KEY WORDS : Photojournalist | Corbis | Sygma | Christopher Reeve | WWII | The Oscars | Changes | Keyphrases | Keywords | Grammar | Goodbye Taxes | IRS Rules | Intent | Travelers Abroad | Plant A Tree | ASPP | National Geographic | Blog | Stock Photos | Tax Advisor | White Mailers | Tax Tips |

NEWSWORDS: Edit On Demand | Photoshop’s Future | Desert Photography | Native Aperture | Self-Serve Photo Kiosks | Art of Digital | Boost Profits | One-On-One Portfolio | Pre-Designed Layouts | Phenomenal $15 Million | Photographic Film | News PHotographer | Katrina’s Devastation | Photographer Preferences |

	Welcome to PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter, a free monthly newsletter from PhotoSource International. <http://www.photosource.com> To sign up for our free photoRESEARCHER Newsletter, visit us online at: http://www.photosource.com/photoresearcher (If you do not wish to receive the PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter, please see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.)

Corbis Sygma Held Responsible
for Loss of Images
by Joel Hecker, Esq.

Arthur Grace, a photojournalist who recorded events of historical significance for many years, sued Corbis Sygma in the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York for failure to return what eventually was determined to be approximately 40,000 images. (He had initially claimed a loss of approximately 67,473 images.)

After an extensive trial the Court made a number of findings relating to liability issues and damages under the facts concerning this particular photographer.

First and foremost, the Court determined that Sygma (which was the initial stock photo agency, later acquired by Corbis) never had a system in New York for keeping track of all the images in its inventory. Its system was, in the Court's words, "completely inadequate.” Images were not organized by photographer but were kept chronologically and by theme or story. No record was kept of which images were sent to the client on consignment or which were returned.

Over the years Sygma, and later Corbis Sygma, would sporadically return images, eventually totaling over 33,000.

The Court found that the submission of the images to Sygma was a bailment for mutual benefit (since Sygma was obtaining fees for its licensing services). Therefore, Sygma was presumed to have been negligent in failing to return the missing images. Since it did not provide a sufficient explanation for the loss, the Court found it was therefore liable.

As to the damages, the Court went through the usual process of determining the uniqueness of the lost slides and the plaintiff's earning potential, among other factors. The Court found that, although some of the missing images were "selects,” the majority were not unique in the sense that they were "out-takes" or were not usable for one reason or another. Only a small percentage of the images were actually placed into the licensing stream. As part of this analysis, the Court determined that Grace's licensing income during the thirteen year period involved, from 1990 to 2002, was an average of $11,002 per year. After removal of fees relating to images of Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve, which were not lost, the Court determined that Grace's average total income for the lost images during the ten year period, 1991-2000, was $5,881.

The Court stated that Grace's reputation and expertise in the photography industry was one of the best. However, it also determined that he had spent little time as a photojournalist in the last fifteen years. The Court further found that the nature and extent of the market demand for the kind of images lost would remain but surely decline as the images age and the news stories in question fade into history. Furthermore, there is significant potential for competition. That is, many other photographers created similar images and other stock photo agencies had such images available for licensing.

The Court was very much influenced by the fact that Corbis bought the entire Sygma collection, consisting of some 40,000,000 images, for $12.5 million, or approximately 31 cents per image. Corbis also bought the 11 million image collection in the Bettmann archives for $13.5 million, or about $1.23 per image. In addition, the purchase price paid by Corbis for the 600,000 image Turnley collection (which was edited before the acquisition) and included copyrights, was $2.3 million or $3.83 per image. The Court indicated that these acquisition prices were relevant, but on the other hand, Grace did not want to sell his images at all.
AN ABSURD AMOUNT
The Court discussed the proverbial $1,500 per image liquidated damage provision contained in most contracts and found that it did not apply in this case and would lead to an absurd result (the mathematics would add up to over $100 million based upon Grace's initial claim!). The Court found that using the $1,500 figure per image for the 40,000 images the Court determined to be lost would far exceed the entire purchase price for what Corbis paid to acquire the Sygma, Bettmann, and Turnley combined collections.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photosource.com/researcher/legal131.html

