To cast a wider net

June 17, 2007 by pmelcher.

Stock photography is like fishing. No, not like fly fishing or any other individual recreation, more like un-romantic industrial fishing.

Since this industry puts the offer before the demand, it somewhat uses the  same strategy as fishermen. You throw your bait in a region where you think a lot of fish will be attracted to it. Sometimes it works, like microstock, sometimes it doesn’t, like Corbis.

The idea that lies within is that clients do not know what they want before they see it, therefore, supply creates demand. For example, there was no demand for the Ipod before it was created.

In the editorial world, you have strong currents to help you : The news dictates where those clients are going to be. Albeit, since there is a lot of bait floating out there, it still doesn’t guarantee a successful catch.

In the commercial world, it is not so easy. You can somewhat predict which color will be in fashion when and follow the softer currents of trends but those fish do not seem to want to swim together. So you go for the generic brand which might taste disgusting in an wasted effort to please everyone, or you enter the highly specialized high end, fine cuisine bait to catch those extremely rare and exquisite species.

One thing is for sure, one type of bait, one type of fish. Same goes with photography. So if you are going to “niche” yourself in order to protect from the big bad industrial fishermen with a supra fleet of competition destroying boats, than do not expect to get anything better than a “niche” revenue.

However, for those throwing any kind of bait all over the place in the hopes that the fish you catch will cover for the cost of the bait, there is a huge risk. For one thing, it pollutes. Visual pollution is becoming a threat as serious as global warming for some photo agencies, as they threaten to asphyxiate the same waters as they fish in. Some say an image has no value if it can’t be seen, wrongly believing that the value of an image lies in its availability. They, therefore, throw everything out there. Huge mistake. A lot of images can be seen these days, and quite frankly, still have no value.

This industry, with its archaic marketing methods which rely more on luck and gut than research, is in desperate need of worthy captains, the ones that always know where and when the catch is going to be rewarding.

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