Fine Art
If you’re hoping to earn significant money from Fine Art Photography you should read
Conor Risch’s Photo District News article regarding a recent survey by the
Creative Independent. More than 1,000 visual artists of all types (not just photographers) responded to the Creative Independent survey. Nearly 60 percent of respondents make less than $30,000 per year, and 35 percent make $20,000 or less per year from their fine art work.
From the 1940s through the 80s and 90s
Globe Photos, Inc. was widely regarded by newspapers and magazines as a leading source for celebrity images. As other competitors entered the market Globe’s popularity faded, but they still have photographers covering red carpet events on a daily basis in Hollywood and New York. In recent years Globe Photos was one of 12 archives acquired by
Capital Art, Inc., the world’s largest pop culture and image licensing company with more than 15 million images of every movie and entertainment celebrity of the 20th century.
Bridgeman has announced the acquisition of
Lebrecht Photo Library, the world’s largest image bank for music and related arts, with a collection of over 400,000 specialist images. Lebrecht is the world's most comprehensive image bank for every kind of music ever created - classical music, jazz, opera, rock music, musical instruments, notation, Broadway musicals, dance and ballet. It also has an extensive archive for literature and historical personalities.
Adobe’s
Visual Trends predictions for July talks about “Breaking the Rules of Composition to Create Thought-Provoking Images.” Breaking the rules is great for someone trying to create Fine Art, but do such images actually sell? Of course Adobe will be able to point to a few that have sold, but in general is it better to break the rules, or learn the rules and stick to them if you’re trying to produce images customers will to buy?
More and more photographers are willing to give their images away rather than trying to earn some revenue from their use.
Unsplash is one of many free sources for image. Can photographer who are trying to license rights to their images compete with the availability of free?
Shutterstock has announced the availability of a curated collection of images within Amazon's newly launched Posters & Prints program. A dedicated Shutterstock storefront on Amazon will give customers access to thousands of images that they can select to have printed and delivered - all without leaving Amazon.
Bridgeman Images is proud and excited to have won the tender for the exclusive representation of the British Library content in the UK. Bridgeman Images has worked for the British Library for many years across all our offices. We are delighted to have been appointed for all commercial and editorial licensing with the exception of branded products and scholarly uses which will remain with the British Library.
Skilled digital artists don’t need more photos.
Everything needed to recreate many of the world’s most famous masterpieces already exists. Adobe challenged four digital artists to recreate four lost, stolen or destroyed artistic masterpieces using only Adobe Stock. If you’re a photographer, and not a Photoshop expert, you need to take a few minutes to watch the four time-lapse videos that show how these digital artists worked. See
Make a Masterpiece
Many stock agencies are consolidating and downsizing, but not
Tandem Stock. Founded in 2010, they have been growing at an average rate of 45% per year. Specializing in Outdoor photography, they currently have a tightly edited collection of 115,000 images from 930 contributors. They have discovered that the needs of their clients are extremely specific and they specialize in supplying images that cater to those needs.
he
Bridgeman Studio has launched its second annual Awards competition with a theme of “
The Great Outdoors.”
Bridgeman Images has acquired
Rue des Archives, the premier French archival photo library, and expanded the company’s range of historic imagery and personalities for licensing. Rue des Archives is an exceptional resource with photography ranging from the cave paintings of Lascaux to 21st century Parisian life.
Peter Lik, Australian fine art photographer of landscapes, recently sold one of his images entitled “Ghost” for $6.5 million, the highest price ever paid for a single image. To see the photo of the very popular Antelope Canyon, Arizona check out
PetaPixel.
Seattle photographer Christopher Boffoli has sued the popular image-sharing site for failing to remove his images after he sent the site proper DMCA notice.
Stocktrek Images has a specialized image collection that is in high demand for wall and poster art. Their subjects include: Healthcare and Biomedical Science, Armed Forces, Military Aviation, Space, Weather, Astronomy and Dinosaur Art
Looking for inspiration? Check out
Blend Images The Blog! at blog.blendimages.com for amazing photos, illustration, graphics and fine art. For a little over a year now the stock photo production company has been regularly showing small collections of the work of amazing visual artists. The works are not limited to photography, but include, illustration, painting, collage, architecture, music, video and more.
Alamy has launched Alamy iQ, a service designed to help customers better manage all the visual assets they own or have licensed rights to use. Alamy iQ will be particularly beneficial to global organizations that have people sourcing visual assets from many locations for a variety of uses. It will complement or replace existing asset management systems, help speed decision making and eliminate risk.
Bigstock, a subsidiary of Shutterstock, has announced a new API program along with two world-class partners:
CafePress Inc., The World's Customization Engine™, and
Emma an email marketing provider. These partners will utilize Bigstock's recently released API to provide their customers with access to Bigstock's expansive library of professional, commercially licensable
photographs and illustrations.
In March 2011 we published
a brief story about how Noam Galai’s picture of his screaming face had been used extensively all over the world without his permission. The image has gained a reputation as the “Stolen Scream.” But, was it really stolen or did the photographer effectively allow the uses.
Bridgeman Art Library has introduced an iPad app called Bridgeman Art Doodle Live that is a fun way to introduce adults and children alike to the joys of art. The app is available at the
AppStore for £1.49.
The second annual
PDN Outdoor Photo Expo (OPE) will be held in Salt Lake City August 1-4, 2012 and
registration is now open. Outdoor Photo Expo is the only educational conference and trade show dedicated to outdoor photography, including adventure, landscape, nature, outdoor sports, travel and wildlife.
A few years ago when a photographer wanted to make his images available as posters or fine art prints he usually searched for a publisher with access to a network of retail outlets. Assuming the publisher thought the image had market potential he would normally would pay a one-time fee for the rights to make several thousand lithographic copies of an image and through retail contacts make the product available for customers to purchase. The Internet and Print-On-Demand (POD) technology has dramatically changed this market.
Fotolia has added 3128 fine art
images from the deviantArt (dA) collection to its offering. (
Click here to see the images.) The images are available exclusively at Fotolia.com.
Andreas Gursky’s photograph called “Rhein II” has just been sold for
$4.3 million at Christies making it the most expensive photograph in the
world. However, Gursky won’t see a penny of the money since the
transaction was between two collectors.
Some in the stock photography business will wonder, “whatever happened to Jeff Burke?” Jeff was the creator of the FoodPix, Brand X and Botanica brands and sold his company (PictureArts which also owned Nonstock at the time) to JupiterImages in 2005. (Jupiter was later acquired by Getty Images.)
PhotoShelter, has released a 44-page e-book entitled 'How to Sell Prints'. This is the latest in a long-running series of free and comprehensive e-books designed to equip photographers with the tools needed for success in today's marketplace. The guide outlines basic and intermediate business strategies designed to help photographers get started selling prints. This free book includes a variety of insightful case studies and action plans, as well as expert recommendations and can be requested here:
http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/how-to-sell-prints