| articles | >archive | |||
|
'Stock, Maybe; Stock House, No!' Although designers and design agencies over the last few years have benefited from the explosion in all forms of royalty free stock resources, the same cannot be said for the struggling photographer or illustrator.
Websites such as ispot or artville have licensed the work hundreds of illustrators but
frequently it is marketed to clients at bargain basement prices, with little control of the
artist, and thus reducing the need for original commissioned artwork.
This happened so rapidly that many illustrators were taken off guard and were given little chance
to respond to the threats of the stock houses. And although some illustrator have tried as best they can to create their own websites to market their own work, they have inevitably also been
forced to join the growing list of artists on the books of the stock houses.
Earlier this year one illustrator who had had enough of this threat to his industry was the respected American illustrator Brad Holland. Publishing a statement through the publications of the American National Cartoonists Society Brad urged all illustators to sign the statement -
- 'Stock, Maybe; Stock House, No!'
The names of the signees are published in the following pages, but if any Irish illustators
also wish their name to be added to this list, please let us know. We will pass this list
of names on to Brad Holland in the coming months.
An Open letter From Brad Holland:
Stock illustration houses invest a good deal of money on public relations to encourage
illustrators to give them art. Many of us have been critical of this effort. We believe
that the pricing policies employed by these stock houses devalue illustration, and erode
our ability to compete as quality craftsmen, Since we lack a regular publication in
which to express our opinions, several of us have drafted and signed a broad statement
which we intend to post on theispot website and to circulate by fax to other artists,
for their information. May we add your name?
Kind regards,
Stock, Maybe; Stock Houses, No!
Many of us have placed work with stock illustration houses before. Many of us haven't.
All of us share the growing concern over the business practices they've introduced to
our field. Stock houses are flooding art buyers with tens of thousands of pictures at
discounted prices. We believe this erodes the quality of illustration and its value in
the marketplace.
We fear that giving stock houses art on consignment to sell at their
discretion gives them the potential to corner the illustration market. And we fear this
would give them the ability to set prices to clients and dictate terms to artists. We
need to remember that stock houses are our competitors. They are not our agents. We need
to remember that they will use the work we give them to compete against us. We need to
remember that they will keep selling illustrations cheap as long as we keep giving them
pictures free. Some of us deplore the discount illustration business in any form. Some
of us have sold stock on our own for years.
But we all agree that if we were to put work
in stock, we would place it with an artist-controlled, direct stock service. These
outlets allow artists to control their own rights, negotiate their own sales, and keep
their own fees. Most important, they allow artists to keep their own clients. There is a
survey of these outlets in the November/December 1998 issue of the Graphic Artists'
Guild newsletter. It's available from the Graphic Artists' Guild at 90 John Street, ste.
403, NYC, NY 10038. It's on-line at www.gag.org. Anyone interested can ask for two
articles: "LET'S STOP THE CLIENT RUSTLERS", and, "TAKING DIRECT CONTROL OF YOUR STOCK".
We each acknowledge that there is no industry-wide consensus on this matter. Everyone is
free to do whatever he or she wants with their own work. But we each believe that the
interests of competition are best served if we continue to manage our own business
affairs. And since this has become a controversial issue, we want to take the
opportunity to express our opinions.
Signature Responses In Agreement to Letter Condemning Stock House Business Practices:
|
||||