Shutterstock has published its eighth annual
2019 Creative Trends Report. This year’s eleven design styles, many of which echo the past in a playful and in a decadent way, predict the top influences for design and visual production in 2019.
A reader called my attention to an article
I wrote in 2010 where the “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that online rights infringements costs the U.S. economy roughly $58 billion in total output every year.” The reader wanted to know how much that might be today.
Paris based photo agency
ABACAPRESS and German
ddp group, each a leading press
photo agency in their country, will join forces to increase photo production for their
core business, and to develop innovative services for new markets and corporate
brands.
Shutterstock has announced it is launching its first brand marketing campaign in six years. The
‘It’s not stock, it’s ShutterstockTM’ message is designed to showcase the unparalleled quality and depth of Shutterstock’s creative asset repository driven by more than 550,000 contributors from around the globe, as well as highlight the proprietary search and discovery technologies that inspire the creative professionals who use Shutterstock to find the perfect asset every time.
Aurora Photos has been sold to
Cavan Images. The official transition date is Feb 1, 2019. Aurora was founded in 1993 as an agency specializing in offering images related to Outdoor Adventure, Healthy and Active Lifestyles, Nature’s Beauty and remote travel to adventure destinations.
According to,
The State of News Photography 2018, published by the World Press Photo Foundation and authored by Adrian Hadland and Camilla Barnett photographers and photojournalists are finding working patterns in the media world increasingly difficult and many are facing more financial stress.
PhotoShelter has reached out to its more than 80,000 photographers to alert them to fake assignment scams that are being sent through the contact form on their PhotoShelter website. There is no reason to believe that the scammers are only contacting PhotoShelter member as it would be easy for then to run the same scam on any photographer who has a website and offers a way to be contacted.
In response to the article I
published last week where I suggested that what is needed is a system that enables photographers to deal directly with customers Macintosh Smith commented “Isn’t this what
PhotographersDirect.com has tried to establish?" Photographers Direct is a good first step, but in my opinion it has some major flaws. Consequently, I suspect it is generating very little traffic.
This long read outlines the step-by-step changes in the marketing of stock images over the the last 30 to 40 years. It makes clear why the production of stock images is no longer a viable business for most photographers and other image creators. At the end of the article, I have outlined some of the changes I believe need to be made in the relationships between image creators and customers in order to return the business to a profitable occupation for those who produce images.
In the last two years I have written a lot about stock photo pricing and its downward slide. If you have time over the holidays you may want to review some of these stories as you plan your strategy for engaging in the stock photo business in 2019.