Everything old is new again. Maybe it’s because a new audience is always being born or maybe it’s because some folks fail to learn from history.
Around the year 2000, a Canadian web developer started his own online stock picture agency. Back then, existing stock agencies usually screened prospective photographers and they refused his photos as not being good enough.
His new stock agency accepted everyone and initially gave pictures away for free. But he soon realized that free wasn’t sustainable and he began to charge a few dollars per picture. His stock site was aimed at amateur photographers who were happy to give away their pictures:
The monetary rewards are an added bonus, but I don’t think they’re everything for everyone,” he said. “I think our core group of photographers, our 2000 exclusives” — photographers with portfolios exclusive to iStockphoto — are motivated by the reward of being part of an elite club that engages in creative discussion nonstop.