There are stock photo agencies, and there are stock photo agencies... just as there are stock photos and stock photos. As you can guess, stock photo agencies handle stock photos, while stock photo agencies handle stock photos. Some stock photo agencies also handle stock photos while some stock photo agencies handle stock photos. So if this isn't clear to you, you at least have some insight into why some photographers can sometimes have trouble with them, at least while they are starting out, meaning stock photo agencies and stock photo agencies.

It may sound like doubletalk, but if you look at the above paragraph again, you'll, notice that in some cases stock photos and stock photo agencies are in red type, in others they are in green type. This is symbolic of the differentiation you need to make in dealing with them.

Stock photo agencies can be loosely classified as service oriented or sales oriented. For the most part, service oriented agencies supply the editorial market and sales oriented agencies the commercial market.

Service oriented agencies are subject driven. When people are the subject, the look is more or less journalistic. Photos stocked by these agencies are generally not contrived or stylized but natural in appearance. Their photos are meant to show something real, whether it be people, places, or things. The primary market for service oriented agencies is editorial, the publishers of books and magazines, filmstrips or video disks, and the photo researchers who will send them call lists or come looking for practically any subject under the sun. Model releases are seldom required.

Sales oriented agencies are concept driven. Photos stocked by sales oriented agencies tend to be stylized or contrived. This is where the former or would-be advertising photographer will seek to market his work. It's where concept is king and strong graphics a necessity, with models playing the part of any people shown. The images are more commercial in appearance for what is primarily a commercial clientele, and model releases are a must. Sales oriented agencies may research requests, but the majority of their sales come from catalogs of specially selected images, CDs, duplicate transparencies distributed through affiliated offices, and now, digital images available online.

So what does this mean to you?

Simply this: That you should approach any agency with which you hope to work knowing both what you do best and what they do best. As a photographer, you can make sales by having a large quantity of material with a service based agency or generate sales with a potentially higher dollar value by having fewer but more carefully executed images on file with a sales oriented agency.

Larry Stepanowicz