Of Apple and Oranges

February 5, 2010 by pmelcher.

So, there was something very interesting about the photo news the week. On one side, you have the mighty Getty ( aka, the whale) who took a deep plunge in pricing with its subscription RF offering, combining microstock and pro , and on the other, legendary Magnum who manage a great coup by selling some used prints for an estimated $ 30 million dollars.

Like two extremities of the same stick, this is a great reflection of where the business of photography stands today . On one side an entity that has reduced its photography to a cheap commodity to be sold as individual snapshots and on the other, a photographers coop that is so highly respected that it can sell old back and white prints full of written notes as highly valuable historical artifacts.

Yet, both are selling the same thing : photographs . According to numerous interview given by Mark Lubell, director of Magnum New York, one key condition for the members of the coop to approve the sale was that the images would not be scattered and sold as individual entities. Magnum photographers have a long established tradition of selling pictures as a story, a group of images, that tells a story. It has been numerously debated, over the years, that Magnum could have maybe had made more profit if it had broken  these stories and sold them as individual images.

But none of the photographers-creator would have it any other way. Shot as a story, sold as a story. Part of the condition for the deal with the Michael Dell owned fund is that images cannot be separated from the story they belong to. On the other end of the spectrum, Getty does the exact opposite. It extracts images from their context, their stories , and sell them as individual files. There motivation is that the image, alone, has more chance of finding a buyer than a group of images, sold as a story. Also, individual files sales  can easily be automated while photo essay, and photo journalism in general, needs a pitch, an explanation, a real human sales person.

And there is where a key differentiation appears that is reflected everywhere in the marketplace. If your business is about licensing individual files, then its all about volume. You do not take a proactive approach to selling. Instead, you try to cover any possible potential need for an image that could humanly be conceived. You stick them in an archive. And then you wait . You wait for a buyer to come and be hooked. or not. The market creates the demand.

If you license a photographer’s work, a story, a career, an inspiration, the approach is completely different. You cannot wait for a client to come and find it. You have to go out and fetch it. You have to take the photographer’s work, find a potential client who could be interested and close the deal. The photographer, in this case, creates the demand.

If you want the market to create the demand, the prices are low, very, very low. If you create the demand, the prices are high, very high.

Unfortunately, most photo agencies these days have gone the route of competing with each other on the individual file sales path. Mostly because it much easier, cheaper, and demands almost no special skills. The more the agencies, the more the offer, the more prices go down. Getting amateurs to fill these image banks has recently greatly lowered the costs, with the pervert effect of also lowering the prices.

Magnum, and others, like Contact, Redux, PictureGroup, Aurora have deliberately chosen to represent photographers’ work and not distribute individual files. Their production is the reflection of its chosen creators, their image bank set up to license stories , and their sales staff experienced in the complex art of pitching. Sure, it’s more expensive and much more complicated. It demands talent and sometimes obstination against frustration. However, the prices are dictated by the value perceived by the creator, not the by the market. The result : deals like Magnum just made.

In photography, it’s not the market who dictates the pricing. It’s how you present it.

Posted in magazine, celebrity, technology, Cosmos, Aurora, commercial stock, license, prosumer, getty, Royalty free, news, editorial, photojournalism, transaction, Microstock | Print | 1 Comment »

And you thought you knew

March 6, 2009 by pmelcher.

Photography is much more powerful than we think it is. It can take pictures of the past. Take this image that you might have seen before, photographed by the Hubble telescope in 2004 :

What you are seeing is the farthest image ever taken. Those tiny faint lights in the back are actually more than 10 billion light years away. That certainly beats your long lens. That is already incredible in of itself. But what is more amazing about this image is that it is a snapshot of the past.

Let me explain. Since light travels at about 300,000 km per second, those far away proto galaxies that are you now looking at looked like that about 17 billion years ago. A few 100,000 million years after the big bang.  As your eyes travel back to closer galaxies, the ones that are bigger and more fully shape, you are actually also traveling to a timenearer to the present. ( leave or take a few billion light years)

A better way to understand this image is through an 3d animation like this:

As you past the  galaxies you are also going back in time, from more recent to extreme past. Thus the image you see above is a snaphot of the past And yes, photography can take pictures of the past. Multiple pasts, actually.Now, with that in mind, lets imagine you are standing on top of mount Everest and you have a lens powerful enough to photograph the city of Paris from where you are. You would actually be able to take a picture of  what happened in Paris a few moments ago. Sure, because of the small distance, it would be only a fraction of seconds and not the Medeval Ages. But still, that is quite a powerful tool you carry with you, don’t you think?

