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Re: Photograph use trends



I think a lot of archives are seeing more use of their still
and moving images because we are becoming a much more visual
society. Everything has to be associated with a primal image
now for it to become a worthy publication or product. Image
is everything. More targeted publishing,
and more targeted, defined, audience-specific television,
such as Discovery, History and A&E, is leading to increasing
use of our images.
Next time you get a chance look at one of the latest
MicroSoft TV ads and try to count the sheer number of images
used in extremely clever ways within any 30 video frames. In
half a second you are seeing three or four images (which
they may have come digitally from Corbis) and which you may
register more or less conciously.

The other factor is that using archival imagery is a lot
cheaper than paying models or actors, and film crews, and so
forth. If it were only possible, all of these channels would
prefer to be producing future oriented programming as it
would be much more marketable to sell the future than the
past. Regretably, there just aren't any good pictures of the
future. Yet.

We get a lot of business because we are faster and less
expensive than the monoliths that have some of the same
imagery. You can increase business by eliminating forms,
reducing turnaround from months and weeks to days and hours,
and undercutting the stock houses on use fees (we prefer
that term to "licensing"). At the same time if you are
getting too much business just require your researchers to
write to you by snail mail with their requests, raise
duplicating fees, and charge a high use or licensing fee.

John Sanford

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