Press Releases 25

Posted on 10/6/2006 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (0)

PRESS RELEASES 25

October 6, 2006

Kai Chiang Announces The Launch Of Golden Pixels

Kai Chiang, a stock photography industry veteran, announced the launch of Golden Pixels LLC, a company dedicated to the production of new brands of stock imagery.

Previously, Chiang spent twelve years at SuperStock in various management and executive positions, serving as Chief Operating Officer of SuperStock at the time the company was acquired by a21, Inc.

In 1996 Chiang formed the production studios at SuperStock, credited with creating tens of thousands images that have been widely distributed throughout the industry. In 1997, in collaboration with Adobe Systems Inc. he headed the team that created the material for the Adobe Image Library, much of which continues to be found at Getty Images as part of its Photodisc product. Other images created under his direction formed the core of the SuperStock Rights-Managed and Royalty-Free collections, which continue to be sold by SuperStock and distributed worldwide through various channels, including PictureQuest, Alamy and Fotosearch.

Chiang has again assembled a team of producers, photographers, stylists and other creatives. This new team includes several veterans of the stock photography industry as well as several from the Television and Film industry.

Since January 2006, Golden Pixels LLC productions have yielded more than 12,000 images. This post-SuperStock effort has employed many new techniques and processes to expand, grow and experiment with creative scope, in the production as well as presentation of the imagery. The company expects to maintain such a production rate for the foreseeable future.

Golden Pixels LLC is actively seeking collaborative efforts with distributors to brand, place and distribute this virgin material. All licensing models; Royalty-Free, Rights-Managed, Rights-Ready, Subscription; are being considered.

For more information about Golden Pixels LLC and for a sneak peek at this new material, go to (www.goldenpixels.com), or visit the Golden Pixels table at the PACA Conference in Key West, October 20-22, 2006.

Corbis Acquires Australian Picture Library

Corbis announced plans to acquire Australian Picture Library (APL), a leading image licensing company in Australia. The transaction will be finalized on October 3, 2006 with full integration of Corbis and APL operations completed by March 2007. The addition of APL advances Corbis' strategy of further penetrating the Australian market and building strong relationships with commercial and editorial customers.

"We have an aggressive strategy to expand market share in Australia where the industries we serve are on the cutting edge of creativity and innovation," said Steve Davis, President and CEO of Corbis. "APL has been our sales representative for the last three years, and we experienced strong demand for the breadth and depth of Corbis images collections".

Commenting further on the transaction, Wil Merritt, Corbis Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales explained, "With a wholly-owned presence in the country, we can sell directly to clients, and provide a full range of creative resources that include custom production and rights services. We are also committed to producing great content on a regional basis, and are pleased to have the opportunity to work with many of Australia's most talented photographers. "

Established in 1979 APL enjoys a reputation for excellent customer service. Both companies plan to ensure a seamless integration for the website, global sales and marketing programs without any disruption to the workflow of APL customers. In addition, customers will have expanded resources for end-to-end digital media solutions including Corbis Rights and Music Clearances.

"Becoming part of the Corbis network brings our capabilities to a whole new level," explained Chris Boydell, APL Managing Director. "With access to creative and editorial images from contemporary and archival photography to fine art, illustrations and motion footage, we see unlimited opportunity to help clients differentiate brands and sell products on any media platform. Our photographers will also benefit from Corbis' global distribution, unparalleled copyright support, and global sales network.

iStockphoto Localizes Site For French, German & Spanish Buyers

iStockphoto, the community-powered marketplace for stock photography, illustrations and videos, today launched localized versions of the site in French, German and Spanish and will offer search and keyword entry in 12 languages. These enhancements will create easier access for designers and business owners worldwide while giving talented global photographers, artists and videographers an opportunity to profit from their work.

iStockphoto already boasts a million-member community offering more than one million images and videos by more than 25,000 contributing artists from six continents. Now, clients from Los Angeles to Krakow can find and purchase royalty-free imagery (all starting at $1) and video (starting at $5) more easily, by searching in any of 12 languages. Contributing artists will be able to keyword images in their native languages, and iStock will then use the hierarchical language database to generate 11 different translations.

