I’m disappointed that Photoshelter is closing its stock “Collection” after only one year in the marketplace. One year doesn’t seem to be a very long time to have been in business and if the guys in charge had only planned to give it 12 months from the outset then I think most people could have told them that wouldn’t be long enough.
However, I suspect it’s more to do with the venture capital guys needing the reassurance of a quick return or at least feeling that the line on the graph wasn’t rising sharply enough. Perhaps they got cold feet as the talk of “credit crunch” becomes ubiquitous.
Apart from the fact that Photoshelter did genuinely seem to have a different and energetic approach to the stock industry with the added bonus that they weren’t intent on flogging off photographer’s work for pennies, they also had some innovative ideas. The “School of Stock” pages have made for interesting reading and the recent Shoot! The Day event seemed like fun, even if it wasn’t immediately relevant to me.
I never really got around to investing time into putting my own work into the Photoshelter Collection, a fact that I’ve been reprimanding myself over for several months but for which I am now exceedingly glad. That’s the bit that really sticks in my throat, all those people who have invested their time and energy into shooting, processing, keywording, captioning and uploading files only to learn that it’s all been for nothing. I’d be spitting bullets.
Every cloud has a silver lining though and the silver lining in this case comes in the shape of blog stewardess Rachel Hulin. Rachel was Photoshelter’s Queen of Blog and her regular posts had become essential reading for photographers, photo editors and anyone who just fancied a bit of photo titillation now and again. Rachel’s started up her own blog though and I recommend you add it to your RSS reader. I’m intrigued to see what she comes up with now she’s no longer constrained by needing to keep corporate bosses happy. If, indeed, she ever was.
