Links for
Stock Photography

By Andrew Hudson

Also see How To Sell Your Photos As Stock Photography

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Introduction:

About half of the $2 billion stock industry is controlled by two companies. The other half is served by hundreds of stock agencies and photographers. "Traditional" stock photography is "Rights-Managed" ("RM") but an increasing percentage is becoming "Royalty-Free" ("RF"). Very low cost royalty-free sites are called "microstock" or "micropayment" and there are even places to get free images.

Learn more about
stock photography

The Big Guys (by market share)

1. Getty Images, Inc.

gettyimages.com | Based in Seattle, WA, USA | Hoover's profile
Private, owned mainly by private equity company Hellman & Friedman LLC
Getty is the world's largest distributor of high-quality pictures and video. Besides the primary GettyImages, the company has a variety of speciality stock sites including: Digital Vision (RF), iStockPhoto, iStockPro.
Getty was founded in 1995 in Seattle by Jonathan Klein (CEO) and Mark Getty (chairman and descendent of J. Paul Getty). Getty grew by acquisition, buying out many well-known stock companies including Tony Stone, PhotoDisc, and EyeWire
In July 2008, Getty Images (previously a publicly-traded company) sold itself for $2.4 billion to Hellman & Friedman LLC, a private equity investment firm founded in 1984. (The deal was announced in February 2008.) About 20% of Getty Images is still owned by the family of the late oil magnate (and Getty Museum benefactor), J. Paul Getty.
In October 2008, Getty bought JupiterImages from JupiterMedia for $96 million. Those brands include: BananaStock (premium RF), Jupiter Images, LiquidLibrary, Photos.com (RF subscription), Stock.xchng (free) (through HAAP Media Ltd.), Stockxpert.com (RF community) (through HAAP Media Ltd.). Jupiter brands that were closed include Ablestock, Comstock, PhotoObjects, PictureQuest, and ThinkStock. JupiterImages was started in 2002 and was about 1/3-owned by Alan Meckler, an IT magazine publisher who starte JupiterMedia in 1994.

2. Corbis Corporation

Private | corbis.com | Based in Seattle, WA, USA | Hoovers profile
Corbis was founded in 1989, and is still owned by Microsoft's Bill Gates. Corbis bought the famous Bettman Archive in 1995 and represents UPI (United Press International). Corbis' microstock site is SnapVillage, launched in June 2007. In November 2007, bought Veer.

Other Big Players

Masterfile Corporation

masterfile.com | Based in Toronto, Canada | Hoover's Profile
Bought SuperStock in 2009 from bankrupt A21.

Diomedia

diomedia / Based in London
May have bought Ingram (RF) and PurestockX (SuperStock's RF subscription service) in 2009 from bankrupt A21.

Index Stock Imagery

Private | indexstock.com | Based in New York, NY, USA
CEO Bahar Gidwani has acquired and combined the image resources of twelve companies since 1991. Brands include: Photo Library (RM and RF) and PhotosToGo (RM and RF). Closed brands include Index Stock.

Rights-Managed and Royalty-Free Stock Photo Agencies

Age Fotostock Since 1971, NY.
Art Life Images
CD Stock
Color Pic
Corbis (see Corbis above)
Digistock (inc. Las Vegas Stock, The R-F Collection)
DK Images (Dorling Kindersley)
eStock Photo
Getty Images
Halo Images (Rights-managed)
ImageState NY
The Image Works (editorial)
Jupiter Images (see Getty)
Masterfile Canada. Since 1982.
Omni Photo Communications (rights-protected)
Painet North Dakota
Photos To Go
Picturesque travel and tourism
Photo Resource Hawaii
PunchStock
RobertStock Since 1920, the oldest in operation.
The Stock Solution (inc. 1Foto Network)
Sunset (France)
SuperStock (div. of DioMedia)
UpperCut Images (RM)
Veer (Getty)

Direct from the Photographer
as Rights-Managed and Royalty-Free Stock Photo Agencies

Acclaim Images
AG Pix Since 1982, NY.
Houserstock Dave Houser and others
IPNStock The Independent Photography Network NY
MyLoupe.com Launched 2005. Chicago.
PhotoReflect
PhotoServe (div. of Photo District News magazine)
Workbook Stock
World of Stock 80 photographers organized by Steve Smith in Vancouver.

Also see: Professional Photographers