May 26, 2009 by pmelcher.

This is important for many reasons ( more in a later post)  :
THE YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS ALLIANCE DEBUTS IN CHICAGO,
ALAMY FIRST TO PLEDGE SUPPORT

MAY 6, 2009, PAVILION, NEW YORK: The Young Photographers Alliance (YPA) (www.youngphotographersalliance.org) made its debut in Chicago at Picturehouse’s 4th annual event held on Thursday April 16, 2009 at the River East Art Center.

YPA is the creation of Jerry Tavin, co-founder of IC Worldwide (www.icworldwide.com) and Deborah Free, President of Picturehouse Marketing US/Visual Connections (www.picturehouse-us.com). Both are widely-recognized as advocates and leaders in the photography industry. Founded as an international not-for-profit educational foundation, YPA is focused on bringing disadvantaged students opportunities for advancement in photography.

With the elimination of art education in public schools and the ever-increasing cost of a college degree, these barriers are more difficult then ever to overcome. This lack of support directly affects photography students and could prove to have a long-term negative impact on the future of professional photography.

Amid these concerns, YPA was created to inspire and support the next generation of image makers through college scholarships, mentoring programs, internship opportunities and educational seminars, internationally.

“We are pleased that YPA was so well received after our announcement. The enthusiasm and support was immediate, both at the Picturehouse event and the PACA Annual Meeting held in Chicago,” said Jerry Tavin.

In addition to two scholarships already provided by Jerry Tavin and Picturehouse, Alamy (www.alamy.com), pledged a third scholarship for the 2009 recipients.

“We think the Young Photographers Alliance is a great concept, and we’re excited to be involved at this early stage.”
Alan Capel, Head of Content, Alamy

YPA is also pleased to announce the position of Erin Moroney of Axiom Photographic Agency (www.axiomphotographic.com) as their European Liaison. “I’m delighted to be part of YPA.  In this current climate, it’s very easy to be cynical about the industry.  It’s refreshing to be involved with an organization that is so committed and passionate about nurturing new, young photographic talent.”

YPA is receiving endorsements from various organizations as well. ASPP Executive Director, Cathy Sachs states, “The American Society of Picture Professionals is very pleased to add its support to this wonderful new initiative.  The mission of the Young Photographers Alliance dovetails very well with our own educational and mentoring programs.  In addition the whole photography community has an opportunity to come together to share the passion of these disadvantaged young photographers, and create a nurturing environment for them.”

In New York on October 13, 2009, the evening prior to Picturehouse, a reception to announce the first Young Photographers Alliance scholarship recipients will be held at the Metropolitan Pavilion. In addition, a Silent Auction of the work of many of the scholarship applicants as well as professional photographers will be on display. All proceeds will be divided between the scholarship funds of the students and YPA’s various projects. More information about YPA’s programs and events will be available in the coming months.

Start looking for travel coupon.

#######

Be involved or die…

Posted in commercial stock, CEPIC, PACA, editorial, france | Print | No Comments »

April 22, 2009 by pmelcher.

“In five years? Maybe the only stock businesses are companies that add value by scouring the web for the best work within a genre….sort of back to photo research services.“

When the great Ellen Boughn speaks, the world of photography listens : read the whole interview here :

http://learnaniche.com/blog/2009/04/22/ellen-boughn-and-the-future-of-stock-photography/

Posted in focus, commercial stock, Midstock, prosumer, transaction, PACA, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

February 24, 2009 by pmelcher.

You know it’s coming…you are just not sure what to do about it. A few weeks ago, Apple released the new version of their personal DAM called Iphoto. Besides being one of the worst photo organizing application, it came out bundled with a little gadget that allows  it to recognize faces and tag them accordingly.

The technology is not really new. Picassa has offered the same, on line, for quite a while. The principle is rather simple. The computer recognizes where faces are located in a picture and asks you to tag it appropriately. After a few examples, the application takes over and continues automatically based on what it has learned from your input. It will still make some errors, which you can correct, but overall, it will be pretty efficient.

Myheritage.com, a family history website has offered the same technology for a while, with a twist. It tries to match your face with a celebrity and tells you who you look like.

