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Posted by Doug Clifford on March 26, 2000 at 14:08:19:
In Reply to: Photo contests/publishers posted by gary B on March 25, 2000 at 22:41:47:
: I was wondering if anyone has any experience with or knowledge of the International Library of Photography. Is it a legitimate or respected organization.? I saw an ad in one of the photagraphy magazines and was wondering how the organization is viewed by photographers.
Gary,
I've been taking photographs for nearly 40 years now, taught photography for nearly 15 years and have never heard (until now) of The International Library of Photography. It shows what a sheltered life I've led. :-)
You don't share what the ad in the photo magazine says. I'd like to know about the contest rules and the photographer's rights as pertains to entering the contest. I did some searching on the web and came up with two web sites for the International Library of Photography ( http://www.picture.com/ and http://www.thephotosite.com/ ) I spent some time going over the materials on that web site. It says entering the ongoing contest is free, and "Photographers retain all rights to their photographs." Those are important considerations. However, any photograph submitted to any contest should be marked with "(c) copyright (insert year) All Rights Reserved, (insert name of photographer)" and this should be done on the back of a borderless print or in the lower right hand corner of a print with a border.
I guess I'm getting cynical in my old age, but one of the first questions I ask myself about any offer is "What's in it for them?" And this question isn't answered clearly on the International Photography web site, except by inferrence.
First, ILP publishs several photo books each year (52 titles
so far.) The content of these books apparently comes from
"contest entries." In sum, they get their book content
from holding a perpetual contest, and then I'm betting most
contest entries are published in the books and sold back to
contest entrants. "Hey, honey, I'm a published
photographer!" Wouldn't you buy several copies if your work
got published? This would be a variation on the vanity press or
subsidy publishing industry. My hunch seems to be confirmed by
the following web post on Phil Greenspun's photo.net
(http://db.photo.net/bboard/seb/0008r4.html ) where the person
says:
"Yep-I entered the same contest and got the same reply-tried
to find answers to them by checking addresses and such on the
web, but there is nothing there. I refuse to buy their book! They
may have my picture, but that is no big deal, and I refuse to
give them my money-I was not born yesterday."
and here's another web post from (
http://king.dom.de/fluxus/archive3/0305.html )
quoting the ILP solicitation "All photographers who enter
will receive a response concerning their artistry…"
"From my understanding, the way these contests (there is a
similar one for poetry) work is that they publish just about
every photo, and then try to sell the books to the people
published for $30-$50."
Second, ILP runs a stock photo agency at a different URL "ephotograph.com" which claims to be "the Internet's largest and most comprehensive commercial stock photography house." (That's definitely incorrect because Corbis (Bill Gates) and Getty Images have MILLIONS of photographs available for sale online.) I have a hunch photographers who submit contest entries with potential commercial value are encouraged to allow their images to be licensed for resale, and also note that ILP offers a catalog of sweat shirts, tee shirts, mugs, aprons, puzzles, mousepads, tote bags, stickers, cards and calendars - any of which can be emblazoned with your submitted photo or with another licensed image and sold back to you.
In short, the International Library of Photography is a business and now you know where the money comes from to run the contest.
Editor's Note: One photographer's experience with the International Library of Photography Photo Contest is linked below.
International Library of Photography Amanda 06-15-2000
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