My stock agency, Photonica, has been swallowed by the behemoth, Getty. I have no idea what the impact of this will be on my future with the agency. I read about it in the news; Photonica has told us nothing.
Getty will want to move the agency into its own orbit. It will also want more control over content than what pre-existing contracts with their current photographers might permit. My sense is that these things never go well for the existing talent.
This is not a huge surprise, though rumor was that Corbis was going to be the buyer. One report has it that because of a suit by Getty against Amana (Photonica’s parent) over an image search patent infringement, Corbis did not want the liability. The point of the buyout was not so much for Getty to add Photonica to its roster, but to keep Corbis from getting it.
Photonica has fallen from it’s stellar position in the mid-nineties as the premier showcase agency for unique, arty imagery. Everyone else has pretty much caught up and passed Photonica by, and the agency responded by becoming less diverse in its presentation and look. It’s been looking like a Getty clone for some years now, so maybe this is the obvious endpoint.
Their sales have certainly fallen for me over the last five years, about 80% over the period. Through the mid to late nineties they were almost my entire income, and it was a pretty good one. At one point I think I was the largest single contributor to their files. But since a management overhaul in 2000 my style has been out of style, and my acceptance rate for new imagery fell to near zero. There has been an uptick in sales lately (I still have many hundreds of images on their website), but I don’t think it has anything to do with me.
As someone who buys images from Photonica and Getty, I've got to say that though the Photonica reps are great folks, their sales process is a nightmare. The website's keyword searching is lame, and the Photonica billing system has caused so many problems for my company that I won't buy a Photonica image unless there is nothing at all available from Corbis or Getty.
My experiences with Getty have been uniformly excellent. The website is easy to use, and they provide quick rights checks and pricing. They also do a great job of reminding customers when it's time to renew a license so everyone stays honest. Even if they are a behemoth, at least you know that your images will be easy for buyers to find and to license.
Posted by: Karen | May 15, 2005 at 12:26 AM