The New Age of Editorial Photography . . . .
Images Are Getting Real, Again

In 1987, I can remember talking with a California stock photo agency director who waved his hand toward his office files with the exclamation, “Editorial photos? We have plenty of those!” The pictures he referred to, of course, were clean-cut models in a work situation, smiling at a computer screen, or a model housewife pleasantly choring away with her modern vacuum cleaner. The viewing public in those days, it was assumed, preferred fairytale “editorial” pictures.
Catalogs of historical B&W photos from the post WWII era also reflect the aspirations of the public (or at least that’s what the art directors assumed) to inhabit a wonderland society, a peaches and cream world, that, however, few people would ever experience.
Times have changed. Maybe it was the shock of 9/11 or the turmoil in the Middle East; or it may be the influence of TV that can portray reality as it really is. The public is growing up and getting real. Publishers are wakening up also. We are seeing a growing willingness on the part of publishers to tackle controversial subjects with natural lighting and hand-held camerawork. Even major Hollywood films today reflect a cultural acceptance of the “real.”
Yes, the squeaky-clean advertising pictures we continue to see today have their place – in advertising. But, book and magazine publishers are showing a growing willingness to feature controversial subject matter, with a straight forward appoach. They have shifted to a sense of realism in the images they choose for production. They perceive that their readership wants the “straight story.”
THE OSCARS
The nominations for “The Oscars” this year also reflect this willingness to tackle gritty, topical issues head on. The top nominations range from race relations (“Crash”) to the homosexual love (“Brokeback Mountain”). In fact all four major nominees deal with realism and the personal cost of making life decisions based on whether to conform to social norms or not.
Will the pendulum eventually swing back to the fairytale type of photos of the last decade? Probably so. I’ve watched this phenomenon over the last 40 years, and my bet is that it will continue in the pattern of shifting back and forth every ten to fifteen years or
so.

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. E-mail: info@photosource.com. Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com.

CHANGES

Each month we report to you moves among, within and between: publishing houses, stock agencies, photobuyers, photo researchers, ad agencies, and design firms.

GTS PUBLISHING SERVICES (500 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118) contact person, Morgan Floyd, Photo Researcher. Former e-mail: morgan.floyd@gtscompanies.com ; current e-mail: morgan.floyd@techbooks.com .

FIRST LIGHT PHOTO RESEARCH (33 Papoose Lane, St Albans, ME 04971) contact person, Sheri Arredondo, Photo Researcher. Former e-mail: Sheri@first-light-photo-research.com ; current e-mail: firstlightresearch@adelphia.net .

ANTHOLOGY, INC (3300 N Arlington Heights Rd, Arlington Heights, IL 60004) former fax: 1 847 506-9806; current fax: 1 847 506-9864.
QUOTESCAPE INC (11903 Yates Ford Rd, Fairfax Station, NY 22039) former contact: Yolanda Lenyon, General Manager; current contact: Michael Lenyon, General Manager.

KAREN BRODERICK, Freelance Photo Researcher, former phone: 1 212 979-2994; current phone: 1 718 231-5692.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS (198 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016) contact person, Judi DeSouter, Senior Art Buyer. Former phone and e-mail: 1 212 726-6315, judi.desotter@oup.com; current phone and e-mail: 1 212 726-6327, judi.desouter@oup.com.

Keyphrases….not Keywords

Just as the word “captions” has slipped out of style in our stock photo industry, the word “keywords” will soon be outdated. What will take its place? keyphrases.
Here’s a short Library Science/Internet Engineering chronicle.
Back in the mid 90’s, most people entered a website from what they called the “Home Page”. From there, using the site’s search engine, they navigated about the site using a keyword. This often brought them to a page within the site that was specifically useful to them.
Finding images improved when each web site provided its own search feature to visitors. These in-house search engines proved useful until the availability of on-line images mushroomed.
Along came Alta Vista and a couple other search engines in 1995 that said, “No, you don’t have to go to a Home Page to start your search. Start with us.”
That meant, using a keyword, you could enter a website from anywhere, -- a front door, a cellar door, the chimney, or a window.
Back then, how many websites were available? About a million –and that was amazing to all of us. Finding your target subject was not difficult, but it was sluggish.

THE ONSLAUGHT

Today, there are over a trillion websites. And several thousand images are entered into the Internet daily. If there are a trillion websites, there are surely a quadrillion images on-line. How to find a particular one? (That’s the job of a photo researcher.) If super-sophisticated search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSM, etc., hadn’t come along in the last decade, the section of the web related to us in the stock industry, on-line images, would have collapsed under its own weight.
And the big improvement is, search engines nowadays allow us to look for subject matter with multiple words: keyphrases.
If on your own website or your pages on the PhotoSourceBANK you are not identifying your images with detailed keyphrases, you are missing out on sales.

THE NEW GRAMMAR

When you make up your ke phrases, take liberties with what we all learned in school to be good grammar and spelling. Photo researchers, and the general public, i.e. all of us, sometimes misspell words or make “close enough” entries. (Can you name 5 ways to spell Muhammid Ali?) Put yourself in the shoes of a photo researcher. How would she or he search for the image you are presently entering descriptive keyphrases for?
Since text takes up very few 0’s and 1’s compared to images, in a computer database, don’t hesitate to enter all the key phrases you can think of when preparing your (what we used to call) captions.

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. E-mail: info@photosource.com . Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com.

