Youthanasia Foundation
April 2009
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Youthanasia Foundation
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Really bad choice of words….
Getty and Life images issued this statement last week, regarding a new internet venture offering iconic images from, LIFE Magazine, a publication I had the pleasure of working for in the eighties and early nineties.
“Today Life.com and Getty Images “joined forces to provide you instant access to millions of breathtaking photographs – for free.” … “When you find a photo you like, you’ll be able to share it, print it, and sometimes even buy it.”
Yes you read that right. The site, like Youtube, gives users the code to embed images from LIFE where ever they like– Facebook, Myspace, you name it. First to chip in was PDN, concerned that commercial blogs (that is blogs written for magazines like PDN) would have to pay for using these images, as opposed to smaller “non-commercial” blogs. Well. I don’t know if PDNs policy has changed recently but PDN has been publishing photographers images for free since its existence, running them next to expensive camera ads, never paying the photographers a penny. For the photographers, its a promotion. Are the normal magazines up in arms because PDN uses photographs for fee, giving it an unfair advantage? Not. Bottom line, PDN can afford to pay for photography for its blog.
This from Vince Laforet:
I was a bit surprised at first when I heard of this – after all the Time Life collection has always been highly regarded in the photography world as one of the most important historical collections of the 20th Century.
I think that it’s great to allow people to enjoy it – to view the images that are all too often inaccessible or hidden away and decaying in dusty filing cabinets. Yet there always has been a certain cache to these photographs – in fact I bought a limited edition Margaret Bourke White print a few years ago as a gift for my wife. Now if anyone can legally print and share these images online for free – I do have to wonder: does this move lessen the inherent value of these images?”
Vincem I would think that the added exposure of an iconic image would increase the value of a limited edition print. But the bigger more important picture is that Getty and Life can make more money with banner ads than licensing royalties on for these photos on the web. So they are giving away what they can’t control.
All those pictures you took for the NY Times– guess what, since the Times owns them, you can expect your pictures to be wallpaper for Rolex ads too.
What is positive about all of this is that iconic images, like those in LIFE, have a power that photographers must themselves take advantage of.
Today’s edition of the online New York Times features “Picturing the Recession: An Interactive Slideshow of Readers Photos” a presentation that attempts to show in images, the effect of the recession on the readers of the paper. The slideshows are broken down into categories, family, business, home, work, transportation, and sacrifice, and the truth is that some of photography struck me as being surprisingly good– much better than one would expect in a feature of this type. For example, this from Times reader Ben DeFlorio:
Cutting your own hair is a great way to save, and a nice art project. If you like Ben’s photography you can find more of it here:
QOOP.com where Ben has his stock photography.
Here is an image from Tom Jenz
You can see more of Tom’s professional work here..
There is this from Shawney Cohen in Canada:
We tracked down Shawney on this comedy website where it is disclosed that Cohen “is allergic to most types of metal, but not even one type of wood.”Great stuff, and who needs a resume to be a journalist.
Andy Cook contributed an image. You can see his work at Andy Cook Photography.
Photographers need all the help they can get these days, and even if the Times wants you to think that these are snapshots from average readers, here at 100eyes we want to help out!
Joe Josephs had a great shot and you can buy his book on Central Park from Blurb Books.
Andrea Girolamo was laid off from “Kitchen and Bath Design News” and contributed a nice image of her now empty workplace.
There is Joe Forte who has a classic image from Detroit, showing a man camping by an auto plant. And one from artist David Schalliol whose website I thought pretty much says it all–photography and sociology are both priced at fifty cents.