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Photography Network Economy

  Hi FashionPhotograhyBlog.com readers, 

Today, we have a contributed post by, Berlin-based fashion photographer, Per Zennstrom on FPBlog. Per had worked on campaigns for recognized brands like Absolut Vodka, Bentley, Bon Magazine, Dior, Elle, Guy Laroche, H&M, Marie Claire, Porsche, Rolling Stone, Schwarzkopf and Toni & Guy. In this post, Per shares his thoughts about the photography network economy and surviving the changes in the digital age. Let’s get started! Here is Per…

IMGembed recently launched a project on Kickstarter attempting is to end the “war” between image owners and image users.

“Image owners are having their online content infringed without attribution, permission or payment 85% of the time. Content users are liable for up to $ 30,000 per infringed use, according to US Copyright Law. IMGembed can solve that! With our proprietary technology, IMGembed helps owners control where/how their images are being used and lets content users embed images for free, or at affordable impression based rates, with peace of mind!”

This is a really interesting project and an even more interesting problem. How are we to approach IP rights in the Digital Network Economy? We all are on both sides of this (who hasn’t had their images used online without permission?) and at the same time I’m very sure that most of us has engaged in unauthorized use of copyrighted material right?

We are at a crossroads here. Should we embrace the older pay-for usage-model or should we go for a use-your-content-to-sell-other-things model?

Using images (or other content) as a platform to sell other products

Here is an excerpt from a great article by Kwindla Hultman Kramer on what on the surface seems to be about Apple acquiring Beats by Dre, but in reality it’s really about content in the cloud and how artists (and consumers) can finally get to some sort of agreement on how to use and pay for digital content.

Just replace the word “music” with “images”:

“I’m old, so I still think about music as something I want to buy and own. For a century, we’ve lived in a technological and economic “moment” where it made sense for us to own copies of recorded music for personal use. Before about 1890, this was impossible. After about 2010, it was no longer necessary. People younger than I am expect to be able to access any music, instantly, from anywhere, and listen to it however they want. They don’t expect to pay for it, generally speaking. They don’t care about “owning” a copy of it, generally speaking. The ramifications of these changes in technology and in peoples’ expectations are enormous. So how, in this new world, do artists get paid for making music? How do people find music they want to listen to? How do artists get exposure to people who might like what they’re doing?”

 

And as I proofread this I wonder maybe this question is too narrow? Shouldn’t the question rather be “how do we adapt to a situation where everything is upside down and no one knows what really works”

It’s in this context You have to consider the news of how fashion photography duo Ineez & Vinoodh just launched a jeans capsule collection in collaboration with Frame Denim.

Photography will sell anything!

OK, Ineez & Vinoodh are extremely successful as photographers but don’t you agree that this is an interesting thought experiment? Looking at your images as a platform to launch other-than-photography-businesses. This could be information products, webinars, marketing courses, Photoshop tutorials – the list goes on and on.

IMGembed is trying to “fix” the problem by improving on the older model slightly, by harnessing the power of big data but I’m not sure that this is the solution. Why not just go ahead and accept the inevitable; stuff that has been let loose out there will get copied and used by people and we photographers have to roll with the punches and become smarter, more lean and switch from looking at this as a problem to looking for opportunities!

Thank you very much,

Per

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Feature image, image 1 & 2: contributed by Per Zennstrom. To view more of his work visit his website.

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