Reinventing Stock Photo Markets on the Internet

Photo by J Carrier

Without question, the Internet is opening up opportunities for young photojournalists in several ways:

1.    Photographers can represent themselves independent of  a stock agency by producing and maintaining their own web presence.

2.    Photographers can be represented through an agency, which maintains a web presence.

3.    Photographers can represent themselves by leasing space on a cyber-photo mall site especially designed to meet publication needs.

This last idea is terrific for two very important reasons: (1) it brings traffic to a specific spot on the internet and (2) it helps photographers maintain control over content.

I believe photojournalism is changing in the digital age because of the development of virtual stock spaces like the Digital Railroad. The Digital Railroad is like a shopping mall for images on the Internet. Photojournalists rent space in the mall and can now maintain more creative control over content.

Once in the digital mall editors can select images from photographers from around the world who rent what amount to a cyber retail shop within the mall to show off their work. It's like going to the mall and instead of shopping at the GAP we go to VII or any number of terrific sites to get the right image for publication.

In some way, the Digital Railroad is reinventing the traditional stock photo market, because it is given individuals an opportunity to get work seen and possibly published that would otherwise be overlooked.  Traditional web sites, like Magnum Photos,  Getty Images,  Corbis, Polaris or other agencies represent select photographers, but the Railroad changes this economic model by enpowering the photographer as a business person rather than as a client. In other words, the photographer represents their own work.

At the same time, there are thousands of photographers "out there" in cyber space waiting to be discovered. One photojournalist I found recently is J Carrier.

Carrier's work is intense and a fine example of visual storytelling.

To think that this is a photojournalist who has only been working for three years in this field is amazing to me.  I was courious about the work so I presented a few questions about it through email. Here are the responses. Please check out the work if you are interested.

How long have you been working in photojournalism?

I have been a working photojournalist for just under three years.  I got my first camera when I graduated high school, and considered myself a gifted novice.  Though this was nowhere near true, I was a terrible photographer.  I studied Biology in college, and upon graduation I promptly joined a punk-rock band and quickly left behind any thoughts of being a scientist.  As a musician, I began photo-assisting to make ends meet.  As a freelance photo-assistant I was able to pay the bills and manage a schedule that afforded time for recording and touring.  I hated assisting, and at the time I never took full advantage of the opportunity.  (of course in spite of myself the knowledge sank in anyway, and has been a big help in my technical understanding).  My distaste for assisting had many reasons but was mainly due to the types
of photographers I assisted.  Some were great and really understood the relationship as mentor/apprentice...others I must bite my tongue for fear of offending.  But even more than that, I have never been interested in driving to a location with a station wagon full of lighting equipment in order to create a portrait.  At full peak of my dis-infatuation with assisting I also realized that music wasn't my
passion and began to plan my departure.  In 2001 I travelled to Ecuador as a peace corps volunteer bringing my old nikon fm2 with me.  This was the first opportunity afforded me in which I had the time to think about and to experience life and I realized pretty much all at once that I would be a photographer.  I began to think seriously on the potential of documentary photography and photojournalism, the idea of telling other peoples stories, while at the same time telling my own. 
Hoping that through the creation of my images that I could stimulate positive change in the lives of people who had no voice. Meeting people in Ecuador and experiencing life very much as they do really influenced me.  This idea of giving voice to the voiceless holds true for me still.

Who have been your strongest influences in terms of your style?

Influences on style is a hard question.   There are of course the classics; Bresson and Capa...but there are so many...Elliott Erwitt, and Martin Parr come to mind for their beautiful understanding of the
obvious...Alex Webb and David Alan Harvey have been big influences, I shoot mostly digital now and therefore in color, these guys are some of the best with color.  Abbas and his Iran work.  Gilles Peres' Kosovo work is incredibly romantic AND disturbing.  Eugene Richards, for making me go where I have to...even though my jaw is clenched and I'm thinking otherwise.

Alex Majoli, Hotel Marinum.  Well..in one word, Magnum.   But some young cats, Teru Kuwayama and Ben Lowy are awesome...and have really kept the bar up for the likes of us.

Is their a role for concerned photojournalism in today's image-saturated culture?

Of course I want to say yes immediately.  Thinking about it, the answer is still yes but maybe not so immediately.  By that I mean the work still needs to be done, the images and stories must be created and hopefully will be told.  If not for now than for later.  They are there even though people aren't looking.   I think if anything the photograph has more potential power than ever before, for better or worse, due to
the media saturation.  It is difficult to say.  I travelled to both Sudan and tsunami ravaged Indonesia as  a photographer with an international aid organization; there are avenues and opportunities for
the photographer that wants to contribute.  I am happy that I can contribute in such cases through my profession.   I think one thing that is difficult is how to market your work in this image-saturated
culture.   This has a direct bearing on what gets seen.  This I am still learning.  There are many ways to attack this question though, it is not necessarily that image-saturation is a bad thing, I believe it
is the fact that in american mainstream media the images themselves are bad.  It is a matter of markets it seems.  But the role remains...good does come of concerned photojournalists still to this day.  I am
convinced of it.  And I am convinced that we must continue no matter the questionable cultural  climate.

What do you hope a viewer takes away from seeing your images?

I hope that I can convey feeling.  Empathy.  I want to provoke questions, curiosity so that after they view the image it continues to live.  A sort of defense against stasis.


How has the Tsunami affected you as a photojournalist and as a human being?

As a photojournalist and a human being it is one of the most un-believable things I have ever witnessed.  Having been there does little to assist comprehension.   I had spent most of the previous year in Africa and in a way I think that I felt ready for it.  Though I was intimidated.  I was  concerned due to the scale and some of the stories I heard, I didn't know what to expect.  Although I had been in darfur this was the first time covering something like this.  The first time seeing bloated and rotting bodies.  I don't mean to melodramatic, but this is what you think about, what you worry about.  You wonder how you will react.  But somehow the magnitude of it centered me and I feel that it is the best work I have ever done.  It is strange but somehow I think it convinced me even more that this is what I am supposed to be doing.  Working there I just tried to focus and to tell the story in a way that I thought hadn't been done in all the immediate coverage afterwards.  I have to say that the saddest irony of it is that Indonesians are really beautiful people, exceedingly nice, to approach a family digging out of the rubble that just wants to chat with you, practice the little english they know and ask you where you're from.  This is, as a human being, what impacted me.  The humanity in the face of devastation, adversity.  You invariably question, what would I do if this happened to me, what would it be like in the states if the entire eastern seaboard was wiped out.  I think that it has been a little difficult for me, I was definitely shell shocked coming back.  But time passes.  I would like to go back to continue the documentation.  I feel a connection to the area as one of few witnesses.


Is there anything else you would like to comment on about your work to help students understand the importance of what we do?

First I must say, photography is an intensely competitive business, it takes a ton of work and you must constantly be thinking outside the box about where you are and where you would like to be.  And don't let
anyone tell you you're no good, especially AP.  But i'm sure you've heard all that and knew it.  On the importance of what we do?  All I want to say is that as a photographer you are a conduit.   That is a
responsibility, I believe, which necessitates that you understand what it is you are seeing.  Much of the problem with media and culture today is a lack of understanding, a failure to question.  We must be wise
photographers to tell stories that make a difference, because in doing so is where we find our importance. Through our distillation of moments we can attempt to explain, contributing to a greater understanding of the world in which we live.

But really, who am I?  I'm sitting here with my ratty old computer an empty glass of wine wondering about the answers to all the questions above.