Get Into The Stock Market

With more Outdoor Photographer readers looking to sell images in the face of an increasingly fragmented marketplace, there are some tremendous opportunities opening up

By Art Wolfe / Photography By Art Wolfe And Tom Mangelsen

Labels: Business, Stock

This Article Features Photo Zoom

The last 10 years have been chaotic for independent photographers, as the old ways of doing business have withered before our eyes. By the turn of the millennium, I knew I had to adjust my business in the face of the collapse of stock photography, a once-thriving enterprise eroded by consolidation, royalty-free images, microstock, shrinking ad budgets and, recently, general economic collapse. I decided I needed to elevate my profile and take control of marketing my own work.

I built a gallery, print center, classroom and office in Seattle, a base of operations. Next, I secured funding from Microsoft, Canon and Conservation International for Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge, a public television series. I knew I’d reach more people with a single episode of the show than I had so far with 60 books. The show outstripped our expectations; it was viewed by 33 million viewers in the first season and broadcast 90,000 times across the United States. Stations in Europe, China, Japan, Canada and the Middle East picked it up, as well.

With the help of the photo website builder liveBooks and Girvin, a leading branding and graphic design firm, we recast our image and created a website to support all our initiatives. With our website in place, we turned our attention to reclaiming stock from the ruins left by the large stock agencies. With new platforms and models appearing every day, we saw a way to declare our independence and multiply our revenue.

The large stock houses are increasingly failing both photographers and photo buyers. Their strategies are a disaster for stock shooters. Getty and Corbis accept fewer images from their signed photographers each year. Even so, the return per image per year is in decline. The percentage they pay for each sale shrinks, and the rush toward micro-stock is pushing prices down, although some of that’s inevitable. They create agency-owned images that they put highest in the search results. Since nature, wildlife and cultures—my areas of concentration—are a small part of their portfolio, they give those areas little attention. It’s the best and most prolific photographers who suffer the most from these strategies.

Instead of accepting images from their photographers, they purchase entire collections, thus diluting the work of their current photographers. Getty licensed so few of my images that I stopped submitting new work five years ago. The best work of my career has been sitting on hard drives, unseen.

As they engulf and devour collections, the brands built by the small companies vaporize, destroying the position the original owners so carefully built. You could visualize the kind of imagery you could expect from Tony Stone or Photonica. Describe what characterizes a Getty image. I rest my case.

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38 Comments

Jack K. makes this comment

Friday 10 July, 2009

Art: Thank you for sharing this vaulable information. Your move to Photoshelter is what also prompted me to begin moving my humble collection away from Alamy. For a small operation like mine, I am convinced that web search is the only real alternative to developing a revenue channel.
Gary Hamburgh makes this comment

Sunday 12 July, 2009

Art, Interesting article with valuable information and insight. I have been considering PhotoShelter as an option. Your experience and recommendation has convinced me it is the vehicle for me to market my images. Thanaks so much, Gary Hamburgh
Bill Perry makes this comment

Monday 13 July, 2009

My only comment is be careful. The Marketing Concept is great, but Photoshelter is another Digital Railroad. Digital Railroad went bankrupt and gave photograpers at the most 3-4 weeks or less to get all their images offline. For many photographers it was a nightmare. Make sure that you have backed up all your images and that you control them. Do not rely on offline storage or you may be sorry.
John Mancini makes this comment

Monday 13 July, 2009

Art, Your travel series: Art Wolfe's Travels to the Edge was sensational. It was inspirational for me and I'm sure countless others. I found your delivery of the pitfalls and alternatives to stock photography and profit in this article very educational. Thanks for continuing on with your brand of professionalism and body of work.
Paula makes this comment

Tuesday 14 July, 2009

Interesting article, but I don't think that's a practical way for the less-famous to get business. Anyone in nature photography knows the name Art Wolfe. But who is going to search for my name? Probably very few, if any, at this point. I find photography a very tough business to make money (unless you're doing portraits/weddings) and currently use microstock, primarily Shutterstock http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=190231 as a way to make money. I can't quit my day job, but at least it helps supply me with extra money to buy new lenses and other equipment.
George makes this comment

Wednesday 15 July, 2009

Travel to the edge. How may I get a copy? I would love to view it. Thanks for your time.
Robert Holland makes this comment

Wednesday 15 July, 2009

Excellent article - thanks. Jack K, you can do Photoshelter and Alamy at same time. they encourage it.
Fabian Gonzales makes this comment

Wednesday 15 July, 2009

This "article" is of course nothing but a marketing piece by Art Wolfe, PhotoShelter & Co. Unless you have a famous brand name and outstanding marketing skills, even failing Alamy will bring in more revenue than a PhotoShelter "virtual agency". Even for Art Wolfe, success by going down this path is far from certain. I see more and more successful and famous photographers struggle in the current environment. Many of them seem to make more money marketing themselves as instructors, guides, etc. than from actual photography. The photography profession is clearly dying, at least concerning travel, nature and most editorial photography.
Fabian Gonzales makes this comment