"Small and medium businesses can make a Fortune 500 impression with the images and videos that are now available at prices that provide a better value to them," said David Haueter, principal research analyst with Gartner. "It will be interesting to watch what globalization of this community can do for marketers around the world."

The new language support is made possible through the use of parent company Getty Images' patented, industry-leading search and controlled vocabulary tools, which have been more than 10 years in the making. Unlike other stock photo sites that claim to "automatically" translate words, leading to many keyword errors, this database has been pre-translated with approximately 67,000 main concepts and up to 1 million synonyms in each of the 12 languages.

The 12 supported languages are: US English, UK English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Polish and Greek.

iStockphoto's contributing artists will now reach an expanded audience as the site becomes more accessible to a global clientele. Those contributors whose native language is not English will have an easier task keywording their images and using the site. In addition, customers will be able to complete transactions in US, Canadian, and Australian dollars; Euros, Japanese Yen, and British pounds sterling.

French-, German- and Spanish-speaking communities make up the largest iStockphoto user populations after English. Each localized site will feature specific content created by members in that region. For more information on how to become a contributor, royalty percentages or image pricing, please visit (www.istockphoto.com)

"We are very excited to welcome a broader set of international clients and contributors to iStockphoto thanks to our elegant new keyword translation, language support, and localized content," said Bruce Livingstone, CEO of iStockphoto. "We want to the share the explosion of stock imagery and video worldwide, and I can't wait to meet the amazing new contributors and designers who will join iStockphoto now."

NPPA Partners With Digital Railroad

The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) announced today that it has chosen Digital Railroad, Inc., a provider of Web-based application services for the professional photography industry, as its exclusive partner for online delivery and distribution technology services. This partnership will provide new programs and unique services for NPPA's nearly 10,000 members, allowing them to leverage critical online workflow tools to efficiently manage and sell their images to photo buyers around the globe.

"NPPA is excited to offer increased services to our members because of this partnership with Digital Railroad," said NPPA president Tony Overman. "We appreciate Digital Railroad recognizing the strengths of NPPA, and the value their service can offer our membership."

Through a series of co-produced educational seminars and workshops at NPPA events such as the Flying Short Course and Women in Photojournalism Conference, Digital Railroad will be joining NPPA in its mission to keep its members educated and informed about the technical, copyright and business issues that impact their careers.

"Digital Railroad is committed to helping photographers improve their businesses," said Evan Nisselson, Digital Railroad CEO/Founder and a professional photographer. "We're excited about our partnership with NPPA and the opportunity to provide nearly 10,000 photographers with the tools they need to be more successful. Digital Railroad's innovative services are designed to maximize photographers' sales opportunities while minimizing costs and production time."

NPPA will be leveraging Digital Railroad's unique technology platform to manage the "Search NPPA" photo archive, affording photo buyers access to thousands of images from some of the world's leading photojournalists. The partnership will also enable NPPA's members to take advantage of Digital Railroad's services at discounted rates.

Photo Industry Association to Collaborate On Areas of Mutual Interest

An unprecedented collaboration of leading stock photography trade associations and organizations will meet to discuss topics of common interest and establish plans for collective action in New York City on October 31, 2006. The Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) and the American Society of Photography Professionals (ASPP) will bring together an international group representing various participants from photographers to stock photo companies.
Directors and key figures from the following associations will be in attendance:

Advertising Photographers of America (APA)

American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP)

American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP)

British Association of Picture Libraries & Agencies (BAPLA)

Coordination of European Agencies Press Stock (CEPIC)

Editorial Photographers (EP)

North American Nature Photography Assoc. (NANPA)

National Press Photographers Assoc.(NPPA)

Picture Archive Council of America (PACA)

Professional Photographers of America (PPA)

Society for Photographic Education (SPE)

Stock Artists Alliance (SAA)

Art Directors Club (ADC)

American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)

Graphic Artists Guild (GAG)

Society of Illustrators (SI)

Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS)

This marks the first time such an extensive list of photo business-related trade organizations will meet to coordinate efforts on behalf of their respective memberships. These associations have little history of collaboration, but are meeting to clarify areas of mutual interest and shared priorities.