Those are two consumer-oriented usage. What surprises me is that no photo agency search engine has even remotely tried to apply this technology to their work flow. Especially in the editorial world, where 95 % of the searches of people  are made with proper names. A photographer shoots Bill Gates at an event, the image is processed automatically to add his name to the IPTC field and added to the database. What a time saver !!!. Or , you finally find out the name of that woman sitting next to George Clooney at the last Miramax party. You upload her picture with the right info and hop! your whole database is updated in seconds.

Now, lets take this a step further. You just figure out what species that bird is. With the same technology, it can update any and all images with the same bird. Even better, you take a picture and it will scan the internet to find out  what species it is and automatically add it to your images. This could be done for almost anything in your images. On the search side, a user can upload a generic image of a bird for which he has forgotten the species name and the database will return all the images with the same species in it, along with its name.

Currently, photo agencies spend a fortune on key wording. Some even have in house departments that keep on growing, as they process more and more images. Others give their content to be key worded by batteries of  9 to 5 keyworders based in India or other low wage countries. No one really mentions it, but this has become one of the highest added cost of images processing since they have become digital. A whole underground world, with its tight rules and regulations , its specialized software and its priests. It has almost brought key wording, the act of adding words to an image, to a science. Or, at least they would like it to be. They have “structured” vocabulary, words you can or cannot use, “standards” and other super secret sauce that you should respect if you want to be successful. They control a broad range of scary sounding anagrams, like IPTC, XMP, Dublin core, that they spend hours discussing during closed door sessions around the world. The more complicated, the more esoteric, the more people think it is important, if not fundamental.

They usually sit next to the IT guys and exchange complicated sounding words with looks of complicity while the rest of the room looks upon them with complete blindfolded admiration.

But all this is soon going to change. Besides the new steps of auto tagging, image search is coming out of its infancy. You currently also have similar search, color search and exact image search, giving the meaning of an image its rightful place, next to its description.

Why don’t we see any of these more often ? probably because image key wording has generated its own business, and jobs, a bit like Microsoft has created help desk jobs because it crashes all the time. It has grown out of a shortcoming. It plugs in a hole between the photograph and the person looking for it. It has replaced the fame knowledgeable researcher that agencies used to have with a generic obtuse answering machine. Image Key wording has now become an evil growth on the side of the photography business, managed by  librarians who would like you to believe that they are a solution. The amusing part is none actually access you database history to see what words are actually being used by your clients and how successful the results are. For them, and the rest of the key wording industry, if a client can’t find the right image, it is because they are not using the right keyword.

A bit like stock  photo agency editors who decide what image should make it through your system without ever looking at what images are actually published, the key wording industry has absolutely no relations with actual users. Nor do they seemingly care. They believe the users should be keyword friendly, and not the opposite.

Image search is going through a long awaited evolution and is now beginning to offer the proper tools to match a need to an offer and those who will win will be the ones that understand how to apply this technology to better serve their clients.

Posted in idee, technology, commercial stock, celebrity, Search, PACA, CEPIC, keyword, editorial | Print | No Comments »

December 17, 2008 by pmelcher.

The world economy, as we all see, is not doing well. Between massive layoffs and the beginning of a deflation trend in the USA, signs are all pointing towards catastrophic changes ahead. what does it mean for the photo industry ? Let take a look and make some predictions.
The first place photo agencies and image buyers are going to save is on what is seen as non essential cost. Trade shows, reunions, festivals, awards, all will see a dramatic cut on attendance. Already National Geographic in the USA and PICTA in Germany have been canceled. Two reasons for this : they will not find sponsors and they will not be able to book enough presence. More shows will follow. The ones probably the most hurt will be photojournalism shows as on both side of the market, creators and users, there is no more money. Visa Pour L’image in Perpignan will certainly will see a huge decline in its attendance, especially from US participants, as the cost of attending is rising every year, with no tangible return. But others, like PACA, or even CEPIC will greatly be impacted , for the same reasons. The only shows that might survive are the ones that get image buyers and sellers together, like Picturehouse. But the attendance might be only local, as everyone else will continue to save on travel cost.
When times get thought, companies tend to rely on their finance department for help. Thus creative management is replaced by bean counting management. For some unknown reason also known as the turtle reaction, they no longer look at what will make them more money but rather what will save them money. This will accelerate the adoption of the subscription base licensing scheme as it makes easier for everyone to manage and budget. Agencies working only with freelancers photographers on a commission basis will try to follow until they realize it is too cost prohibitive. Which will be too late.
Smart businesses will see this as an opportunity, as failing agencies will hit the market for a bargain price. Some will be great opportunities, other will be rotten fruits. Either way, there will be more consolidation.
All image buyers will rush to budget photography. If you though microstock was doing well, wait until 2009. no one will care so much about great photography, or at least no enough to matter. Any image with a good price will do the job. Since more freelance photographers will hit the market after being laid off  their staff job, it is not the supply that will lack.

