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PRESS RELEASES 31
February 2, 2007
Huntstock Launches Royalty Free Image Collection
Huntstock, www.huntstock.com, a New England image production company, has launched its new wholly owned collection of lifestyle images for world wide distribution. Huntstock is owned by its namesake, Pat and Mark Hunt, the stock duo with 30 year's experience in the photography and stock industry. The growing collection has a tag line of "Real People, Real Concepts." It lives up to that description by representing all types and all ethnicities enjoying their daily lives, and highlighted in six categories of Business, Boomers, Lifestyles, Children, Concepts and Locations.
Pat Hunt was most recently VP of Corporate Relations at Index Stock Imagery, now Photolibrary. She sold her stock agency, Light Sources, to Index in 1998 and also sold her professional photo retail store to EP Levines in Boston. Pat is a voluminous writer and workshop leader in the stock industry, recently heading up her second year in a row with: What Stock Business Model is Right for You at Photo Plus in NYC. That was followed by a breakfast workshop in Boston, sponsored by Suffolk University Business School and entitled: Innovation and Speed to Market in Design Driven Industries. She has been managing production shoots with Mark and teaching business at Boston University for the past year. Pat is also a Board member of the Center for Innovation and Change Leadership at Suffolk University.
Mark has been a mainstay to the still and film/video industry for 20 years with Mark Hunt Backdrops in Boston. He was one of the first producers to digitize all of his rental backgrounds and create royalty free discs in the '90s. Those were highlighted by Scott Kelby, Director of the National Photoshop Professionals, in his national conferences. Mark has been supplying rights managed and royalty free imagery to stock agents for a decade, and most recently producing wholly owned imagery for various stock venues.
Mark and Pat play off each other's strengths with Pat's 30 years of building businesses and teaching business at the university level. She has been very active in the stock world since the early 90s when Kodak digitized her agency's stock inventory via their early business model known as the Kodak Picture Exchange, diving her business into the digital age at a very early stage. Mark brings creative strength to the business with his many years of collaborating with such top talent as Walter Iooss, William Wegman, Janet Jackson, REM, and Boston Celtics and many more. Huntstock has recently become a member of PACA, The Picture Agency Council of America.
According to Pat: "Mark and I have been working toward this goal for a long time. Of all our photographic ventures, we enjoy lifestyle production the most, and we work with many wonderful actors, models and real people. As we grow, we will expand our niches and broaden our distribution. It's just fun to go to work each day!"
Mark adds: "The digital world and technology has opened all kinds of opportunities in lifestyle photography. The fast pace feeds my creative energy, and the business compliments everything I've built to this point. We are very excited about what we are building and have some unique plans for the future. I like to say: 'we don't photograph models, we photograph people.' "
For information about distribution or custom production, get in touch with Pat at pat@huntstock.com or call 978-761-2743. The production studio is located at 21 Drydock Ave, Boston MA, 02210.
Pozo Digital Emerges As Authentic Source For Hispanic Images
Hispanic advertising veteran Guadalupe Marmolejo has announced the live launch of her new company, Pozo Digital, the source for authentic Hispanic stock images. Pozo Digital is a state-of-the-category e-commerce site (www.pozodigital.com) that gives advertisers, agencies, design firms and publishers easy access to stock photo images that reflect the true authenticity of the U.S. Hispanic experience.
Pozo Digital uniquely specializes in high-quality stock photos that realistically characterize the culture, faces and lifestyle of the Latino community. As more and more advertisers and publishers try to reach the 42 million U.S. Hispanic consumers, there are relatively few stock image sources that depict this demographic audience. The stock photo market is currently dominated by a few large general-market players with limited inventories of Hispanic images that compete for the three billion dollars currently spent in Hispanic marketing. Mainstream advertisers are also clamoring for more Hispanic images since 72% of U.S. Hispanics are born here.
Pozo Digital's founder and CEO, Guadalupe "Lupe" Marmolejo, springboards into the stock agency world from a highly successful career as an advertising creative director. She headed creative teams at some of the top U.S. Hispanic ad agencies in the country and was a major contributor to the depth and sophistication of today's Hispanic marketing industry. During that stage of her career, Ms. Marmolejo gradually recognized this "image gap" in the market, as well as the means to fill it. This meant nurturing image exclusive relationships with the finest photographers in the Americas. The works of these award-winning photographers now fill the archives of Pozo Digital. The site is augmented every month with newly edited images at the rate of 500 images or more.
"During my years as an advertising creative director, I found it very difficult to get stock images that were relevant to our advertising concepts," said Marmolejo. "At Pozo, we are committed to bringing our passion for esthetics and authentic Hispanic culture to a marketplace that is hungry for these kind of images."
Marmolejo's award-winning art directing skills, end-user expertise and cultural awareness means that all Pozo Digital photos are edited according to a very high standard of esthetics and relevance. Thus, users inherit the benefit of this single-source expertise in the form of built-in authenticity and quality control. The site's features are on par with the some of the world's top stock sites, including ease of use, multiple search filters, advanced lightbox management and online archives of thousands of images that can be navigated and searched in either Spanish or English. The construction of the site was handled by 20/20 Software a leading stock image web developer based in Stamford, CT.
