News
Against the grain: ableimages launches into RM production
Amidst a steady pace of new RF production companies launching over the last few years and, more recently, a growing trend of would-be RF producers dedicating their efforts to producing for micro-stock, the founders of ableimages follow a different and, now, rarer, course; producing images strictly for Rights Managed distribution. The company recently launched a new web-site to coincide with its second release of imagery consisting of 1,000 new images bringing their numbers to almost 3000.
Co-founder of ableimages, David Harrigan, most recently Director of Photography at Corbis and previously head of Art at Getty images, London, says he and his colleagues never thought about RF or micro-stock, believing those markets are already too saturated with imagery.
“Thankfully for ableimages, the mass producers have indeed been concentrating on the production of mass market RF material,” Harrigan says. “But what ad-agency executive in his or her right mind, trying to keep hold of a client in these trying times, is going to purchase something that ANYONE can buy? By concentrating for so long now on the creation of RF, the leviathans are now at a disadvantage. Disproportional creation of RF content has left the RM shelves seriously depleted. Poor photographer relations and stupidly convoluted submission procedures have led to a disgruntled artists unwilling to submit.”
“Micro-stock did not even get onto our radar, as this is mass market, elephant gun photography. We have neither the interest, nor the mentality, nor the capability to venture into that playground and happily leave this to the big guys. Rights-Ready still has licensing complications attached to it so why run that route? NO… ableimages is small, focussed and feedback driven. We acknowledge that each licensing model has its own merits, but for us and with our background, RM was the only way to go.”
The company seeks to supply agencies world-wide and to work closely with those agents to produce images based on their clients’ demands. According to the company, it based the production of much of this most recent image release on customer requests to ableimages’ agents.
Harrigan acknowledges this approach is the direct opposite of the so-called crowd-sourcing approach employed so successfully by the micro-stock companies. Nonetheless, he plans to continue working this way and to keep his photographer roster small in order to be able to react quickly to feedback he receives from the market. “Times have changed, the halcyon age of ‘stock’ is over, but the big guns still hold forth. For an agency such as ours, and by that I mean SMALL, I firmly believe that close communication, respect, quality and good old service is what is going to differentiate companies going forward. Listen to what your agents’ clients’ ‘needs’ are and work with them to create content that they can sell. Its not about quantity its about relevancy.”
Web-site: ableimages.com
Posted in: News, Stock Photo Companies
