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Dreamstime increases royalties for stock photo contributors in response to COVID-19’s economic impact

09 Jun

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout have impacted everyone, including photographers. Many photographers have lost revenue due to canceled jobs, fewer events to photograph and potential clients, including commercial clients, not having the revenue to spend on photography. Stock photography website Dreamstime has launched multiple initiatives to help photographers and others impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including a newly announced increase in royalties.

As of June 1st, Dreamstime is rewarding contributing photographers with a 10% increase in the royalties value for all downloads, including those with exclusive or non-exclusive status. As Dreasmstime points out, this means that a download that previously would have awarded 50% royalties will now award the photographer 55%. Dreamstime itself has been impacted by the economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, so while they aim to offer the increased royalties for as long as possible, they are unable to make any guarantees about the eventual timeframe.

‘This means that financial aid will be now employed for a more community-centered strategy. For you, this means that all purchases beginning with June 1st will reward an extra 10% increase in the royalties value for all downloads, regardless of the exclusive or non-exclusive status.’ – Dreamstime CEO, Serban Enache

In addition to offering photographers increased royalties, Dreamstime has also worked on creating new tutorials and guidelines for photographers trying to stay financially secure during these trying times. Clients have also been offered relief in the form of a free two-month pause on subscriptions.

Further, Dreamstime has been contributing 5% of its sales to the World Health Organization’s Solidarity Response Fund since March. Additionally, active non-government organizations in need of visual content can contact Dreamstime for a free subscription.

As PetaPixel pointed out, the timing of the royalties increase is interesting. In late May, competing stock photo company Shutterstock announced a new earnings structure for its contributors and the response was very negative.

For comparison, Dreamstime’s new structure has been met with a very positive response. In the comment section on the company’s announcement blog post, many users have not only expressed gratitude, but some have even mentioned specifically that they have either shut down their Shutterstock accounts in response to its change in royalty structure.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Ghost Estates of Ireland: Symbols of an Economic Collapse

03 Jun

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Built with visions of suburban prosperity in more optimistic times, the empty shells of former dream homes dot the countryside among piles of construction rubble and fallen-down fences. Economic highs and lows have led to abandonments of entire villages all over the world, from China to the Mediterranean, but Ireland is among the nations that was particularly hard-hit.

Photographer Valérie Anex captures Ireland’s ‘ghost estates’ in a series of striking images that juxtapose a fading hope for sanitized suburbia with the current reality, which is simply that nobody can afford to live in these houses. The National Institute for Regional and Spacial Analysis defines ‘ghost estates’ as developments of ten houses or more in which fifty percent or less of the homes are occupied or completed.

The latest tally of ghost estates in Ireland, taken in 2013, is 30% less than it was when Anex took these photos in 2011, but that’s still well over ten thousand mostly-empty neighborhoods in a relatively small nation (and just a small percentage of Ireland’s 350,000-some-odd abandoned houses.)

Most of the ghost estates are found in the rural areas of the northern and western parts of the country. Says Anex, “These empty shells are eyesores for the locals in these small towns. The crisis is affecting the country – unemployment, debts, budget cuts, flights of capital investments – but it is also shaping its landscape.”

“Bitter memories left by the spectral and temporary nature of the property boom in Ireland, ghost estates are the symbol of the property market’s collapse, a topology of the economic disintegration of the country.”

The Ghost Estates series will be on display at the Photobookshow in Brighton, England this June.