throw a question at me, get an opinion, or touch base on something I haven't thought of - You can email me here.

Cheers and chat soon

The State of Stock

PDN reported [here] last Thursday that JupiterImages has been acquired by Getty.

Today it's being reported [here]that Corbis is taking a hit with the economy and therefore are cutting the royalty rates it offers to their contributors (at least for rights managed).

With PhotoShelter having closed their stock house doors, Corbis cutting back, and Getty owning almost everything where does that leave the contributors who want other options. The microstock market offers images for a dollar - what royalty can they offer?

If stock imagery is still being purchased, which it is, and agencies want good images where do they head?

I still think individual photographers should offer stock imagery in addition to being commissioned for shoots. If the opportunity is there I say take it, especially since you get all the royalties and there isn't commission being paid to anyone but yourself (and you rep if you have one).

Responsibility

Suffering from a head cold today I left work (a freelance gig) early for the comfort of pajamas, cold medicine, and perhaps a nap... however being pretty busy, I feel like I was shirking some of my responsibilities.

What happens when you have a personal issue to address yet have work responsibilities you need to deal with as well? One ends up taking a back seat to the other unfortunately. The problem is trying to juggle personal things that pop up in addition to the work. Have a cold.. take the needed nap/rest and work a few extra hours in the evening. Have a larger personal family issue... talk to the people producing the job and open the lines of communications to find out if there is some wiggle room.

Most assuredly people will understand when you have personal things come up. Most people realize that everyone has a life outside of work where things come up and issues need to be handled. We all make it work out in the end and balance responsibilities.

Exclusivity

Clients more and more want to have exclusive imagery... this is a good thing. And I should clarify that I don't mean proprietary but instead they want the usage to cover their needs but also to have industry exclusivity, meaning a competitor will not have access to the same image.

By definition exclusivity means excluding all but what is specified... and this is where you should pay attention. Because more clients are enlisting this term in their usage parameters it means you should acquire, in some form of writing, what that actually specifies. For example, if you have a financial client looking for financial industry exclusivity, does it include credit, 401k, banks, investment firms, etc.? The more info you have, the better understanding you have of the clients terms and expectations, this way you don't have a breach of contract or any confusion.

Also with the exclusivity and getting all the information about what it entails means you can adjust your fee appropriately. Depending on the contract it may refer just to the imagery and talent or it might mean the client doesn't want you shooting for a competitor for the length of their usage - knowing exactly what the expectations are allows you to be completely prepared with both production and creative fees.