COVID-19: How’s the agency doing? Eyevine

Here at PAN we are in communication all week long with lots of photos agency owners both stock and editorial discussing how their business is under COVID-19

This in from UK editorial photo agency eyevine: ‘At eyevine we’re not a large infrastructure heavy agency but a flexible independent so we adjusted to the UK lockdown fast, and now find ourselves busier than ever as we continue to work albeit now mostly remotely from our homes across London. Workflow has not been impacted and the technology at eyevine HQ in East London continues to pull in and process daily feeds with thousands of images from all over the world including The New York Times, The Evening Standard, The Guardian and Observer and partner agencies such as Redux, Xinhua, Polaris Images, Zuma etc. Clients can still use the same contact emails and office phone number to reach us. 
eyevine photographers that are able to move about during the lockdown continue to do so and are mostly covering news. Others of course are staying home if not press card holders, and we are ensuring that we pay them promptly in order to do what we can during these difficult times as they see future commissions postponed or cancelled.
We are seeing an increase in requests for quality archive portraiture as industry shoots are cancelled or placed on hold, and clients come to us to help them out to tight deadlines fast. Our website and archive is very in-depth with millions of images, plus it’s connected to suppliers such as The New York Times via an API link so it’s possible for clients to search across the board internationally.’

‘As the Covid-19 pandemic dominates the media we are also seeing a surge in spot news usages to do with the coronavirus pandemic such as this page one use on the FT of airport sanitation workers in Wuhan by Xinhua News Agency. (above).’

‘We are in daily contact with our friends from partner agencies in worse hit countries such as Contrasto in Italy and they too keep working remotely, although mostly the feeds are coronavirus related images from the frontline fight there within cities and the hospitals. The photographers are extraordinarily brave to continue to report and bring us reportage of the situation. Editing such images day in day out feels as if we are looking with trepidation a few weeks into our own future. ‘
‘The B/W image (above) is by Francesco Cocco / Contrasto of doctors in an ER triage tent in Vignola, Modena back on March 17th which seems an age ago already. ‘
‘On the downside our Spanish agent reports that some magazines, e.g. Yo Dona are not coming out until the all clear is given, advertising revenues have plummeted by as much as 90%. In Spain the lockdown is more extreme and the population is complying, this means they are not venturing outdoors out to buy newspapers and magazines, thus impacting circulations. ‘

‘I don’t think anyone really knew where our industry was heading before this pandemic, and we certainly don’t know what business afterwards will be like, especially as we see advertising revenues decimated and the knock on effect on editorial budgets. But right now we continue to syndicate images on behalf of our contributors.
Stay home, stay safe everyone!’

Graham Cross and David Leverton eyevine co-founders

View more eyevine on PAN

Read all COVID-19 How’s the agency doing?