Wednesday 15 July, 2009

This "article" is of course nothing but a marketing piece by Art Wolfe, PhotoShelter & Co. Unless you have a famous brand name and outstanding marketing skills, even failing Alamy will bring in more revenue than a PhotoShelter "virtual agency". Even for Art Wolfe, success by going down this path is far from certain. I see more and more successful and famous photographers struggle in the current environment. Many of them seem to make more money marketing themselves as instructors, guides, etc. than from actual photography. The photography profession is clearly dying, at least concerning travel, nature and most editorial photography.
jack thomas makes this comment

Friday 17 July, 2009

this is the kind of subject material that would be of interest, if Art Wolfe wasn't such an incredible jackass. after taking one of his 'seminars' i now know to trust nothing he says.
Angel Wynn makes this comment

Monday 20 July, 2009

The whole idea to writing on a blog is to soft sell. I liked Art's comments on the stock industry. I too have my best 5 years of work loaded onto hard drives waiting to be edited. Being a photographer has never been easy. Rewards are well earned in this business. Art is giving us some great tips in trying to stay ahead of this game. Especially with the larger agencies, which I'm a contributor to and really see what is happening as projected by Art. You have to be very innovative in today's marketplace. I don't have any plans of being on PBS but I am planning to create a few promo/informational videos that relate to my photographic specialty of Native American Culture and Lifestyles.
Bob G makes this comment

Wednesday 22 July, 2009

My experiences were much the same when Getty and friends came onto the scene. Like many others, I have been shooting and getting an incredible image collection ready, anticipating a change in the stock photo landscape. Advertisement or not, there is hope for the future in stock!
Jon Cornforth makes this comment

Thursday 23 July, 2009

From Paula, "I can't quit my day job, but at least it helps supply me with extra money to buy new lenses and other equipment." I do not mean to personally attach you here, but I hear this same argument all the time. There is no business model in, "I just want to make a few bucks and buy some shiny stuff." The fundamental problem is that the barrier to entry to selling images is gone and everyone has the amazing opportunity to market their own work. However, just because everyone else is blindly jumping off a cliff, does that mean that you should follow? Art is a gifted photographer and friend of mine. However, no one should have any illusions that he or any of us has it all figured out. How Are We Ever Going To Keep Making Money At Photography
Rob Walls makes this comment

Wednesday 29 July, 2009

I really can't understand the complaints here about Art's promotion of his pictures or his Photoshelter collaboration with other photographers. As a former photo editor (and pro photographer with nearly 50 years experience under my belt), I've used Art's outstanding wildlife photography. The complainers would be well advised to take a leaf out of Art's book. Articles like this are one of the way you promote your work and become well-known. It's part of the road to success and how you drive editors to your pictures Why Art is well-known. Posting complaints about the state of the market place, rather than adapting to it is not the way to go.
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Thursday 30 July, 2009

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Thursday 30 July, 2009

Read our post (german language)on colouriaconnect.de http://www.colouriaconnect.de/magazin/2009/7/30/ist-eine-virtuelle-agentur-virtual-agency-ein-tragbares-gesc.html
James makes this comment

Tuesday 1 September, 2009

To Bill: Photoshelter is a well run operation by Yahoo veterans. I wouldn't worry about it. iSyndica is another platform that is emerging. They provide download of your file and you can distribute your files everywhere. If your belief is that the site will go down, it wouldn't take a long time to transfer everything to your system or another site. Offline backup are also vulnerable. There's no perfect solution but sites like iSyndica only help you in minimizing that part.
Conrad Monroe makes this comment

Sunday 11 October, 2009

Very interesting article; I am not a Pro but it is clear to me through this article and a number of others that one does not get there haphazardly regardless of how good you may be. A key element seems to be to take control of your work, its presentation, and access. Art has presented an option to some of the obvious means of profiting from your work. I don't understand some of the harsh and completely unnecessary criticisms. However I will try again to “Google” the names of those people until I track down their photography. I’m sure it’s their somewhere. Maybe then I will understand.
Conrad Monroe makes this comment

Sunday 11 October, 2009

Correction. I mean't "I'm sure it's THERE somewhere."
Andrew Ptak makes this comment

Thursday 29 October, 2009

Little late to respond - but great article!
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Thursday 1 July, 2010

Photoshelter is another Digital Railroad. Digital Railroad went bankrupt and gave photograpers at the most 3-4 weeks or less to get all their images offline. For many photographers it was a nightmare.
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How-To

Get Into The Stock Market

With more Outdoor Photographer readers looking to sell images in the face of an increasingly fragmented marketplace, there are some tremendous opportunities opening up

38 Comments

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How-To

Get Into The Stock Market

With more Outdoor Photographer readers looking to sell images in the face of an increasingly fragmented marketplace, there are some tremendous opportunities opening up

38 Comments

Add Comment

Related Articles

Popular OP Articles

OP Most Popular Tags