Picture Nation image library open

02/07/07

Picture Nation is a new UK based website offering photographers an online platform for selling their work.

The service has been set up in response to growing demand for more easily accessible and affordable images in the digital age. Anyone can upload their images for approval, you can make 40% commission, and registering and uploading is free. Photographers keep the copyright of their work so are free to sell their images elsewhere too.

Founder and director, Jane-Louise Green, left the BBC in May 2006 after 20 years with the corporation as a television news director, journalist and online producer, in order to work on Picture Nation full time.

"I was producing content for three BBC local websites, and was wasting a third of my time looking for images to illustrate stories", says Jane. "My department didn't have a big enough budget to afford Getty or Corbis pictures, and I only needed compressed, web ready images, and for a short amount of time. There was nothing available to me as an online producer, and many of my colleagues in marketing and PR were complaining of the same problem."

Jane decided to get together with Matt Perry, a colleague specialising in software development, and they spent the next two years researching and building Picture Nation.

"If Getty is the Harrods of image providers, Picture Nation will be the Tesco's equivalent", says Jane.

Jane wants to make digital images affordable to schools, colleges and small businesses. "More and more schools are getting interactive whiteboards which use pictures", says Jane, "but how many schools can afford rights-managed images for their classes? What business seminar is without a Powerpoint presentation nowadays, and how many homes have their own printers to print off their own leaflets and invitations? We're living with a new language, and it talks pictures".

She recognises that some photographers feel threatened by the increased use of royalty-free, and of the emergence of the citizen photographer, but says "There's room for all. In addition to traditional photography markets, there are things we need images for today that just didn't exist 5 years ago. And I think that should be exciting to photographers".

She adds, "Commissioned projects requiring skilled professionals with the right equipment haven't gone away, and never will. But new opportunities have emerged big time in photography, and for those with the know-how, there's money to be made".

Building and maintaining a website that can manage images is an expensive and time consuming job that requires skill. Then marketing that website is another animal in itself. The Picture Nation team have a combination of IT and media skills that mean they know how to build and run websites that are visible, easy and quick for clients to use, and get to top of search engine results. Pictures on Picture Nation will be seen.

Jane's 20 years at the Beeb means she has an impressive contacts book and is media savvy. Matt Perry seeks best practise in the IT field and is already developing Picture Nation Web 2.0. The site is designed to be jargon free so as to attract buyers who want pictures but could otherwise be frightened off by industry speak.

"Picture Nation is new so I'm looking for images of anything and everything. In particular, I want to build a pictorial record of 21st century Britain. We want great travel shots and to cover all cultures and ethnic festivals. I'm after spontaneous looking shots rather than stock and studio images - the kind of picture you can take from your armchair. And I want local. How great would it be for Manchester or Camarthen businesses and schools to be able to get Manchester or Camarthen images for their projects?"

Picture Nation calls itself the citizen photographer's website, but it does wants to attract professional and serious amateur photographers as well. "I don't expect professionals to upload their prized work for £75 royalty-free sales", says Jane. "What I will say is, use us to get your bread and butter income while you're out doing more lucrative commissioned works. You've got nothing to lose."

http://www.picturenation.co.uk/

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Photo Quote: There are many teachers who could ruin you. Before you know it you could be a pale copy of this teacher or that teacher. You have to evolve on your own. - Berenice Abbott American Photographer, 1898-1991