by Rohn Engh

Advance Notes: As veteran photographers and photo researchers, we are passing through an era that can flip us upside down if we don’t fly right.

Photo researchers and photobuyers have long struggled with an archaic system in their task to acquire the "just-right" photo to fit an editorial placement.

But there's change afoot. By the end of the decade, acquiring on-target photos will have become much easier.

Let's project ourselves to October in the year 2011. Researchers and buyers are enjoying this smoother system of acquiring that "just right" photo, and at an inexpensive fee.

How did this begin?

It was born of the revolution in e-commerce marketing at the turn of the century. Music file-sharing (Napster) was at the center of the revolution. Internet entrepreneurs realized that if you injected some democracy into music buying, more people could enjoy music, at a lower cost to the consumer. Increasing numbers of photo researchers and photobuyers discovered that by using the same basic technology and applying improving Internet search methods, they could use more illustrations, because through these methods images are easier to find, quicker to administer, and cheaper to lease. A final element was the introduction of a workable system of advantage micro-payments, tracking multiple volume sales, controlling the bookkeeping through subscription services, providing royalty tracking and payments procedures, and ensuring that the photos purchased didn't leak out onto the wider Web landscape.

At the end of this first decade of the 2000’s, the world of stock photography distribution operates in a whole new landscape. No longer do we have a sundry of massive stock agencies, based on previous century technology, controlling the commerce. Photo researchers and buyers armed with Web search know-how, are aiming their high-speed computers and bandwidth directly at individual photographers, who are able to supply the highly specific images the buyers are looking for. Everyone from students to major book publishers, from TV documentary production companies to major advertising agencies, are seeking out and buying photos using the Internet.

What is making the difference? There are several factors.
* Digital cameras that can produce high-resolution images are becoming affordable.
* Speedy phone lines can transmit images for preview with immediacy.
* Web search engines have become more sophisticated.
* Photographers have begun to build deep selections of specific subject matter that they are expert in and enjoy photographing.
* Business software for stock photographers has emerged that has made bookkeeping and accounting chores more bearable.
* Disk storage has become cheap and dependable.
* Digital-only printing plants are becoming the norm.
* Picture security systems have been set in place.
* Copyright protection laws are being revised and brought into the Digital Age.
* Magazines and book publishers are focussing more on theme publishing, rather than producing "across the board" subject material.
* Researchers and photobuyers are becoming more versatile in Web technology and more expert in the select special interest areas of their readers.

BLOWING IN THE WIND

What is causing the demise of the large stock photo agency as we knew it? All of the above, of course, but the main factor is that, being a centralized organization, the massive stock agency is too monolithic to be able to act swiftly when a researcher needs a picture.

In the past, the massive stock agency was convenient because all their images were housed in a central supermarket-style location. But the emergence of the Web is destroying this advantage. Researchers and buyers can now go directly to the supplier—the photographer — rather than through a bureaucratic middleman system.

In addition, if the photo researcher needs a recent photo of school children in France, or a skyline of a particular city in California, the image from the stock agency might be 4 to 5 years old. A query to a California photographer living near in the city, or to a Parisian schoolteacher “citizen” photographer, can produce a current image in less than 24 hours.

We are emerging into an era where film-produced images are becoming artifacts and will be seen in ‘antique’ exhibits, and film photographers will soon come to be revered as artists who mastered archaic darkroom techniques to provide museum-quality prints. Digital photography is now the norm. Not only do the automatic controls on digital cameras allow persons with a sensitive eye for imagery to produce fine quality images, but photo editing software allows them to enhance the pictures for additional creative treatment.

When we look back on this turn of the century, our grandchildren will admire those early photographers who spent lonely hours in darkness to produce memorable film images of the world around us. The turn of the century will also be known in photography circles as the era when photography shed the shackles of cumbersome roll film and odorous darkroom chemicals. It will be known as the revolution that gave pictures back to the people and eliminated greedy photo pricing and limited distribution of those images.

Thanks to the photography of yesteryear, we were able to perceive a limited view of our planet. The new era of photography will be boundless in its energy to provide us with a more comprehensive knowledge of our world.