Same Picture Is Sold: Captain from Castile, product of three years' study of Spanish source material dealing with the conquest of Mexico, was sold in 1944, for motion picture production, before publication. It was translated into 18 languages, including Pakistani and Turkish. Prince of Foxes, a sweeping Renaissance tapestry, published in 1947, also became a motion picture. The King's Cavalier (1950) and Lord Vanity (1953), the latter also sold to the motion pictures, were likewise immensely popular.
The advantages to the buyer are obvious. Does it seem like a bad arrangement for the photographer? At first glance it might seem so, but when this same picture is sold over and over, perhaps fifty times in the course of years, the photographer eventually realizes a handsome total return for his effort in shooting the picture for stock sales.
That's why the stock picture photographer doesn't get rich quick, but enjoys a long-term income advantage for his work. Many a picture has earned, over a period of years, more than $1,000 in fees.
Even if the subject hasn't changed, you can sell a new picture by approaching it in a new way. An egg still looks like an egg, and yet new pictures of eggs are being sold by the picture agencies every day. |