Another of the site's strong points is that it eliminates one of the most persistent problems for advertisers: image redundancy. The current trend of micro-sites and $5 images, the same stock photo can often be seen appearing in ads and billboards for competing products, thus confusing consumers and infuriating advertisers. Pozo Digital employs a "Rights Managed" business model, wherein the user can buy image rights thus limiting the uses and exposure of an image.
For more information please visit www.pozodigital.com.
StockFood Opens UK Office
StockFood, the world's leading food image provider, has established an office in London, opening doors to the most extensive food image collection in the UK. The brand new website www.stockfood.co.uk offers over 150,000 images available for any professional use.
The StockFood collection is built from rights-managed and royalty-free images by more than 500 of the finest food photographers worldwide. Included are many of the most renowned UK artists like David Loftus, Jean Cazals or Michael Paul. Beyond the stars of the national scene this unique image library showcases the most celebrated food photographers from 44 countries around the world.
Picture editors, art buyers and package designers are now easily able to find the perfect image to make their food related project stand out from the rest. Unique in its outstanding depth and variety, the collection includes images of national and international cuisine, ingredients and beverages, step-by-step sequences as well as images of people creating and enjoying food. StockFood also features images relating to health and wellbeing. Creative professionals in over 75 countries already rely on StockFood for a unique variety of visual styles and trendsetting photographers.
The new website www.stockfood.co.uk provides sophisticated search filters to find exactly the right shot. Once a user has been authorised, all StockFood images are available for immediate download. Expert advice and image selections are part of the personal support offered to image buyers. StockFood's unique recipe service provides recipe texts or nutritional details for any image in the collection. Additional services include ready-to-use "food stories", photo productions and customised research.
Founded in 1979 by Pete A. Eising, StockFood has specialized in professional food photography since its very beginning. Today the company is the world's leading food image agency, with the largest collection and the widest photographer base in the picture industry. In addition to the company's headquarter in Munich/Germany and the US office in Kennebunk/Maine, the UK office becomes the third wholly-owned branch of the company. StockFood is represented by a large network of local agencies around the globe.
StockFood UK is located in the creative heart of London. The office will be managed by Miranda Duffy, who has been in leading positions within the photo library industry for years. Miranda Duffy says: "I am excited to join this impressive, forward thinking company. There is no doubt our unique collection will become a very valuable resource to creative people all over the country."
Pete A. Eising, President and CEO of StockFood International, is convinced about the positive impact of the company's new presence: "We are most confident that professional image buyers will receive our UK services with true enthusiasm. In the past we have had an impressive amount of customers requesting direct services from StockFood. Now, we're thrilled to say: here we are!"
For more information please contact: StockFood, Email:
Nicole.fendel@stockfood.com; StockFood America, Email:
shannon.mahoney@stockfood.com; or StockFood UK, Email:
miranda.duffy@stockfood.com.uk
plainpicture Launches In The UK
plainpicture - the Hamburg based high end creative photo agency is opening up for the UK market with its new London office.
Mei Shan Cheung heads the new plainpicture office as UK Sales Manager bringing a wealth of experience from her former position as UK Sales Manager for photonica and iconica.
The plainpicture.com site has gone live with over 85,000 rights managed and royalty free images for the UK market.
plainpicture is currently working with 360 international photographers.
Careful editing ensures the unique style of the collection, allowing a very different view on true life and creating an exceptional portfolio.
The plainpicture collection offers credible and authentic imagery and stands as an alternative to the existing mainstream.
plainpicture imagery is directed towards designers from the advertising, book publishing and music industries as well as offering a wide range of imagery to editorial users. plainpicture has established itself as a source of inspiration and an aesthetic challenge for creatives with a need for the experimental and unusual.
All imagery can be found on www.plainpicture.com
Contact Details: plainpicture Ltd. 1A Alloway Road
London, E3 5AS p: +44 (0)20 8980 2333
e: sales@plainpicture.com w: www.plainpicture.com
VIEW Announces Photographers Open Day
VIEW, a leading contemporary architecture and interiors photo library, is holding an open day for new photographers on Thursday 22nd February 2007 between 12pm and 6pm.
The open day aims to attract talented architectural and interiors photographers to join an experienced and varied group of successful architectural photographers, including two honorary fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Dennis Gilbert and Peter Cook.
Please bring along your portfolio to show the team if you feel your work may be suitable for submission.
The open day will be held at the appropriately modern Kentish Town Community Centre, which was included in London's annual architecture weekend Open House 2006.
Come along to meet the VIEW team over refreshments and find out how the company works. The open day will also be an opportunity to talk to some existing VIEW photographers and see examples of how their images are used in the architectural press, as well as in books, advertising and the national media.
There will be a property release expert on hand to answer questions, and two digital retailers (Leaf and Teamwork) to showcase the latest digital camera equipment and techniques.
Kentish Town Community Centre, 17 Busby Place, London NW5 2SP.
For more information go to www.viewpictures.co.uk