For the independent Photo researcher…
Goodbye Taxes

Arithmetic in grammar school and algebra in high school never appealed to me. But when I discovered later on in life that I could save hundreds of dollars every year, I soon became fascinated by mathematics.
Once a year we have to get serious about taxes. Most independent business entrepreneurs make the same comment: "Taxes...Oh! I leave that to my tax accountant."
It turns out the tax accountant is usually Uncle Harry a neighbor down the street, or someone picked out from the Yellow Pages. In other words, a non-expert, who usually cost the client mucho dollars in the long run.
Let me make two points: right away: 1) you are missing an opportunity to save anywhere from $10 to $1,000 a year (or more) on your taxes if you are a salaried person and working on the side to get your freelance business off the ground, and 2) what I'm going to say has nothing to do with evading taxes -- that's illegal. You will find how to avoid taxes -- that's your legal right.

THE IRS RULES ENCOURAGE YOU

The IRS encourages you to avoid taxes. Sound odd? It's correct.
The reason the IRS doesn't want you to over pay your taxes is that our free enterprise system recognizes that it takes courage to start up a business, thus, the IRS wants to en-courage you. They know that if you succeed, you could very well help stimulate the economy by hiring more workers, who in turn will pay more taxes.
Perhaps you thought "write-offs" were only for the big boys, and that it costs big dollars to ask questions about tax advantages. Not so. The IRS provides you with all the information I'm about to reveal to you, in their free and informative, "Taxpayer's Business Kit." (Phone them to order a copy at 1 800 829-1040).
But if you're like most of us, you'll take one look at that two pounds of information and put it away in a drawer for "later."
A costly mistake. Here's what you'll discover when you sift out the information as it applies to you, the freelance photo researcher. The government will give you five years to stop calling your operation a hobby and start calling it a business. Within those five years,* you should show a profit ($1 is a profit) in at least two of those years. That means you could go three years without showing a profit and still reap the tax benefits (more later). (This applies to someone who has a salaried position and is starting a stock photo research business on the side. If you are self-employed, with your stock research business as your only enterprise, you don't have to make a profit in any of those years, to qualify as a full-fledged business.)
You don't have to "get a license" (unless your local city or township requires it). You only have to show intent to be a business, rather than a hobby.
Intent translates into "putting up a shingle." In other words, get some stationery printed, and open a separate bank (business) account. At income tax time, fill out Schedule C, a form that lets the IRS know whether you made a profit or a loss on your photo research operation.
Now here's where your savings come in.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photosource.com/researcher/clmn86.html

TRAVELERS ABROAD

Photobuyers: Watch this column. For the e-mail address, phone or fax number of the traveling photographer, call the PhotoSource International office and ask for Lela Labree (1 800 223-3860). For an expansion of this list: www.photosource.com and press the Travelers Abroad button, to learn of past international destinations of our photographers.

Rose Aslan February 2006 – January 2007 Egypt
Jason Merideth February 10 – May 10, 2006 Belgium, France & Germany

PLANT A TREE IN YOUR NAME. This spring, we will be planting 3-yr. old Norway Pine tree seedlings along the back road of our farm headquarters here in northwestern Wisconsin. Want us to plant a tree in your name? No charge. No obligation. Just a virtual reminder to us both that the environment is important and anything we can do to bring attention to the need for more tree planting is a plus for us all.

Norway Pines usually take fifteen years around here to mature to a good-sized tree. During the month of May each year, we'll feature a photo of the trees' growth (we'll be planting 200) on our weekly Home Page section > www.photosource.com < called, "This Week at the Farm.” Check your tree's growth each Spring by viewing the panorama of trees on our back road at Pine Lake Farm.

To take part in this event, in the subject area of an e-mail message to us. write "New Tree" and add your name. We will add your name to the roster of "Friends of the Trees at Pine Lake Farm.” Each spring we'll send you a reminder to watch for a photo of your tree's growth. -Rohn

P.S. Planting day is April 25th 2006.

For Independent Photo Researchers
The 2006 Freelancer’s TAX TIPS is here.
Some of the freelance tax secrets you will learn:

Use the N.O.L. factor (Net Operating Loss) from previous years to reduce your tax burden on a profitable year…. Page 51.
Hire your son or daughter in your freelance business rather than outsource the job. It’ll be a two-way tax benefit… Page 28
Work from home and enjoy reduced costs of utilities and other expenses that are normally not available to an office worker…Page 26
¨Write-Offs: Any business-related item (software, computer, directory, office heat, telephone calls, lighting, air conditioning, etc.) is a write-off. Does that include your car? page 26
¨Magazines, and workshops…a write-off? Yes, if they are business related. page 11
¨Don’t make a profit in three of the first five years you’re in business – are you red-flagged? Not always, especially if you can show your “intent” to make a profit. Page 14

For more information and sign-up:
http://www.photosource.com/
products/taxtips.php

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Next Month: Stealing on the Internet