Even assignment and wedding photography will be hurt. First, because companies will reduce their marketing dollars and not feel that a CEO head shot needs a pro, especially with the husband of the marketing VP who is unemployed and has this cool Canon 5 D mark II he bought before being laid off. Others will be happy to do assignment work for free if they can keep the licensing rights.Furthermore, ex newspapers staffers will join the growing ranks of wedding photographers and will slash down prices.

If anyone gets married anymore or hires a photographer.

Than, there is also the looming SAG strike. The SAG is the Screen Actors Guild and every single movie star is a member. 75% of their membership is already out of work so couldn’t care less if they went on strike. That would create havoc on the editorial celebrity world, one of the last healthy places for photography. No more premieres, no more red carpet, no more award shows. Some photo agencies only cover those. It would be a catastrophic blow to them. Others might precipitate their photographers into the street to chase the celebrities, doubling the already overwhelming amount of paparazzi in the streets. Besides the fights amongst them, accident with celebrities will happen and laws will pass.It is already an over saturated market anyway, so prices, like others, will plummet.

Not a pretty picture : There are no safe heavens. There is not one photo agency or publication that will not be tremendously  affected  by this economy. not one.  No one will be able to pull into their degrees to find solutions.  The ones that will survive will do so by pure brilliant instinct, by being ingenious and street smart. There are ways to navigate more or less safely.

Posted in Midstock, newspaper, license, celebrity, commercial stock, magazine, prosumer, photojournalism, transaction, editorial, finance, PACA, CEPIC, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

October 31, 2008 by pmelcher.

It’s been a long week, or rather couple of weeks, for the photo industry. Between the various shows in New York city, Paca, picturehouse, Photoplus, panels and parties, anyone that has remotely anything to do with photography was in New York for one or all of these.

But its been an even longer week with was has been happening in the photo world. First, the official announce of the Meckler/Jupiter debacle and fire sale confirming that it just doesn’t take a lot of cash to be succesful in this industry. Getty will absorb the collections and agreements in place, get rid of most of the staff , clean up the finance and move on. It was an easy and fruitful catch for them. Someone can inform Corbis of the deal, in two weeks, when they wake up.

Talking about Corbis, well, they couldn’t find any better deal then take money from their photographers. After having failed to generate a profit for so long and a stage that even if they remotely became cash flow positive, it would take another 20 years to catch up on all the money they have already spend, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Bill Gates would finally pull the plug.

But all that is nothing compared to Getty getting slap with a 100 million dollar lawsuit by part of its photographers and contributors according to Selling Stock. Surprisingly, no one picked up that story. Pdnpulse has been too busy reporting on all the layoffs in publishing world, while others where commenting on the Photoplus panels and other useless events.

It been a while that Getty has been supplying staff and non staff images to a mysterious group of “premium subscribers”. These highly guarded few have “all you can eat” subscription deals with the Whale including access to photographers who only get a commission. And these guys have seen on their sales reports sales at $2 dollars. Even lower than Istock. But unlike Istock, these photographers are top notch pros that create image that command mucho dollars. Getty doesn’t care or cannot make the distinction. At the repeat demand of these photographers to be explained a bit more abut these deals that do not benefit them, Getty has remained silent. Contributors, like the science faction library, owned by ex getty VP Roger Ressmeyer, have even ask nicely to know more about the license granted and what industry these clients where in. More silence from the Whale. Same for the Minden collection, the famous and fabulous wildlife collection.

