“I’m not a big fan of Istockphoto. I just think it’s shitty work.”

Good for Marni. Amen sister. This is exactly what more photographers and designers as well need to hear. As an creative director and art buyer myself, married to a photographer, I experience so many of the same issues working with clients and photographers. I think talented art buyers like Marni who champion fair usage and creativity for photographers are unfortunately more in the minority as the agencies they work for can afford the higher budgets, and more choices. When working for a smaller agency, a few main issues seem to play out repeatedly. The first and hardest one being the education of clients. Especially those on a shoestring budget. It becomes a job of tact and diplomacy to explain to them why I don’t want to use Microstock, (even if I find an okay image, the fact that it is being low-balled steers me away from purchase) or the differences between RM and RF, copyright ownership and outright buying. (Oh if you photographers only know what it is we buyers go through to get get a client to buy off on a great image.) But perhaps the issue stems deeper than this. In order to educate clients, pro photographers must be willing to spend time educating younger designers through forums, portfolio reviews, or even workshops they put together for these creatives to understand the practices and ethics that go into art buying. How helpful that would have been for me when I started out so many years ago. Perhaps Photoshelter would consider hosting such a workshop for designers, art directors, and more inexperienced art buyers. Then maybe just maybe as a community of creatives we can begin to rise above the microstock mentality that pollutes the true value of an artistic environment. Thanks for the video posting. Keep’em coming. -Jen Pennington Rhizome Design Rhizome Images

Out of curiosity I looked up istock and checked out 2 areas I had been looking at a lot on Getty and Superstock,which were Las Vegas & Rio de Janeiro. In both cases I found the photos posted on istock as good or better than what the other 2 agencies had. Jim