Participants will consider ideas for collaborating on urgent issues including:

Orphan Works legislation currently before the US Congress that would weaken the legal standing of copyright holders
Difficulties in tracking and controlling image use caused by digital distribution methods
Complications presented by discrepancies between copyright laws from country to country
Further support of the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS,) an image usage standards code designed to facilitate proper authorized image licensing.

Facing various industry forces that have converged to threaten the value of intellectual property copyright protection-an issue of the utmost importance to all the participating associations-Cathy Aron, Executive Director of PACA, and Cathy Sachs, Executive Director of ASPP, recognized the need for this first-ever photo industry summit entitled "Mattering More and Extending Ourselves-Promptly, Efficiently and Collectively."

Marketing expert and meeting facilitator, Joe LaCugna, established an agenda and outlines three main goals for the meeting.

2. Define next steps and specific processes required for successful collective action.

3. Identify and align resources to implement these priorities.

The Virtual Picture Desk Expands Into Europe

The Virtual Picture Desk, the management and global syndication company founded by industry veteran George Sinclair in July 2000, has expanded its North American business into Europe. Having successfully completed the global representation agreements for Panoramic Images (including Getty Images and Amana) and Discovery Channel Images (with Getty Images), the Virtual Picture Desk (VPD) has been appointed content syndication manager for a number of European based collections. This includes:

www.arcaid.co.uk

De Agostini Editore (www.deagostini.it) based in Milan, Italy which has over 600,000 images on line from the picture library of one of the largest book publishers in the world, publishing in 30 countries in 15 languages.

DK Images (www.dkimages.com) : part of the Pearson Group, based in London, England. This collection has over 400,000 images and includes the Dorling Kindersley "Travel Guides" and the "Rough Guides Pictures" collections.

Hemisphere Images (www.hemis.fr) : based in Paris, France, a global travel collection of rights managed and royalty-free photos. The business is wholly owned and managed by its core photographers and has over 55,000 images on line.

The Hoberman Collection (www. hobermancollection.com) : based in Cape Town, South Africa and London, England. This collection represents the wild life and travel collection of the world renowned photographers, authors and publishers, Gerald and Marc Hoberman.

Red Cover (www.redcover.co.uk) : based in London, England, this successful home features company founded by Sally Griffiths, has expanded its business into licensing single images and its "interiors" collection is now represented by Getty Images. There are now over 30,000 images on line.

VPD has appointed additional content and creative staff in New York and London to assist with the growth of the business. Matthew Pope, formerly with Photonica and Images Colour Library, has been appointed European Content Manager.

Providing short term management services in business development, sales & marketing, technology and distribution, VPD also undertakes the editing, digitization, cataloging and syndication of photographic collections. VPD does not undertake single image licensing, but develops domestic and international representation networks for its clients.

In addition to those clients mentioned above, VPD has undertaken consultancy services for Stockbyte (acquired by Getty Images for $135 million), Beate Works (subsequently acquired by Corbis) and Focus On Sport (a wholly owned library of over 700,000 negatives covering 50 years of US sports, sporting events and sports personalities shot by Sports Illustrated, NFL and MLB photographers. The collection is currently for sale as an investment, licensing and/or publishing opportunity).

VPD is headquartered in Chicago and also has offices in New York and London.

For further information contact:
George Sinclair (GSinclair@VPDCorp.com or GeorgeSinclair@earthlink.com)
The Virtual Picture Desk LLC.
Mobile: 1 917 209 0867
Office: 1 312 467 5699

VPD is a corporate sponsor of the charity "Architecture for Humanity"
( www.architectureforhumanity.com )

Press Releases 25

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