I never thought I would sign up with Flickr or MySpace, now I am on both. After watching other professional photographers like my collegue Michael Hughes (who is also represented by 'laif' photo agency) getting an astounding 520,691 views to date on his Souvenir series, and Michael Poliza's Africa book and his Heli-Africa 2006 series , both viewed way over 10.000 times, I was starting to think, why not ? The lines between professional photographers and amateurs are becoming very blurry anyway these days, and lets face it, if you browse through Flickr, between all the front lawn grill parties and baby showers you discover amazing work done by 'amateurs'. Image buyers and sellers are increasingly checking the sites for talent; even American PDN (Photo District News) printed an article on Flickr in their May 2007 issue. So really, why not ? In my case, besides getting the chance to show images that otherwise might never be seen, I want to promote my book and even if nobody buys it, at least hundreds or potentially thousands of people can view it. That is what I shoot pictures for, for them to be seen. Naturally I also have to make a living. So if you like the images of my book, by all means buy it !! Nothing can compare to flipping through a real photo book, or holding a photograph in your hands. The screen cannot deliver that feeling.
So, here I am on Flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/stefanfalke/
and MySpace:
www.myspace.com/stefanfalke
PS: By the way, Michael Hughes will tell you that he got this increadible number of views only after a fortunate publication in a German magazine and then the whole thing went rolling, which in turn means a lot of work, answering tons of mails and comments...to keep it rolling. But one great payoff so far was the publication of some of his images in National Geographic !
Michael Hughes on Flickr :
www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes/
Michael Poliza on Flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/poliza/
MySpace Flickr Photography Stefan Falke Michael Hughes Michael Poliza
Flickr has really gone from a small site to post images to one that pro's can use as part of their ongoing struggle to be seen and get work.
ReplyDeleteAdded you as a contact sir!
Stefan...I may have already said it, but Myspace rocks! Love it. Thanks for the link. Your blog is fierce!
ReplyDeletewell done Stefan. It helps to get the work out there as you say....I may follow....
ReplyDeleteOn my blog there is a link to a 1.5hour mp3 discussion with Martin parr of Magnum, and it's interesting to hear him give his, and Magnum's, view of Flickr.....it's worth a listen.
here's the link
http://jeremysuttonhibbert.blogspot.com/2007/05/martin-parr-on-mp3.html
cheers,
jeremy
My dear Stefan,
ReplyDeleteIn the early stages of flickr I found uploading, and time it took to see the images just too long. Although it is important to showcase you work in other formats, please be wary of spreading your energy too thin. To upkeep the work as with Stefan Falke's Eye, you have to ensure the standards remains the same at all times and on all web providers. And as always I wish the very best for you
thebookmann
glad you are on flickr - i'm adding you.
ReplyDeletea few tips: to post photos, the web browser called 'flock' is the easiest - let's you operate on batches at a time, uploading, etc.
my husband has posted a couple of series of photos (twi-ny is the name - This Week in New York) most recently of the installation of the Richard Serra pieces at MOMA - with all the cranes and derricks and stuff.
He has gotten megaviews! I think flickr is very interesting from a professional point of view, too - but you would know better about that.
It's interesting to learn that even National Geographic editors are spending time browsing through images on Flickr. I also decided to sign up after reading the PDN article and while so far, I've had a whopping 32 unique visitors (at least 5 of which are probably me, looking at it on different computers!), I've begun to meet other photographers that I admire on there, and I definitely see it as definitely one more way to get work "out there" and even to network a little. It's also way too easy to get sucked in! (Just what I need--one more thing to keep me up til 2am!) Looking forward to hearing martin parr's view on it all on jeremy's site.
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