How to choose which agency to represent your work

[Albert Law]

I'm relatively new to the "official" news/documentary side of things. Any tips on how to choose which agency to represent your work? Looking at Getty/Corbis/Zuma at the moment, if anyone has suggestions on who else to look into that would be great.

I do mainly lifestyle/documentary work, and currently looking to do assignments overseas with the military. Personal site: www.albertlaw.ca

[Mark Blinch]

For editorial work, I think most of the time, you dont choose them, they choose you ;-)

But they have to know who you are right?

So you gottta start pounding pavement, making phone calls, and sending emails to try and set up a meeting to show them what you can do for them.

[Albert Law]

Zuma has offered to take me on, haven't heard back from Corbis yet.

Anyone have experience with Zuma?

[Warren Toda]

Which agency would you like to represent you?


Some agencies will "represent" anyone as long as they own a camera and have some idea how to use it. Since some (many?) photographers work on spec, it costs the agency nothing to represent anyone and everyone.

This is the definition of hamsterization.

I've been to events where there are half a dozen photographers, or more, all claiming to be working for Zuma, or Getty, or Wire Image, or Corbis, or Wenn, etc. (i.e. 6 or 7 photographers from Zuma, 6 or 7 photographers from Corbis, 6 or 7 from Getty, etc).


"Agencies" these days do not represent anyone except themselves. They are stock picture stores, not true agencies. Although, I stand to be corrected since I suspect some smaller agencies may still operate as true agencies.


What kind of work do you shoot? Which online picture store would be best at licensing your photos? Bigger is not necessarily better.

[John Densky]

i am going to agree 110% with what Warren just wrote.

also keep in mind that signing with Zuma means Corbis get's your work. also keep in mind, and it isn't in the contract you will sign, that Zuma has a 6 month payment timeline. in other words, no payment for 6 months and only if your balance is over $200.

recently i had an image sell through Zuma, that involved me being shelled daily for just shy of a week to get. when all was said and done, i received $7. it ran in one of North America's biggest magazines. thank the powers that be i was on day rate with someone else at the time.

the time of heading out looking for an agency to sell your work is close to finished. the agencies have to compete and when Getty/Zuma/Corbis etc. are selling for pennies... well, you get the point.

if anything, i would look towards folks that have a like mind as you. start a collective and represent yourselves. there are provincial and municipal (depending on where you are) grants to support this. consider creating a foundation or non-profit, which in turn opens the doors to more funding. check out Noor's approach. the 'agency' thing has gotten so bad in North America the last year i did zero work domestically. in fact the whole game here has become pointless to me. i can work for some of the biggest outlets on the globe but can't even get someone to answer an email at home.

good luck mate.

[Albert Law]

Thanks for the replies, definitely good advice. Yeah I've heard some of the same things from other photographers that I have met in the past.

The main reason I 'm looking to join a larger agency is that it seems to open some doors with the name behind you. Specifically I'm looking to do a NATO embed in the middle east and/or Africa, and the agency is a sort of backup accreditation if a newspaper doesn't pick me up. But I could be wrong, this is just what I've heard from other people.

[Warren Toda]

also keep in mind that signing with Zuma means Corbis get's your work.

That's another thing: some agencies will "sub-lease" pictures to another agency /agencies and the photographer's piece of the pie (i.e. their commission) gets smaller when a picture is sold through a subcontracted agency.

Some agencies offer "all you can eat" subscriptions to publications and this is done at the photographers' expense.

recently i had an image sell through Zuma, that involved me being shelled daily for just shy of a week to get. when all was said and done, i received $7. it ran in one of North America's biggest magazines.

That should be a crime. Some publications/editors/agencies don't have a clue what it takes to get some photos. When a photographer is literally risking their life for a picture, there has to be a minimum of several hundred dollars (or more) per picture just to cover the risk. Selling war-zone photos for a couple of bucks is absurd and makes a mockery of what the photographer is doing. Even the days rates can be ridiculous.

The main reason I 'm looking to join a larger agency is that it seems to open some doors with the name behind you. Specifically I'm looking to do a NATO embed in the middle east and/or Africa, and the agency is a sort of backup accreditation if a newspaper doesn't pick me up.

Some agencies will happily lend you their "name" since it won't cost them a cent and, of course, you'll give them all your pictures or at least first look.

In some cases, a photographer might be able to negotiate their own (short term) deal with an agency depending on the story at hand. If the photographer is smart, this deal has to include money up front and/or a guarantee against sales.