Now, for another thought proving thought. Just imagine yourself on a planet far away from planet earth and taking a similar picture than the Hubble telescope but having planet earth in the frame. At the right distance and right time, with a much better lense, well, you could have taken a picture of the Medival Ages after it had happen . Impressive, no ?

You could have, right now, the biggest library of historical events . What a scoop.

Seriously. We all know that photography is a time tool. It freezes all the elements of in a frame to be seen later across space and time.That is cool enough. Now we know that given the right location and tools, a photographer can actually take a picture of the past.

If you want to learn more on your own, go here.

Posted in lens, Cosmos, technology, focus, multimedia, No sense | Print | No Comments »

Their memory lives on

April 8, 2008 by pmelcher.

I was fortunate enough to have met both Pierre and Alexandra Boulat. I have been even more fortunate to have seen their images. In their memory and to continue the great photographic work of this amazing family, I am proud to  announce the creation of : The Pierre and Alexandra Boulat Association and Grant and the Pierre and Alexandra Boulat Association.
Formed in the memory of Pierre and Alexandra Boulat by friends and family after the death of Alexandra Boulat in 2007, the Association seeks to keep the spirit of father and daughter alive through making their work available to the public and creating an annual grant for a photographer and sponsoring the education of young photographers.

Membership of the Association and Donations:

To become a member of the Association:

> For individual subscribers: 50 €
> For a company or an organization: 100 €

Additional donations are welcome:

In Europe:

Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Foundation
HSBC UBP – Paris Madeleine, France.
RIB: 30938 00080 00800019113 05
IBAN: 3093 8000 8000 8000 1911 305
code BIC LUBPFRPP
The Pierre and Alexandra Boulat Grant:
We will award a Grant to a photographer to produce a story that must be told but that the photographer cannot find support for from within the Media.
The first Grant will be awarded at Visa pour L’Image in Perpignan 2008, as it was an event very close to the hearts of Alexandra and Pierre Boulat.

The photographer should submit, no later than July 1st each calendar year, a one page proposal with a portfolio of 20 pictures to prove competency. A first committee will make a pre-selection in Paris and the final decision will be made in Perpignan with a jury of 7 or 9 people chosen among the most important photo editors at Visa pour L’image.

Submissions to:

The Alexandra and Pierre Boulat Association Grant
Cosmos
56, Bld Latour Maubourg,
Paris, 75007
France.
Exhibition projects:
-Vannes Festival in April in France is devoted to Alexandra. They will show her video MODEST.
-New York Photo Festival will show MODEST by Alexandra in the new VII gallery in Brooklyn in May
-FotoGrafia International Festival, Rome. Through the Looking Glass, an homage to Alexandra curated by Francesco Zizola and Deanna Richardson. May 8th to June 5th
-Bruxelles: Bruno Stevens who is organizing a major exhibition on War-Photojournalism will show one of Alexandra’s images with her comment.
-Visa pour l’Image, Perpignan September 2008 will show a major retrospective exhibition of Alexandra’s work. It will be in the present Pierre Boulat space.
-To be confirmed: Jean-Louis Atlan Space Ground 00 In Washington will show an exhibition by Alexandra for the first edition of Photo Week D.C. November 2008

Prints:
Alexandra’s prints are available through Bill Hunt Gallery in New York and through the Alexandra and Pierre Boulat Association in Paris.
Pierre’s Prints are available through the Alexandra and Pierre Boulat Association, Paris.
Press: Pierre Boulat is represented by the Cosmos Photo Agency in Paris.
Alexandra Boulat is represented by the VII Photo Agency in Paris and New York

The Board
Annie Boulat – Présidente
Gary Knight – Vice Président
Antoinette Boulat – Secrétaire
Jean-François Leroy – Trésorier

Honorary and consultant members :
Issa Frei, Maryanne Golon, WW Hunt, Olivier Kaeppelin, Antonin Kratochvil, Patrice Lamotte, Caroline Mangez, Alison Morley, Chris Morris, Ariane Quentier, Robert Stevens, Sylvie Grumbach, Patrice Massoteau, Nicolas Saada, Jean-François Gallois, Jean-François Camp, Mete Zihnioglu,Goksin Sipahioglu,Kent Kobersteen.

For further information please contact Annie Boulat: annie(at)cosmosphoto.com

Posted in magazine, Cosmos, newspaper, photojournalism, france, editorial, news | Print | No Comments »