The reason for their demand for more information was not to  exercise control over Getty but rather to be able to inform their direct client if a particular image was available as an exclusive for a particular industry. Not only these images are sold by Getty for two bucks, but they become almost RF as the owners cannot guarantee any clients where these image are or have been.

Armed with they contract in hand, these guys have deposited a class action lawsuit, asking for reparation. We will see where this goes. Getty has a battery of strong lawyers and they will not go down without a long fight.

{An entry on Drr has been deleted}
A quick though on Picturehouse, and then I let you go. It always amazes me how much dollars is being poured in marketing  blunders. One company had the genius idea to stick into an already expensive bag, two oversized brochures. One was printed on glossy, very expensive paper. Big images, fancy layout, drooling fonts but absolutly no call for action. Basically you look at it once and you have only one thing left to do, throw it out.

The other brochure was printed on recycled paper. Same dimension, but all about how”green” and non polluting that agency is, and how “green” are they images. These two brochure side by side, in the same bag, just canceled each other.Lots of money than the drain. And no, it was not Corbis, for once.

There  were many other examples of “what were they thinking” and that show must become a destination for anyone looking for cheap pens or other useless ding dongs. If you took one of each item given for free and all claiming a space on your physical desktop, you could no longer fit your computer, let along get in your office.

Next year, I will beat everyone by getting giant real size stuffed elephants branded with my company name and give those away.

There is much more to write about these days but I see you are getting tired so we will do that another day.

Posted in magazine, Canada, technology, commercial stock, Jupiter, PACA, Royalty free, getty, corbis, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

October 11, 2008 by pmelcher.

It is not really the photo industry that is in danger of extinction, but rather a weird and strange animal that appeared about 50 to 60 years ago out of pure greed.

Let me explain:  When photography became a job, the first photographers were troopers who would get up in the morning with the firm intention to get an assignment, or 2, before the end of the day. They would look for both stories and clients and when they fit together, they would be rewarded with money. Publication or ad agencies would never dream of licensing images that were not specifically shot for them : how plebeian !! Photo agencies where then created mostly for photographers to share and organize resources. Since they became the repository of all images shot, they start to accumulate stock image made of past assignments. And thus, like any sound business, started to license those too.

And then, with the success of bigger Stock houses, like The Image Bank, a creepy, greedy little animal started to emerge. The stock photographer. Never did nor would talk to a client directly, they would get up in the morning with the sole purpose of taking images that could one day be licensed. Like movies that go direct to DVD, their images where exclusively shot for stock.

Armed with research analysis, spreadsheets, and a whole lot of corporate culture, they started multiplying. Mostly because their images where much cheaper than sending a photographer on assignment. There was no other cost involved than just the licensing rights. In a way, they murdered a large part of the assignment business and open the door for more photographers, with doubtful talent, to enter the arena.

For a while, a lot did well, as travel prices surged. They managed to live off the Rights managed tradition of exclusivity even thought they never shot those images for that client . And then came in the real experts. Marketing gurus with intense software licensing experience. They turned pricing around by licensing images as service rather than a product : the RF guys ( and girls).

The “stockers” got their first warning shot. Prices went down. Shields were raises, hundreds of thousands of email send out, forums, debates, heated conversation plagued the industry for a while until tales of high income started to surface. Some stockers where actually making more money than before. The second gold rush started. Everyone, suddenly started shooting RF. Agencies followed, as RF was to be the wave of the future. And it was, for a while.

Until file sharing entered the photo scene. People started exchanging their photographs, for professional usage. As the cost of maintaining  a server became too steep, these exchanges were tagged with a fee. A very low fee, but indeed a fee.And a flood of new stockers invaded the scene. Very smart ones, very talented ones, and very useful ones.If there was a market in stock photography, historically controlled by a few selected pompous “pro”photographers, then it should be for everyone.

