Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
From press to publicity: expansion into commercial photography
Stock photography had long been editorial, that is, pictures for reportage, documenta-
tion, and news, whereas advertising agencies would usually produce their visual content
through assignment photography with commercial photographers. The 1970s brought
about a major change. Given the economic downturn and the oil crisis in 1973, the adver-
tising industry suf ered serious budget constraints and sought new image sources at lower
cost. At the same time, the 1978 US Copyright Law, which asserted that an image was the
photographer's rather than the client's property, provided an institutional guarantee for
photographers to use stock photography as an additional business opportunity (Frosh,
2001).
The Image Bank
pioneered modern stock photography by venturing from the
editorial into the commercial market in 1974. In order to compete with assignment pho-
tography, they managed to improve picture quality, attract commercial photographers,
and attract the attention of advertising agencies to buy stock at a lower cost than that of
assigning photo productions. The company pursued an aggressive marketing strategy,
introducing picture catalogues as an instrument to gain visibility and create visual style
(Frosh, 2001). Today, picture catalogues are an established marketing tool. In Europe,
half of all agencies publish catalogues on an annual basis (CEPIC, 2001). In addition, the
British pioneer Tony Stone developed a sophisticated licensing system to maximize the
proi t per picture such that the agency succeeded in selling the same picture over 300 times
in just one year, generating revenues of £30,000 with just one photograph (Rich, 1994).
From light-box to screen: digitization and online archives
In the early 1990s the market experienced enormous growth rates of up to 25 per cent
per year and enthusiastic expectations accompanied the advance of digital technology.
However, still in 1995 no single company had launched an online archive, and a survey
in Britain at the time revealed that many of the big agencies had not yet taken clear
decisions when to go online. Some business experts were even quite averse to the notion
of selling pictures via the internet and saw more threat than opportunity: 'I can't under-
stand why any picture library can consider going on-line' (Sal Shuel, BAPLA, quoted in
Goddard 1995). While the incumbent business was somehow reluctant to embrace the
advent of digital technology, very powerful and resourceful investors entered the market
with high expectations. The strategic opportunity of digitization was based on the fact
that more images could be of ered and distributed to more customers at essentially less
cost. British oil magnate Mark Getty and Microsoft founder Bill Gates recognized this
opportunity and made large investments to buy up basically all established and signii -
cant players in the market. Today, Getty Images (founded 1995) and Corbis (founded
1989) are by far the largest i rms in the global market place for still images. In contrast
to their incumbent competitors, both i rms drove technological change with intensive
commitment. Getty Images were the i rst big agency to launch an e-commerce platform
on their online archive in 1998. While they gained 14 per cent of their revenues in the i rst
year, they increased online sales to over 90 per cent in only i ve years.
From licence to property: royalty-free images
Online archives and e-commerce platforms have not been the last innovation, though.
Decreasing distribution cost through digital technology has made another source of fric-
tion more obvious: the legal constraints of intellectual property rights. When customers
