The End Of High End Stock Photography?

On the WhichStockAgency.com blog, Marianne Winther asks whether the end is nigh for custom high end stock photo shoots.  She takes quotes from three different stock industry commentators, including this one from Glenn Parker, CEO of Photolibrary:

“…there is money to be made from ‘image creation’ rather than using the word ‘production’ at an individual photographer level as they will be more cognizant on costs. However not at a corporate production company level like the old days – aka Jupiter etc. The expensive bit for the old production companies was not so much in the variable cost of the shoot but the after work. The editors, keyworders, retouchers, pre production staff, finance people to make sure everything was spent correctly, executives who then had to manage the whole thing etc. I think you get the picture!!! That added quite a lot to the cost of any shoot (i.e. more than double). A photographer can and does keep a much tighter control of those costs and therefore can still get a good return on his or her images if the quality is good.” [Read More]

Of course it could also be argued that one of the other contributors to the decline in high end stock photography is the prevalence of Enterprise Digital Asset Management solutions (and improved working practices) which means companies no longer need to spend money re-creating material they have already produced.

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