You can still hear the stockers screaming as they are being trampled by the masses in a last effort to save their “territory” . But lets face it, we all know it is a dying breed of irrelevant photographers. Beside exploiting an immature market, they had no talent. They were the refuseniks of the assignment world, incapable of being hired for a photo shoot . And now, even their private grounds is being destroyed by the hungry masses.

So now what ? Well, besides microstockers who will, in the majority, not be able to sustain a living with their photo sales, there will be less in less “pro” making stock photos anymore. Not because they don’t want to but because they will not be able to make a living out of it. Some might be capable of moving up to assignment works, others, the majority, will leave the profession altogether. And that will be a good thing. Photoshelter’s Collection recent demise is a good example that these images are no longer welcomed on the market .The oversupply of images that we a currently experiencing, will be drained from the middle, that disappearing bread of stockers. They will no longer exist and no longer produce.

And finally, the photo world will be repopulated by photographers that really enjoy taking pictures, rather than analyzing spreadsheets. From the part time amateur to the full time pro, passion of great photography will reappear as being the leading reason for being in this industry, not greed. No more of these small business mentally photographers that thought of themselves as a superior breed. The playing field is leveled and the industry’s parasite, the pro stockers, are out.

Posted in license, magazine, technology, commercial stock, web 2.0, prosumer, Royalty free, transaction, PACA, CEPIC, Microstock | Print | 4 Comments »

July 15, 2008 by pmelcher.

The truth about your photo organizations is that they have either no idea what they are talking about or they have no idea  what they are doing. Either way, they are slowly becoming obsolete and useless.
Take PACA for example. The Picture Archives Council of America is preparing for its next “international” meeting to be held in New York sometime in October of this year. One of the panel they have organized for their members   is called ““What Role Will Technology Play With New Business Opportunities?”.
I had to read it twice. Does it say “will” ? Like in the future “will” ? Has anyone at PACA looked around and noticed what is already going on here and now ? How technology is running their business already. For an industry that currently runs 95% on technology ( it always did , by the way) it is a weird panel to have. But this is not the worst part.

The worst part is that they are “excited” to announce that they have secured the participation of  Ben London/Executive Director, Northwest, of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Now, I do not know this gentleman and I am sure he is a fine person but inviting the RIAA to explain what opportunities exists in technology is like asking a bear what to do in winter.

I wonder what went into the PACA committee’s collective brain who set that up : “lets find an industry that has completely missed the boat on new technologies and is currently gasping for air, for what they think about new technologies and opportunities ?”

I mean, makes complete sense, no ? The RIAA is now known worldwide for its smooth aptitude to deal with change and a prime example of what the photo industry should do. Let’s see what we can take from the RIAA lessons:

Do nothing and then sue everyone.
Desperately refuse the introduction of new technologies and stubbornly hold on to antiquated business models.
Install technology that alienates your customers so intensively that they prefer to break the law then license anything from you.
When desperation comes, jump on any new business model around and dramatically slash your prices ( think iTunes). Regret your decision 2 years later.
Keep on suing. Maybe that will cover the losses
Alienate you artists until they also leave you for new business models
Merge or die.

Rich (it is a very expensive proposition to attend this congress) and successful PACA members will come from the whole world to listen to this man explain how brilliantly the RIAA has handled technology and new business opportunities. And then, after a few drinks, when all is said and done, everyone will go home with the deep satisfaction that this was money well spend . Some will even dream of a potential merger of the RIAA and PACA,  strongly united against the advent of new technologies, new business models and plenty of lawsuits.

Mmm, I wonder why Getty Images decided to sponsor that one event ?

For the latest from PACA, please go here.

Posted in technology, commercial stock, CEPIC, PACA, getty, law, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

May 30, 2008 by pmelcher.

In a predictive move, Uber microstock giant Istockphoto, owned by Getty, is launching a contributor-wide call for exclusivity. The 6 top microstock companies share about 90 to 95% of their photographer, thus their content. In order to leave the pack, anyone of them should request exclusivity in order to offer their image buyers something the others do not have. With 1.4 downloads per second ( General Motors only sells a car every 3 seconds), Istockphoto is in a very good position to dry up the contributors pool by sucking them in an exclusive relationship.

