This should be a sticky post...
I've noticed in the last few years a disturbingly frequent shift in the attitudes of Art Buyers and businesses seeking to find images for advertising and promotion. It's the trend off FREE! Yes, I said FREE. The desire to procure images and use them for monetary gain ( their own advertising ) without the photographer receiving compensation for his / her work. For the offenders, catalog and calendar publishers, real estate firms, public relations weasels and pro bono whores, it's a win win game. Just think about it. You ( Art Director ) get great scenics and stock images that the photographer spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours producing and you get to benefit for nothing more than the promise of a 6pt photo credit in the ass crack of a double truck! And we all know how much that ad space is worth to our businesses... absofuckinglutely nothing!
It seems that the worst offenders are the clients with the most money and resources, the bigger the name, the more likely that the client wants it for free. Recently, I received a call from the second largest real estate firm in the southeast ( owned by a 9 Billion dollar company ) for some travel scenic images that they loved, images that were quite unique and well suited for their purposes. They weren't sure they could actually pay anything to use the images?
"Would you consider giving us permission to use some photos if we provide your name and website address for credit? "
Hell fucking no! ( not my actual answer... but it should have been )
"Please let us know if you would be interested in discussing this with us."
I let them know....immediately. No images without compensation, zip, zero, nada. Maybe they could come and sell my house ( If I had one ) for free and then I could tell all my friends...so they could call and get some free shit to!
This trend toward the Flicker /PhotoBucket everything's free mentality has got to be stopped. I'm doing my part, but I think it's a losing battle. There are just too many young, foolish and talented idiots that don't recognise the value of their work. The hard fact that one day these young photographers will be too tired and old to produce and may have to rely on the 'well' of their life's work to draw upon ( financially ) has passed this generation by.
Oh well, I guess we will all be lining up for our 'free' OBAMA BUCKS from Big Brother to buy our ration of toilet paper and day old bread. Life will be grand.
Thanks for reading
Ed
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