Put Stock in Your Image
You're clamoring for the attention of 1,500 trade show attendees. Your internal newsletter is getting circular filed before it gets read. Reporters on deadline are calling for head shots of your CEO. The board wants an annual report with an emotional edge. You need to put a human face on your corporate web site. You need photography.
If all you need is a generic shot - say, of a happy family, a computer keyboard, or an executive on the phone, stock is your best bet. Most stock photo houses store their archives on the web, making it easy for PR shoppers to locate the images they need using keyword searches. If you tend to use photos in the same genre repeatedly (for example, pix of kids, environmental shots or health-related activities), you may want to consider investing in a collection of royalty-free images on CD-ROM. These usually run between $50 to $100 a pop and will equip you with unlimited usage of dozens of shots.
Of course, there will always be occasions that call for a live shoot. When the need arises, be sure to preview the portfolios of several photographers and ask for references and rates ahead of time. As a benchmark, the very best photographers in New York charge a day rate of $1000, plus film and processing fees. Shooters in smaller markets or with less experience will likely charge much lower prices and will bill by the hour.
PR NEWS offers some resources to help with your search for the perfect Kodak moment:
American Society of Media Photographers, Inc.
14 Washington Rd. Suite 502
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550
609/799-8300
609/799-2233 - fax
http://www.asmp.org
[email protected]
ASMP has more than 5,000 members who work in advertising, editorial and corporate markets. ASMP has a "Find a Photographer" database on its corporate web site.
Archive Photos
530 W. 25 th St.
New York, NY 10001
212/822-7777
212/675-0379
http://www.archivephotos.com
Commercial Photographers of America
7 Wood St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
412/281-2774
412/281-9710 - fax
http://www.compoa.com
[email protected]
Commercial Photographers of American provides photography services nationwide and in Canada. It has over 1,000 member photographers coast-to-coast.
Convention Photographers
2269 S. University Dr., Suite 300
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324
800/329-8840
954/791-9899 - fax
Convention Photographers specializes in conventions and meetings, slide presentations, trade shows. Portraits and general PR and news photos.
Custom Medical Stock Photo, Inc.
3660 W. Irving Park Rd.
Chicago, IL 60618
773/267-3100
773/267-6071 - fax
http://www.cmsp.com
[email protected]
Custom Medical Stock Photo, Inc. specializes in medical and scientific stock photography and illustration.
FPG International, LLC
32 Union Square East
New York, NY 10003
212/777-4210
212/995-9652 - fax
http://www.fpg.com
[email protected]
FPG International offers over six million images spanning all styles, subjects and approaches, from historical engravings, illustration and photographs to the most contemporary black-and-white, color and computer-generated imagery. FPG works to represent the trends and demographics of today's marketplace, adding tens of thousands of images to its file every year.
The Image Bank
111 Fifth Ave., 12 th Floor
New York, NY 10003
212/539-8300
212/539-8391 - fax
http://www.theimagebank.com
The Image Bank is a stock photo agency with ten branches in the U.S.
Time-Life Syndication
Time-Life Building
1271 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
212/522-4800
212/522-0328 - fax
http://www.thepicturecollection.com
Email:[email protected]
This is the sales and licensing agent for Time Magazine and Life Magazine pictures and text, other famous photographers' work, and many of the images in the Time, Inc. Pictures Collection. Images and text are available for editorial and in some cases, commercial licensing. The Time, Inc. Picture Collection is one of the world's largest catalogued collections of photographs and other images, containing more than 22 million images.
Editor's Note: This list of photography brokers and stock houses is just a sample of what's available in the 1999 PR News Annual Directory of PR Services - now hot off the presses. The directory, free to PR News subscribers, lists contact information for hundreds of experts in areas such as media relations/measurement, crisis communications, investor relations, public affairs, market research, special events, recruitment and more. Look for the directory in your mailbox in late September. For more information, contact Diane Schwartz at
dschwartz@ phillips.com.