Amateur Photography Upload
The History and evolution of Stock Photography
The term stock photography means the photographs given to the buyer under specific license. It is something that revolutionized the photography world and paved way for many hobbyist photographers to pursue their careers in the photography profession. It is something people are using these days instead of hiring a photographer.
Stock photography today is largely based on the internet. A large number of stock Photography Sites are available online and most of the buying and selling is done there. But it was not like this always; in fact, it all began in the 1920 when a man named H. Armstrong Roberts founded the first stock photography agency. Firstly, the stock photography agencies were mostly supplying the photographs to the magazines and newspapers. In the 1990's due to other requirements photographers started working on things like the graphical designs. Mainly the stock photograph agencies were trying to cover all the needs of the industry.
In the 1990's Getty Images and Corbis were the two largest companies in the stock photography business, later another agency Jupitermedia Corporation emerged as one of the giants through buying some small companies in the market. At that time, the stock photography market was mainly controlled by these three companies.
The scenario changed dramatically as the industry went online in the 2000's. Internet provided the means for the small companies to reach customers all over the world. Their business became solely internet based, collecting pictures from amateur and hobbyist photographers around the world and selling them in much lower price than their giant rivals. These companies made the stock photography industry far too competitive as they were able to provide quality stock photographs at lower price.
The release of image search engine from Google in 2001 made it easier for the small companies to market their stock. In 2003, a company named Shutterpoint introduced a new system allowing anyone to upload and market their photos through their site for a fee. Soon, other companies followed the same path and today most of the stock photograph agencies online, provide the same feature to their users. Even now, people can sell photographs taken by their mobile cameras about any kind of recent news events through some websites.
Stock photography industry has come a long way since its beginning in the year 1920. It allowed the photographers to become freelancers and paved the way for many hobbyist photographers to choose their hobby as a career. Now stock photography is not just providing photographs but all kinds of creative needs for the industry.
About the Author
We created a stock photography site with a dream to make it the best place for everyone who is interested in buying or selling stock photos and it also provides valuable information about photography so that anyone can enhance their skills on photography.
How to Upload a Batch of Photos onto Flickr using the uploader