I received several emails from discouraged photographers after they read Shannon Fagan’s guest post about the re-positioning of the stock photography business. One asked, “So why is it exactly that you (Ellen) are still telling me to spend time and money to upload stock photos?” My reply was a recommendation that this photographer remain in all of the possible revenue streams. A photographer should seek diversity in pursuit of multiple areas of income as, after all, stock photography is still a big business in terms of global distribution.
Plus photography continues to offer many of us a lifestyle rich with experiences. It’s about travel and the people we meet along the way. It has given myself and my colleagues, editors and photographers, one of the best rewards that money can’t often buy: an interesting life.
Portrait of Peggy's granddaughter. ©ShannonFagan/Getty Images
Shannon’s experience described in an email to me last week underlines how photography connects us. It highlights the value of those connections to our lives and the lives of others.
Shannon wrote: “Here is a story that is a reminder of why I love shooting stock photography. It has given me experiences like these, though bittersweet, that I doubt I would have had the time to develop had I focused on a career of strictly assignment work”.
“In the spring of 2005, I traveled to New Mexico to shoot an advertisement for Nikon cameras. A few months later, I returned to photograph in and around Santa Fe as a self initiated shoot follow-up to that trip. The resulting personal project photographs were accepted into Getty Images’ Rights Managed collections and one of them appeared on the walls of Getty’s Beijing sales office this past November. The photograph was of a child with a magic wand situated upon the wallpaper background of a kitchen breakfast nook. This was the granddaughter of Peggy, a wonderfully lively New Mexico actress and travel agent who had found her way into my casting folder by way of the New Mexico Film Board website.”
“Peggy had been taking acting classes in the Santa Fe area and it was natural that she might respond to my posting for lifestyle stock photography models. Peggy called herself “grand-meow” and certainly there was a purrrr of harmony between her and her family, and amongst herself and her neighbors. She was the perfect real life model; inviting, and resourceful. When I approached her to participate in a series of images about senior lifestyles, she aptly recommended her friends next door.”
Shannon Fagan's photo of Peggy's granddaughter hanging in the Getty Images Beijing office
“Peggy had told me in Santa Fe that she’d be headed to New York in two months with her girlfriends. And thus she did. In early October 2005, I got an email. Riding atop a Manhattan sightseeing bus down Broadway near the Brooklyn Bridge, Peggy saw a photographer gathered with his crew on the sidewalk. She knew him from his knee pads. They were the same knee pads that he wore at her house just a couple months prior. She told me that she shouted my name and waved until the tour bus operator told her to sit down.”
“I sent her an email this week telling her about her granddaughter’s photo hanging in the office in Beijing. I was a little surprised when her email bounced back just a couple minutes later. I Googled her name and Albuquerque (where she moved in 2006). I was shocked at what appeared at the top of the search field. (link below).”
“I have been lucky in this profession to touch people’s lives, and they in turn, have touched mine. It is these connections that explain why I have enjoyed the profession of photography. Had I not seen her granddaughter’s photo in China, I likely would not have thought to contact her, though Peggy certainly was a standout from my trip there to New Mexico.”
“These random things are not so random when you simply pay attention to all of the connectedness around us. It is a reminder to live each day to the fullest and never give up. Keep searching. Even when the truth hurts. I leave you with the news from Albuquerque, New Mexico on Aug 31, 2009. There is video coverage in the link.”
Peggy and her granddaughter©ShannonFagan/Getty Images
-Shannon Fagan
writing from New York City, February 22, 2010
David Sanger-Travel (and more) photographer
It is too limiting a characterization to call David Sanger simply a travel photographer. Yes, he travels a great deal and the majority of his photos fall into that genre. Even though travel photography can be one of the most conservative genres within stock, his work often displays unique points of view and his ideas about the future are positive and innovative. Even in a brief conversation with David, it is clear that his creativity isn’t limited to photography. He expresses wide-ranging and imaginative ideas in response to questions about the changing stock photo marketplace, copyright issues and the future of the business.
He has said, “Old markets are drying up but new opportunities are emerging, communicating with communities of consumers, photo aficionados, travel readers, citizens. The economics are completely different, but the possibilities tremendous. The key is providing something of value”.
David recognizes that stock photography ‘doesn’t say anything’ in the same way that photojournalism or editorial photos do. He speaks of disintermediation (elimination of the stock distribution company) as a road to more personal communication between photographers and the audience for the work:
“When images are distributed via middlemen, it is usually someone else’s message that is communicated. Disintermediation opens up the possibility, the responsibility, for a more personal communication. The focus then shifts to the personality, trustworthiness, authority, point of view and voice of the photographer, whether fine artist or journalist. …Those who are successful will be those who are the most compelling, engaging or insightful.”
Statue of Maitreya Buddha, Bingling si Grottoes, Gansu Province, China/©David Sanger
Surprisingly, Sanger hasn’t found that eliminating the middleman from his own licensing model to be as successful as he first expected three or four years ago. In addition to his primary outlet at Getty Images, he licenses his images direct to buyers using the PhotoShelter platform. For now, though, Sanger suggests that the major buyers of rights managed still rely mainly on account people at the large stock agencies to provide images to them. Of course, buyers come directly to David Sanger because they like to work with him … and they do … or for unique destinations and images.
He has used the experience gained from direct licensing and his past life in corporate computer systems to analyze user behavior on his personal stock site. He found over 10,000 (mainly blogger) domains linking to his photos. These users weren’t likely to pay for Sanger’s rights managed images. In light of the fact that copyright is not reasonably enforceable against a blogger, Sanger takes the high road, “It is not how to stop them but how to turn them into revenue paying customers. There is a huge appetite for images. Providing people with what they want has to be a good thing … but we have to find how to monetize it.”
“The Internet of people, social media, is a natural outlet for images. The sheer energy of Flickr conversations, the abundance of images that decorate MySpace and Tumblr pages, reveal people’s fascination with and devotion to images. Rather than fight the people who are interested in their images, photographers would do well to embrace them, engage them and discover how to transform that interest into viable economic support.”
Tajik shepherd and sheep by lakeside in Pamirs, China/©David Sanger
While the industry attempts to solve the revenue conundrum, David, is bullish about photographers creating value by ‘saying something.’ “Stock photography itself doesn’t really say anything on its own. We provide images to serve someone else’s message. No one is interested in my message [when I’m shooting stock].” Sanger suggests that photographers enter the creative conversation on a more personal level. “Find your voice,” is his closing advice.
A secret to David Sanger's travel photography is that he watches for the unexpected like this photo of woman off stage in variety show during Octoberfest in Munich/©David Sanger
About David Sanger: Sanger has traveled to over 100 countries. In addition to the travel work he shoots for corporate, shipping and non-profit clients including Bank of America, Exxon, the National Park Service, Clorox and Interorient. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Stock Artists Alliance and a former president of the organization. “I’m fascinated by technology, web design, data, communications and social media, especially how these offer photographers’ new opportunities for expression and for business”.
More about David and some of the best advice I’ve seen for travel photographers can be found at Photomedia Online.
David’s blog and website are at www.davidsanger.com