Obviously they will offer a higher commission in order to make the offer appealing and help their contributor compensate for their possible losses. It seems, from the outside at least, that unlike the Long Tail theory would like us to believe, most of the microstock sales comes from a pool, rather large, of the same contributors. Otherwise, Istock would have not bothered doing this move. If Istockphoto can take them out of the rest of the market they will certainly make their competition suffer,  a lot. They will also make it even more difficult for new companies to enter the microstock field, at least with pertinent content.

The reaction from competitors will be interesting to watch . They could go down the same path, declaring an exclusion war that will leave most contributors baffled and confused. One aspect of RF, and a strong one, is its non-exclusivity.Why be exclusive with a product that is sold on a non exclusive basis? After all, isn’t a big part of the microstock game in volume and not on a per image sale. Will an exclusivity with Istock generate enough sales to compensate those lost by leaving its competitor ?Only if a huge amount of contributors decide to make the move simultaneously forcing image buyers to follow them. If 6 or 7 photographers decide to pull out their images from other platforms, there will be not effect. If thousands do so, then image buyers will have no other choice to go where the choice is. Either way, Istock cannot loose.

Some contributors might, however.

And for those who are still confused on how successful microstock is, this traffic ranking from Alexa should help them visual it:

Even Getty Images, with all its fire power cannot even come close to Istock and barely makes it over Dreamstime. Corbis and Jupiter don’t even have a chance. As traditional stock companies continue their stop loss policies, as beautifully explained by Julia Dudnik Stern in Chasing Lost Business Ignores New Markets on sellingstock.com ( subscription only), they fail to understand that they are fighting the battle in the wrong battlefield.

Ever thought why most microstock companies are not attending CEPIC, PACA and BAPLA congress ?

Posted in alexa, technology, commercial stock, Jupiter, CEPIC, getty, corbis, PACA, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

May 23, 2008 by pmelcher.

Just imagine. Just imagine if a company like Google, or Yahoo, or even Microsoft put their hand on microstock and social photography. Not only Istockphoto projections of $171 million revenue within a few years would be pulverized into unknown heights but it would be the end of both RM and traditional RF forever.

Why ?, you might ask. Simple. Right now, the only reason Istock is not growing faster is its lack of reach compared to better known sites like Google. Given that firepower, there is absolutely no reason why the whole market not tip over into a microstock Tsunami.  Let’s face it, Rights Managed is a badly protected island. And part of its protection came from the purposely shallow amount of choice. A lack of choice is what makes  RM potentially valuable, or what others call “bleeding edge” photography. Thus, out of a pool of 10 images, it is important to secure exclusivity. Out of a pool of millions, who cares?

Furthermore, it would be so simple to “retire” an image automatically for a higher price, thus making that image exclusive by automation.

Why would anyone  consider putting their images anywhere else than on Google Stock ? Already, everyone, from photographers to photoagency are taking night courses in  SEO to pump up their ranking. Most will buy huge amounts of adwords. If Google opens the gates and starts welcoming images in order to license them, there will be no holding back. From no one. It would be an act of suicide not to be part of it.  And since microstock pricing has now set the tone for commercial usage pricing, everyone will seek the low-priced volume sale. And, besides the user generated sites, no one will survive.

RF would quickly become  standard and no one would even bother with any other of those complicated and boring licensing  models. The only way for agencies and photographers to survive will be to jump, or stay, on the assignment peak. Those who have created a market for their photography, their personal work ~ the way professional photography first started~will continue to be untouched by this whole stock mess.

Not sure this will happen ? Well, think about it. Why did Getty go private ? and more important, why do you think someone paid $2.5 billion for it ? So it can watch it grow slowly like a small pet kitten ? Not their style. And what do you think will happen when Newscorp, Google, Yahoo, AOL and others feel they have managed to control most of the channels. What will be their next target to increase their appeal to advertisers ? Content, you said ? Indeed. By having the most compelling content, eyeballs will be attracted. And who has the highest volume of well targeted eyeballs will sell the most ads. Like it used to be with the TV network. But this next battle is happening online and will include stills.

