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Name: David Taylor
Picture Library: Xposure Photo Agency Ltd
Position: Managing Director
Location: City (London)
Describe the agency in a sentence.
An established, but still growing celebrity Photo Agency changing with the times and setting the pace in the industry.
When did you start in the picture business?
1998.
What were you doing before that?
Have always been an agent in some capacity. Spent over 20 years putting people together in the business world.
What’s new at Xposure?
Opened a new office in Los Angeles just over a year ago. Going great guns.
How many full time staff work at the Xposure London office?
Nine.
How many regular photographers do you represent worldwide?
50 regulars and another 50 contributors.
Any staff photographers?
Three.
What is the most popular camera system (Nikon/Canon) used by your contributing photographers?
50/50.
What percentage of overall content is now coming to you as video footage?
10%.
Is video footage content expected by picture buyers?
Rarely, but of course it depends on the subject material. If I think about some of the pictures we have sold and if only there was a video to go with them, I would now be sitting on a yacht in the South of France. So video footage can be important, there is still little money to earn in the UK, however the States can be a big player, so we will be getting more and more content for the LA Office to sell.
Describe the first hour of a typical day in the office.
Unfortunately my home is also my office, so I normally get up at around 6.30am and with one eye open look at my phone messages, make a cup of tea, look at the production, call the office and then read all of the papers. If we have a good amount of pictures published, then I am happy and make some toast. No pictures, no toast.
How involved are you in every day picture sales decisions?
Totally.
Do you ring picture desks directly or rely on your images being spotted via a picture feed and email?
As we have been established for over ten years now, the relationships we have with our clients are excellent and I know that they look at all our material via picture feed and email, however, you can never be complacent, therefore once we have sent our material, we call the picture desk and make sure they have received everything and of course at that point make sure they are aware of the images that will be of particular interest.
Are you scanning anything at the moment?
That would be telling.
How far back does the Xposure image library go?
10 years.
How much of it is digitised?
90%.
What is the agency’s best selling picture to date?
Close call. A great seller was the first pictures of Kate Moss and Pete Docherty together. Also the big fight with Amy Winehouse and boyfriend Blake, lots of blood and scatches and lots of sales.
“A great seller”
“lots of blood and scatches and lots of sales”
What was the best selling picture last month?
Probably the marriage split of Kerry Katona and Mark Croft.
Any nightmare moments for the agency?
There are always nightmare moments, it’s part of the business. When you are an agent everybody comes to you with their problems and when something goes wrong it always comes back to the agency to sort out. Oh if life was easy 🙂
How would a photographer best contact the library to introduce their images?
Call me. Always open to speaking to good photographers. Will be honest though and if material or photographer does not fit into the Xposure family ethos, then best to take your pictures elsewhere.
Which picture library web site has caught your eye recently?
I really do not look.
Which newspapers and magazines do you subscribe to?
All of them.
What one thing sets Xposure apart from other celebrity agencies?
We are a family business, we are nice people, our clients like us and we give them what they want.
What are you doing when you are not thinking about celebrities?
Sleeping.
When did you last pick up a camera?
Last week, taking pictures of my grandchildren, nothing better than that!!!
Ideal picture set? …….. within reason.
It’s got to be an exclusive romantic set of William and Kate on honeymoon.
Cinema or Pub?
Pub.
FT or Daily Mail?
Daily Mail.
Ideal Sunday afternoon?
Crashing out after a Sunday morning game of football.
What one piece of advice would you give to budding paparazzi/celebrity photographer?
There is no substitute for hard work, having the right equipment and knowing who is a celebrity.
-ENDS-
The Agency: www.xposurephotos.com
The Blog: www.xposureuncut.com
David is a Photo Archive News subscriber
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