The world economy, as we all see, is not doing well. Between massive layoffs and the beginning of a deflation trend in the USA, signs are all pointing towards catastrophic changes ahead. what does it mean for the photo industry ? Let take a look and make some predictions. TheContinue Reading

The photo agency industry continues to complain and whine about its condition, endlessly consummated by demons it has created. For one, it has created this endless pool of incredibly mediocre photographer that has for far too long managed to make a living taking pictures. Its not amateur photography that isContinue Reading

This is not the next challenging mountain  path of the Tour de France. It is neither the now too familiar trend of the Getty stock. It is, however, the devastating path of the Jupiter Image stock.  Minus 68% in six months, for a company that is neither linked to theContinue Reading

Who said that editorial photography doesn’t pay ? Dave Hogan, or “Hogie” for those who know him well, is hosting the British prime minister in his 1.2 million pounds house for the summer. I have had the pleasure of working with Hogie for many years while at ImageDirect and canContinue Reading

Apple cracker jack buys debt from A21. Press release of the week Month Year : a21, Inc. Signs Non-binding Letter of Intent with Applejack Art Partners, Inc. Translation: A company with the dubious name of A21 (probably taken from a heavy drinking casino party) signed a non binding ( meaningContinue Reading

Even in a world of quirky names, content continues to rule. Picapp, the source for free legal images for blogs, has just signed up celebrity news agency Splashnews as a new provider. Here’s the deal : 2 companies, one similar idea. How to license images to the high volume communityContinue Reading

So revenues from traditional clients seem to decline. Price per image are stagnating, if not dropping, while market shares seem to be eaten away by more aggressive, younger companies that have much lower operating costs. The cost of entry in the photo agency world has dropped so low that aContinue Reading

  Fotolia, one of the big six microstock company, has somewhat launched the Reseller API, thus reinventing the agency-subagency model. In a nutshell, anyone can start representing Fotolia tomorrow under another brand without actually hosting any images. The API allows you to pretend you are hosting while every search andContinue Reading

My youngest son, who is nine years old, and so much wiser then I am, saw me writing my blog one day. When I responded to his questions about what I was doing typing on my laptop, (after all, computers are made to play games, aren’t they?), he looked atContinue Reading

Another great story out of France today: As you might remember, French president Nicolas Sarkozy used to be married to a very free thinking woman called Cecilia. While still a minister, but already the “chosen one” to succeed the heart attack stricken Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy got a big surpriseContinue Reading