Hopefully, some will stop asking me why I think this industry has not yet seen the worst ( or best) of it. Why there is no more reasons to attend Cepic or PACA congress. The waters are retreating already and I am no fool.

Posted in google, Midstock, technology, commercial stock, web 2.0, CEPIC, Royalty free, getty, transaction, PACA, Microstock | Print | 4 Comments »

April 1, 2008 by pmelcher.

How many times will  members of this industry get together and talk about IPTC, keywording and other metadata. How many meetings, conferences, synopsis, “get togethers”, panels, parties, does it take ? Both the ASPP conference in Arizona and CEPIC in Malta have scheduled hours long conferences on this subject. Again. The one in CEPIC is 8 hours long !!!

It used to be that the IPTC was a small geeky association of nerds looking into how to standardize metadata in images. It has now become the most sought-after organization. More than the dying PLUS coalition.

The amusing part is that none of the attendants are keywording their own images. They have staff people to do that. Furthermore, none of the companies that offer this service are on the panels( JaincoTech, Keedup, OnAsia Digital, Etc) They would know better, wouldn’t they?  Instead, you have marketing managers or agencies owners sitting in stuffy rooms, vaguely writing notes while waiting for the suffering to end until they can finally get a free drink at the evening’s cocktail party.

At a time when the temple of controlled vocabulary  ( the Library of Congress) has decided to pull out from its antiquated method of keywording by putting 4,000 of its images into Flickr and ask for crowdsourcing wisdom, the photo agency world is wasting time and money into desperately trying to impose a standardized form of controlled vocabulary. Some probably spend more time and money on attending these panels than they do in a whole year of marketing.

The aim, apparently, is to define a series of code words that could be transported from one databank to another and yield the same results. Thousands of them. Same keywords. Wether they are related to the real world is irrelevant as the priority is to standardize and eventually give photo buyers a book on which word to use and how. And then what, have university offer a degree in photo researching, transforming photo buyers into bonified librarians? It is bad enough that some “photo editors” have no visual experience, it gives me the shivers to think what would become if this would happen.

There are few misconceptions here :

Language, unless dead, evolves all the time. Even dictionary publishers worldwide know  as they add and delete words every year.  Who uses “walkman” anymore ?

Keywording is not a marketing tool:  A bad or irrelevant  image well keyworded is still a bad image. It will not sell.

Controlled Vocabulary does not include local cultures. If it does, than it cannot be controlled anymore. It is arrogant, pedant and quite simply foolish to even believe that one controlled vocabulary can and will apply to the whole world.

A word is not a definition. It is only a description. It takes many words to skim the surface of what an image is. Thus keywording should be an accessory to search, not its main engine.

In the long term, keywording will die. Already, there are other emerging ways to search for images : visual, color, face recognition, similar, pattern recognition. In the text world, there is even semantic search, which allows you to search by meaning instead of exact match.

Google images, which everyone sees as the ultimate “find me tool” does not even index IPTC.

They say insanity is repeating the same thing over and over hoping for a different result. Seems to be that the photo industry is banging over and over on the same door and it will just not open.

The solutions ? Exactly what the user generated content agencies are doing. Let the keywords be offered by the source . They shoot, they keyword. And they keyword well because they are using an everyday vocabulary that the buyers are also using. A vocabulary that changes and evolves all the time. A vocabulary that is not “controlled”. Organized chaos.

Or follow the giants. Getty, which you never see at these repeated panels, as well as AP, Reuters, Corbis and others, have hired outside companies to do their keywords. Because it is not their chore business and do not feel it necessary to have a full time dedicated team of librarians. They seem to prefer selling images rather than cataloguing them.

It would be an interesting exercise to calculate how much time was wasted in “perfectly” keywording images that never sold in some of the medium or smaller agencies that seem to be obsessive about doing in house keywording .

Would it be more interesting for these congress, meetings, conference to have a panel about how to make great pictures that sale ?

Worst that could happen would be a few hours looking at great image.

Posted in keyword, Search, Plus, Zymmetrical, google, flickr, corbis, PACA, CEPIC, getty | Print | No Comments »