DVPhoto

…the more they stay the same.

…created an army of photographers who run rampant over the globe, photographing objects of all sorts, sizes and shapes, under almost every condition, without ever pausing to ask themselves, is this or that artistic? …They spy a view, it seems to please, the camera is focused, the shot taken! There is no pause, why should there be? For art may err but nature cannot miss, says the poet, and they listen to the dictum. To them, composition, light, shade, form and texture are so many catch phrases…

So said E. E. Cohen in 1893^aa. What was he complaining about? Dry plate photography, the new process that was rapidly replacing wet plate colloidal photography^aa. In fact throughout the history of photography all new technologies and ideas were met with resistance from the currently established photographers of the day. It makes sense, since they have spent many years becoming an expert in their field, and when the new paradigm comes along their expertise is suddenly diminished in usefulness; they have to learn things anew. It happened then, wet plate vs dry plate, and now digital vs film; and even tradition stock vs micro stock.

Yes, micro stock, that newcomer to the block who has caused more anger and resentment amongst the old stock photographers than any other change. No other subject has generated more apocalyptic blog posts in the photographic community, with constant reports of falling revenues and worse. Mentioning you sell at a micro stock site is likely to get you a mountain of abuse hurled in your direction; the smaller macro stock agencies often not allowing anyone to join if they have been involved in micro stock.

Is this a good idea? They think it is, the general justification being the protection of their customers, just in case that micro stock supplier decided to provide the same image to both a micro stock site, and them. Sounds like a valid reason, doesn’t it?

Except Getty has bought out iStockphoto.com; and what the anti micro stock people won’t tell you, or perhaps don’t even know about, is that iStock exclusive photographers of diamond level (and possibly lower) now have the option to send their best photos to Getty’s Photodisc RF collection. Now this isn’t exactly the big time yet, still no RM managed stuff for the iStock photographers, but it is a first step; and it is clear that Getty intends to move the best photographers up into the much more expensive traditional stock business.

Now if you are new RM agency, you have two choices. Get people of all levels and ability, or restrict yourself to the good experienced stock photographers. Since you are selling your images at a much higher price, I seriously doubt you want to be getting amateurs in, so that really rules out the first option. Yet with the second option, it is going to be increasingly common to find the up and coming stock photographers to already be in micro stock. So if you bar them from joining your stock agency, they will go somewhere else.

The world of stock photography is changing, and no amount of complaining will change that. Like almost everything else in this modern world, quality goes out the door and is replaced by quantity, availability and cost effectiveness. People still manage to make a living of making quality, but there are less of them; the masses purchase what is cheap and available. So stop complaining about micro stock, and realise to make money in it, you will need to produce a ton of above average shots. To be able to make a living in the traditional stock business however, you will need to produce amazing work that stands out amongst the crowd.a

1. “Bad Form in Photography,” in The International Annual of Anthony’s Photographic Bulletinaaa
2. The wet plate process required that the plate be coated just before the photo was taken (the photo was exposed before the coating dried) and processed immediately afteraaa

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Tags: Philosophy

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