Rumors have been rampant for a while. First Shutterstock was believed to be the buyer, a rumor quickly killed by no other than Jon Oringer himself during their last quarterly report. At the last DMLA conference, the target moved to China Visual Group and remained there. It is confirmed today: LOS ANGELES & BEIJING–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Corbis … Read More →
I was recently invited to speak at B&H Photo Video . Here is the resulting podcast: “Anyone, I mean, anyone can submit their photos for sale in the stock-photography market. (Are you a foaper?) But the question remains: is it worth it? No doubt, the industry has been transformed by corporate conglomeration and digital technology but, while … Read More →
Photographers and anyone involved in the professional photo licensing business have a love/hate relationship with social media. Great marketing tool to display their latest photographs but with no revenue. Worse, social media platforms generate millions on the content being shared. This might change. Tsu.co ( pronounce “soo”) is a recent newcomer in the crowded world of … Read More →
By now, unless if they have been living under a rock, everyone has heard- if not experienced- bitcoin. Some photo agencies have even experienced accepting Bitcoin in payment for licenses. However, what few know is how the technology behind Bitcoin could one day change the world of photography. Reduced to a very simple explanation, blockchain … Read More →
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau As the world of photography inexorably advances into the grasp of advanced computerized processing – filters, computational imaging, deep learning, A.I, multi-lenses and more- we start to doubt its ability to properly represent reality. In a world dominated by computational enhancements, can we … Read More →
Although they circle at different speeds, have different sizes and even differ in their composition, some planets happen to periodically align themselves so perfectly that it is possible, from earth, to see them on the same horizon. This is what happened a few weeks ago with Venus, Jupiter and Mars. In a rare coincidence, the … Read More →
While there has never been so many photos taken and shared online, the world of professional photo licensing is not striving. In fact, most legacy companies have seen their revenue freeze or decline in the last decade, with rare exceptions. While at first contradictory, a closer analysis reveals that part of the issue seems to be linked to … Read More →
Ever since the launch of the first iPhone, mobile photography has exploded, propelled by social media’s accelerating effect. Everyone, every day, everywhere is a photographer. With more than a billion photos uploaded and shared daily, the world of photography has forever changed. While barely significant in its early years, this mass production of unsolicited images … Read More →
Public photo industry surveys are so rare and few that it is always a refreshing exercise to review one when they do come out. VisualSteam just released the 2015 edition of its Art Buyer Survey and it surfaces some interesting trends. Leslie Hughes, VisualSteam’s President and CEO, said, “Art Buyers are frustrated by stock agencies … Read More →
Some days are harder than others. Some days just hit you so hard that when the sun finally sets, that your stuff is somewhat back in order and you head finally hits the pillow, your first and last thought before you fall asleep is just an unanswered question: why ? This past week had a … Read More →