For Photographers, the Image of a Shrinking Path

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Permalink Reply by Snapper on April 1, 2010 at 11:55am

Yeah, one of the implicit "villains" of the piece is microstock, which some say has killed photography as a profession while opening up new doors for hobbyists.

Interesting perspective on this piece at PDNPulse, where David Walker is -- to put it mildly -- ambivalent about the 10th anniversary "celebration" of iStockphoto, a Getty company, which reportedly has achieved annual revenues in the neighborhood of $200 million:

If those numbers are accurate...then iStock revenues may well be overtaking parent company Getty Images' rights-managed revenues. According to Getty's SEC filings prior to June 2008 (when it went private), the agency's RM revenues peaked in 2006 at about $320 million, and began declining in 2007--before the Great Recession--partly because of microstock. Is it any wonder, then, that pros are a little ill-tempered about microstock?

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