Maybe talk with Canadian photographers (and NPAC members) in Africa:
Olivier Asselin
Daniel Hayduk

[Robin Rowland]

Staff, agency freelance or independent freelance, it may not make any difference. much longer when you combine the danger to freelancers (especially untrained/inexperienced) with the growing financial risks to news organizations.

Today's UK Press Gazette is reporting
Sunday Times tells freelances not to submit photographs from Syria

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sunday-times-tells-freelances-not-submit-photographs-syria

A British war photographer has been told not to submit his pictures from the Syria war zone to The Sunday Times because they “do not wish to encourage freelancers to take exceptional risks”.

After submitting pictures from Aleppo this week Rick Findler was told by the foreign desk that “it looks like you have done some exceptional work” but “we have a policy of not taking copy from Syria as we believe the dangers of operating there are too great”.

And

Telegraph photographer Warren Allott thinks the problem of taking freelance copy may not be confined to The Sunday Times.

“I’ve just come back from Syria, and would be hesitant to go back again at this stage.

"To get to the frontline you have to pass through many small towns. Each is controlled by a different group.

"Many of these gangs go in for kidnapping and a Western journalist is seen as top prize.

“They get hold of you, sell you to another group, maybe an Al Qaeda team, who then demand a huge ransom.

“If you are attached to a newspaper then it’s their responsibility to get you out. They understand that risk before they send you and send in a crack team to get you out or pay them off.

“But I heard a rumour that a freelance who’d submitted copy to another broadsheet and, then got kidnapped, claimed to be working for them. This caused the paper enormous problems and now they are steering clear of freelance copy.”

[Jack Simpson]

I'm relatively new to the "official" news/documentary side of things. Any tips on how to choose which agency to represent your work? Looking at Getty/Corbis/Zuma at the moment, if anyone has suggestions on who else to look into that would be great.

I do mainly lifestyle/documentary work, and currently looking to do assignments overseas with the military. Personal site: www.albertlaw.ca

Hi Albert,

I will preface this by saying that I am probably the last person to be proffering advice on "documentary shooting overseas"  because the closest I've come to that was at a Muslim demo that got rather loud in Trafalgar Square in London

But, bearing that in mind, I would say that if you want to shoot 'military stuff overseas', you might want to include some of the photography that you shot when receiving the award from the DND.   Because, IMVHO, the pics on/in your website don't come across as "overseas military kind of stuff"

This is just my pittance of advice compared to the Fort Knox of great advice offered above.

Also, if you're planning to go overseas with the military or otherwise you might want to contact/register with Lightstalkers, if not already done    http://www.lightstalkers.org



Cheers and hope it all works out for ya

Jack Simpson

[Albert Law]

Warren, Robin, all good advice. I actually read that story about newspapers not accepting work from freelancers this morning a well, though I really am in no place to say whether its for better or worse as you guys have much more experience than me in the photojournalism field.

Jack, yes I probably should point out which photos won which awards. Currently it's a bit difficult with the template I'm using, but I'll keep your suggestion in mind when I redesign my site. There are actually a lot of military/agency photos under the "service" images section. Some images are a bit repetitive though due to the nature of the time and opportunity constraints during training.

[Fred Lum]

Not really agency related but you REALLY should have a chat with Phil Cheung. He was a military photographer, I believe, and with the guidance of some mentors here, he's gone on to do some rather exceptional work. As luck would have it, he's back in Canada so hit google.

I hear he likes Kom Jug Yuen...

[Albert Law]

Thanks Fred, actually I have been talking to him over the past year or two. He's the one who recommended I join NPAC and take a look at this site

[Greg Fulmes]

I was with a smaller agency for a couple of years. Several emails were sent out talking about a "big project" and asking for photographers to sign up. I did. For several months there was talk of ongoing negotiations, etc. But ultimately nothing ever materialized.
During this time, I made a conscious decision not to submit anything on spec until such a time as one of these projects came to fruition. I figured this was a way to see if the agency was legit.
Ultimately I didn't submit anything to them as no promises were ever fulfilled.
A couple of months ago I received an email from the agency saying they would no longer represent me as I wasn't contributing. I didn't even respond. Why would I?
Sadly, there are many "agencies" out there who seem only to be in the business of using photographers. More concerned with representing as many photographers as they can so their chances of getting work sold is greater. If you represent 1,000 photographers and they each generate $1,000 a year in sales the agency does okay. But each photographer only gets a small percentage of that $1,000.
Who wins in this situation? The photographer sure doesn't.
Anyway, my two cents.
Hope you find a way to make it work for you. If you do, write a book about it and thousands of photographers will buy it.