Photo Frugality On the Web: Free! (Almost)Posted by drfl on August 13th, 2009

A recent Time Magazine cover has been causing quite a stir amongst photographers on the Internet in the past couple of weeks.  Blog post after blog post has been written, tweets have been tweeted, emails have been flying.  Why?  Because the artist sold his photograph for $30.  Normally, rates for such usage range in the thousands of dollars, but to this particular artist this photograph was worth about the change that was placed in the jar.  If you are curious, this is apparently not his day job.  The rumor is that he manages a furniture store.  From the fervor of some photographers I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to go to work one day to only find sticks and cloth where sofas and easy chairs once stood.

Photographers have ranted, claiming the old model is dead and no one can survive!  I admit, there are some problems with the stock world today.  It parallels the health care system issues in the United States, everyone thinks they know how we got here, but no knows how to get us out.  No one solution that will cure either and each idea spawns deeper questions and more pressing issues. 

What’s the answer?  I wish I knew.  Some claim that photographers entering the market need to be better educated.  How?  Does every Mom that buys a DSLR and sells photographs of her neighbors children need to have a business manual to do so?  Does every photo hobbyist who knows a jeweler need a college course on pricing before shooting earrings?  Some claim that stock agencies should go back to the old rights-managed model exclusively?  After Time Magazine has tasted a $30 cover?  Unlikely.

When most photographers are asked why they began, most answer that it was simply to satisfy their creative desires.  They shoot because they want to shoot.  They began to share those photographs because they wanted others to see the beauty, gaze on the grandeur, and feel the inspiration that they felt.  It was only after thousands of photographs later that the determination set in to persue photography as a business.  I can tell you that almost every one of those same photographers has later occasionally felt the despair of the system.  The professional photographic system is flawed, but no system is ever perfect.  It could be better and I believe that it will someday. 

My hope is that when the revolution is over and when an acceptable solution emerges those same photographers that began shooting for themselves to feed their inspirations are still there to share that vision with the world.