Stock Photography FAQ

What advantages are there in being represented by Stock Photography Agencies?

There are several advantages for photographers who have chosen to be represented by stock agencies:

• Shoot More, Administrate Less: Those Photographers who delegate the responsibility of representation to stock libraries are free to concentrate on shooting and travelling without having to worry about being available to fill requests for images and ship transparencies to clients who often make their inquiries on short notice.

• Legal Support: Photographers can usually find more legal weight when affiliated with a photographic agency if their transparencies are lost, stolen, or used illegally.

• Overseas Representation: Having representation in foreign or distant areas has also allowed photographers to make sales that would have been less obtainable from a single centralised business location.

• Advice: A good agency will give photographers advice about trends and the type of images they think they will need in the future (Aurness and others, 1990).

• Access to special high volume sales markets: Since encyclopedia and textbook publishers normally purchase their photography in bulk, it has been far more feasible for them to approach large stock photography agencies to find what they need. This sector of the industry fiscally comprises about fifteen percent of the industry (Pickerell and Child, 1994).

• Higher visibility of images: A stock photography agency often has the financial resources to create a higher visibility for a photographer's images through the circulation of expensive catalogues. The more visible stock images are, the more likely they'll sell.  Today, only one-half of one percent of the stock images available for licensing in the world are featured in catalogues, yet they account for forty percent of all stock photography sales (Pickerell and Child, 1994).