THE TRAVELS OF PHOTOGRAPHS WITHIN THE GLOBAL IMAGE MARKET. HOW MONOPOLISATION, INTERCONNECTEDNESS, AND DIFFERENTIATION SHAPE THE ECONOMICS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Abstract

This article reconfigures the history of analogue photo agencies in the digital image economy. It traces the development of the global image market since 1989, discusses the mechanisms of expansion due to digitalisation, and explores its increasing impact on photojournalists and users. The fact that images travel because of corporate alliances assumes great significance because corporate actors regard images as commodities. However, images’ journeys are not visible to recipients even though layperson’s work is incorporated in professional photo agencies. After a critical description of the development of the global image market with focus on the merger of Getty Images and Corbis, the article discusses the power of stock photography as “joker images” according to Wolfgang Ullrich and their influences on the work of laypersons, as presented in the Flickr Collection by Getty Images. Furthermore, the article investigates the emergence of superagencies on the global image market, interconnectedness, and differentiation.

Acknowledgements

I thank Liran Razinsky, Ofer Neiman and Assaf Nativ for providing thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this article, and the Martin Buber Society at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for providing an outstanding intellectual garden. I wish to express my deep gratitude to Luca Giuliani and Anja Brockmann for giving me the opportunity to spend August 2016 as a summer guest at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Studies). I also thank the anonymous reviewers whose comments made my article better.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Getty Images, “Getty Images and Visual China Group Partner in Exclusive Global Distribution Partnership for Extensive Visual Content Collection of Corbis Images.”

2. Ibid.

3. Upbin, “Image Enhancement.”

4. Runge, “Im Auge des Jokers: Stockfotos in journalistischen Medien.”

5. Anderson, “‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’ Uncovered.”

6. Bruhn, “Visualization Services”; Bruhn, Bildwirtschaft; Frosh, “Inside the Image Factory”; Frosh, The Image Factory; Ullrich, Bilder auf Weltreise; Blaschke, Banking on Images; Bruhn, “Tarife für das Sichtbare: Eine kurze Geschichte der Bildagenturen.”

7. Aiello and Woodhouse, “When Corporations Come to Define the Visual Politics of Gender”; Miller, “What Being Transgender Looks Like, According to Stock Photography”; West, “The Lean In Collection”; Miller, “From Sex Object to Gritty Woman”; Kay, Matuszek, and Munson, “Unequal Representation and Gender Stereotypes in Image Search Results for Occupations.”

8. Gürsel, Image Brokers; Solaroli, “The Rules of a Middle-Brow Art”; Mäenpää, “Rethinking Photojournalism”; Mäenpää and Seppänen, “Imaginary Darkroom”; Gürsel, “The Politics of Wire Service Photography”; Carlsson, Freedom of Expression and Media in Transition.

9. Aiello et al., “Taking Stock: Can News Images Be Generic?”

10. Bruhn, “Tarife für das Sichtbare: Eine kurze Geschichte der Bildagenturen.”

11. Ibid.; Blaschke, Banking on Images.

12. Bruhn, “Tarife für das Sichtbare: Eine kurze Geschichte der Bildagenturen”; Blaschke, Banking on Images.

13. See note 10 above.

14. Solaroli, “The Rules of a Middle-Brow Art”; Frosh, “Digital Technology and Stock Photography: And God Created Photoshop.”

15. Toffler, The Third Wave; Bruns, “Towards Produsage.”

16. Blaschke, Banking on Images.

17. Gudermann, “Bildrechte”; Upbin, “Image Enhancement.”

18. See note 16 above.

19. Ibid.

20. Terlep and Dezember, “Carlyle Tops Bids for Getty Images”; Soyoung and Roumeliotis, “Carlyle Group to Buy Getty Images for $3.3 Billion”; “The Carlyle Group and Getty Images Management to Acquire Getty Images from Hellman and Friedman for $3.3 Billion.”

21. Klooß, “Getty Images.”

22. Runge, “Glamour des Elends.”

23. Klein, “Almost 21 Years but Got It. Lovely to Get the Milk, the Cream, Cheese, Yoghurt and the Meat without Buying the Cow. Https://Twitter.Com/Gettyimages/Status/690554930071994368 … .”

24. Glückler, “Digitalisierung und das Paradox informatorischer Reichweite in der Agenturfotografie”; Glückler and Panitz, “Beobachtung, Begegnung und Beziehung.”

25. Glückler and Panitz, The Global Stock Image Market.

26. Glückler, “Digitalisierung und das Paradox informatorischer Reichweite in der Agenturfotografie.”

27. Bruhn, “Visualization Services”; Bruhn, Bildwirtschaft; Frosh, The Image Factory; Sekula, “The Traffic in Photographs”; Sekula, “Between the Net and the Deep Blue Sea (Rethinking the Traffic in Photographs)”; Edwards, “Exchanging Photographs”; Thorner, “Photographs as Currency and Substance.”

