When an  amateur astrologist discovers an impact on the planet Jupiter, no one screams the end of professional astrologists, so why is it that when an amateur gets an image that pros did not get, it is the end of professional photojournalism ? The Universe is huge and not evenContinue Reading

There is a lot of talk these days that photography has become a commodity. According to Wikipedia, “A commodity is something for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is a product that is the same no matter who produces it, suchContinue Reading

There is only one certitude in the photography business : If you don’t spend money, you will not make money. Everything else is educated guess that some confuse with a lottery game. As much as we never know for sure if an image will sell, and how many times, asContinue Reading

It seems that these days, it is getting more important to be published than getting the appropriate compensation.  More and more we hear about obscene prices being applied to licensing rights. Fueled by the idea that photography is a commodity and thus should be priced accordingly, photo agencies worldwide areContinue Reading

well, not really…but amusing. Instead of waiting for someone, somewhere, to figure out how to price newspapers online,  The Newport Daily News ( In Rhode Island, USA)  just nailed it. Newport Daily News: Charging for news online from Nieman Journalism Lab on Vimeo. More info at the Nieman LabContinue Reading

“ASP is a membership association of more than 350,000 U.S. photographers, Photo agents, and Photo agency of every kind of photography. Through agreements with affiliated international societies, ASP also represents hundreds of thousands of photo creators worldwide. ASP is the only U.S.  rights organization created and controlled by photographers, PhotoContinue Reading

“ITN’s shareholders have reportedly held detailed discussions to sell a majority stake in the News at Ten and Channel 4 News producer to Getty Images, the international picture agency. Getty Images, founded by Mark Getty, grandson of J Paul Getty, and the former banker Jonathan Klein in 1995, “is anContinue Reading

You have to love the French !! This is a good one: Here is the latest. In an attempt to be more convinient and user friendly, I presume, the French governement has decided to  put free automated passport machines in all the city halls ( 2000 nationwide). The idea isContinue Reading

Who owns the news ? The ongoing debate between news outlets ( AP, NYTimes..) and mash ups ( Google news..)  has made this question surface. Is the first one reporting the news the owner of that news ? That used to be the accepted tradition. Now with Twitter, Facebook, imContinue Reading

There used to be something called “digital rights”. That is, when a publication wanted the right to publish a copy of an image to use in a digital format, it would pay an additional license fee. At first, like the internet itself or CD ROM (remember those ?) circulation, itContinue Reading