Hi there,
may I introduce myself? I am Alexander and this is my first article on Peakd.
Originally my work is in photography. I started in 2004 while still studying economics and specialized on portraits, beside documentary and landscape photography. But the images I loved the most were not the ones that paid the bills. So I used my network and established a portrait studio in Berlin. On the short horizon that seemed like a good idea. In the long run, I'd like to dive into NFT and photography, since the potential is powerful.
An example: I have a client who is a bit more famous than others, so his image gets shown in more magazines, news outlets and articles. In the moment of the creation of the image I do not know how much "benefit" the image will create - or if it will even end up on a t-shirt. So how can a value the usage right of the work?
The photography business is multi-facetted. As a freelance photographer you are a creative for hire. Most clients want to book you on a daily rate. I also charge per image and type of usage, for example website, press or commercial picture. Of course a commercial picture that gets printed on ads should be worth more than a portrait for Linked.in. But when the simple application portrait will be used in corporate mailing, the photographer mostly wont know and many clients use that missing transparency of real usage to their advantage.
With the rise of Covid many photographers had cancellations for months. So many of them dived into other fields. My lawyer suggested to go after the non-licensed image users. There are thousands of websites, that let you download my most iconic image, but my share of all these is unfortunately 0. Most of these sites are hosted in countries, where no European lawyer stands a chance.
There was a time, when you actually got paid to deliver good content. Magazines were looking for talent and bidding for their next photo series. Image rights have been managed by companies like Getty images and other agencies. Although the spread between creator and platform has been bad 1/3 vs 2/3 but still, there was some income stream to be generated with an extensive image gallery for license under Getty's ties. Usage rights were worth something and photographers have been earning with them like musicians or authors. Now it's just sad, how cheaply image rights are sold and how little control photographers have, with what happens with the images.
It seems the value of the meaningful content got replaced by the pure attraction of the attention. Otherwise how do you explain platforms like facebook, Instagram and TikTok attracting so many content creators to display their art for free?
They don't even get a share of the advertising revenue the platform makes in the midst of the user generated content.
How are photographers and influencers supposed to maintain a healthy creative flow, when its only advertising clients giving them incentives for original content? Or, sometimes even worse, it's their own product/paid service they advertise: "be part of my group", "join my server" or what not.
So my question is: How are we going to create a world (metaverse), were content creators can participate the value of their created work in the long-term?
Might PEAKD be the right choice for this goal?
A social network were good content is valued?
Might NFTs be a good idea to track usage of photography?
Maybe photographers can soon participate real usage of their images?
Has Gettyimages slashed prices that much? As a layman, I thought that if you were a good photographer, you could live off the royalties you get there, or at least build up a nice income. But if Gettyimages keeps lowering the prices, then the photographer's income also decreases. Shit.
I think NFT is a huge opportunity for artists and photographers. You can already create an NFT and with every resale the creator earns a certain percentage.
The question is whether it is technically possible to link the right to use an image to the NFT. That is, only the person who bought the image or owned it at least once or at the time of publication can use it.
But I'm sure someone will come up with a much better idea. I think it's terrific what ingenuity comes to light in this field.
Yes, the payout for photographers on Getty is awful since a few years. They have introduced volume packages for many clients with high-profile accounts and sometimes payouts of royalty fees for photographers go as low as 0,30 cents per image download. Getty Images charges 70% from the fees. So it's not as attractive / financially sustainable anymore to try to live on royalty fees. Many photographers are therefore looking for ways to restructure their licensing process and to create a certain option of scalability.
NFTs sound like a great start for Fine-Art Photographers and Designers to connect to collectors and participate in the long-term value of their artwork. I agree that there is a lot of opportunity for artists, although I would not know where to start yet as a creator.
Hello, @generalzevo
This is @fionasfavourites from the @ocd (Original Content Decentralized) curation team. We noticed you shared your first post here on Hive - congratulations and welcome! It would also be awesome if you could do a more detailed introduction post, so our community can get to know you better. For an example of what an intro post is like, you can check out this one by my friend & curation team member - Keeping Up With the Buzz – My Introduction to the Hive Community.
Speaking of community, we have many different ones here on the blockchain, devoted to all kinds of interests. Here's a link so you can check them all out – Hive Communities.
Also since you're new, you may run into an RC (Resource Credits) error when trying to comment/post because you don't yet have enough Hive in your account yet. For assistance with a temporary delegation to get you started, be sure to check out the Gift Giver site.
Also, as this the hive can be quite confusing, the newly launched Newbies Guide is a growing repository of useful – easy to understand – posts about how the Hive ecosystem works.
For now, @lovesniper will follow your account and we are looking forward to seeing your intro post. Also, you are welcome to tag me (@fionasfavourites) and please mention @lovesniper in your intro post in order for us to be notified, so we can consider your post for OCD curation. Feel free to hop into the OCD Discord server if you have any questions!
Welcome to the chain, hope to see more of your work - I run some #photography contests bi-weekly since 5 years on this and the former chain called #BeachWednesday and #SunThursday - wäre top Dich dort zu sehen mit einem Beitrag wenn Du Bock hast.
thanks for the warm welcome and invitation. Sure I am checking out the possibilities and looking forward to contribute some content where I see fit or have an inspiration.