28. Tagg, “The Currency of the Photography.”

29. Thorner, “Photographs as Currency and Substance.”

30. Frosh, The Image Factory.

31. Ullrich, Bilder auf Weltreise.

32. Franck, Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit; Runge, “Ökonomie. Markt der Bilder.”

33. Schwantje, “Stephen Mayes: ‘Ich sehe eine starke Tendenz, dasselbe zu fotografieren’.”

34. N., “Blood and Oil.”

35. Bruhn, Bildwirtschaft; Frosh, The Image Factory.

36. Gürsel, “The Politics of Wire Service Photography.”

37. “Pressekodex: Presserat.”

38. “Richtlinien Zur Erklärung der Pflichten und Rechte der Journalistinnen und Journalisten» — Schweizer Presserat.”

39. Österreichischer Presserat, “Ehrenkodex, Presserat Österreich.”

40. Runge, “Im Auge des Jokers: Stockfotos in journalistischen Medien.”

41. Frosh, “Digital Technology and Stock Photography: And God Created Photoshop.”

42. Ibid.

43. Bruhn, Bildwirtschaft.

44. Bruhn, “Visualization Services”; Bruhn, Bildwirtschaft.

45. See note 31 above.

46. Ibid.

47. See note 40 above.

48. Ullrich, “Bilder zum Vergessen. Die globalisierte Industrie der ‘Stock Photography’.”

49. “Getty Images Contributor Community”; “Getty Images, Eigentums-Release, Deutschland”; “Getty Images, Model-Release, Deutschland.”

50. “Getty Images, Model-Release, Deutschland.”

51. “Getty Images Contributor Community.”

52. Bauernschmitt and Ebert, Handbuch des Fotojournalismus.

53. Daniel Palmer, “Emotional Archives: Online Photo Sharing and the Cultivation of the Self”; Joseph B. Bayer et al., “Sharing the Small Moments: Ephemeral Social Interaction on Snapchat”; Cruz and Ardèvol, “Some Ethnographic Notes on a Flickr Group.”

54. Nilsson and Wadbring, “Not Good Enough?.”

55. van Dijck, “Flickr and the Culture of Connectivity”; Zeng and Wei, “Social Ties and User Content Generation”; Gerling, Holschbach, and Löffler, Bilder verteilen; Holschbach, “Framing (on) Flickr: Modes of Channelling an Interdisciplinary Reservoir of Images.”

56. van Dijck, “Flickr and the Culture of Connectivity.”

57. Runge, Evelyn, “Von unsichtbaren Unternehmen und ihren inoffiziellen Mitarbeitern. Wie Getty Images und Yahoo Hobbyfotografen für sich nutzen.”

58. See note 52 above.

59. Zeng and Wei, “Social Ties and User Content Generation.”

60. See note 52 above.

61. Benton, “Getty Images Blows the Web’s Mind by Setting 35 Million Photos Free (with Conditions, of Course)”; Laurent, “Getty Images Makes 35 Million Images Free to Use.”

62. Laurent, “Getty Images Makes 35 Million Images Free to Use.”

63. Runge, “Bilddatenbanken, Social Media und Artificial Intelligence.”

64. Tractica, “Computer Vision Technology Market to Reach $33.3 Billion by 2019.”

65. Jessica Guynn, “SmugMug Snaps up Flickr Photo Service from Verizon’s Oath.”

66. Merler et al., “Diversity in Faces.”

67. Shannon Liao, “IBM Didn’t Inform People When It Used Their Flickr Photos for Facial Recognition Training — The Verge”; Merler et al., “Diversity in Faces.”

68. Aitamurto, “The Impact of Crowdfunding on Journalism.”

Additional information

Funding

My research project “Image Capture. The Production Conditions of Photo-Journalists in the Digital Age” was funded by the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences, a joint academic society by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (2015-2019). As a member of the German Young Academy, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2011-2016), I also received a research grant for my project. Furthermore, my research is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (German Research Foundation), Grant ID: 421462167.

Notes on contributors

Evelyn Runge

Evelyn Runge is a Principal Investigator at the Institute for Media Culture and Theatre at University of Cologne and a Research Fellow at the CAIS Center for Advanced Internet Studies in Bochum. She investigates the current transformations in media economics, infrastructures, and digital visual culture. Her work has been published in Rundbrief Fotografie, Fotogeschichte, Zeithistorische Forschungen. Her monograph Glamour des Elends. Ethik, Ästhetik und Sozialkritik bei Sebastião Salgado und Jeff Wall (2012) is based on her dissertation. Dr. Runge also works as a photographer.