Launching tomorrow on International Women’s Day – 8th March – SHOTBYWOMEN is the world’s first ever international image bank to house exclusively women-created content spanning all areas of photography.
Quick facts:
• The new library is owned by photographer Tabatha Fireman who started photo agency Female Perspective in 2019.
• SHOTBYWOMEN curated collection spans all areas of photography and will grow to include coverage of all the latest news, sport and entertainment.
Library owner Tabatha Fireman told PAN: “There are so many talented women photographers out there, with a lot of unseen content stored on their hard drives. With SHOTBYWOMEN I hope that I can gain their trust enough to permit me to welcome them to our community for discovery, connection and additional revenue stream potential. And in turn deliver to image buyers a library brimming with unique content to license.”
“Opinions, habits, and decisions are often arrived at through the published media we consume every day. With over 80% of it shot from a male gaze, how truthful a representation of our world can that be?”
We sent a quick Q&A to PAN reader Lucy Willows who is the Archive Sales Director at the library – to get an insight for photo editors on how to navigate the website and what licensing fees to expect.
PAN: How many images are currently in the library?
SBW: We were aiming for 10,000 at launch but we are not quite there yet. Like with all things new, once creatives can physically see what they are going to be part of, they will come in thick and fast. Over 800 women photographers have now registered their interest and during the last week or so we have signed up a lot of new photographers bringing a total of 140 signed contributors to date.
PAN: Are the images mainly for Editorial use or do you also have model released and commercial images to license?
SBW: Both! We believe that by building trust with our contributors, ensuring they know that we value THEM as photographers as well as the work that they create, our library will become rich with unique exclusive content.
PAN: Can you give PAN photo buying readers an idea of your licensing fees.
SBW: All of our collection will be rights managed only so no royalty free. Our minimum price point is £25 for an online editorial use. Unique to SHOTBYWOMEN our ‘Usage Licence History feature’ displays whether an image has ever been licensed editorially or commercially before, meaning that our commercial customers are able to search for authentic brand content to license for exclusive periods when required. Naturally, this kind of content comes with a much higher usage licence fee.
PAN: How do I licence an image from SBW?
SBW: From launch click on ‘IMAGE BUYERS REGISTER’ button on the home page of www.shotbywomen.com (*note that ahead of launch date 8th March, this links to newsletter subscribe only). This will direct you to a short form to fill out contact details, which we will use to set up a user account. Once set up, customers will receive their own login to their account which will be enabled for orders.
The footer in our email has a ‘customer help’ page which will guide customers with info on search tips, curated galleries, lightbox, purchase and download. There are also page links in the footer to explain how our pricing works and information about our pricing calculator, and others to introduce the bespoke services we offer which include picture research, custom licensing and assignments. High res downloads will be enabled for customers who have full accounts verified with us. They will receive an invoice with their purchase confirmation. Licence for editorial use can be purchased as pay-before-download straight through the platform.
During office hours, our website live chat feature enables both customers and contributors to connect straight to a real member of our team at the earliest possible opportunity. Outside of office hours, the chat feature enables a direct message to be sent to the correct department, where the first available member of our team will respond to a query as soon as they are back in the office. Our aim is to make the customer journey as easy and personable as possible!
PAN: Will photo editors be able to direct download comp images from the SBW platform?
SBW: Yes of course – here’s a preview of the library, below.
PAN: Are you looking for more content from women photographers or collections?
SBW: Yes, this is only the very beginning! As far as collections go, that’s coming after launch. Our aim is to unite all things women in photography related on one platform so that customers can easily source women-created content from around the world.
Call me olde fashioned. I don’t care what the sex of the photographer is I just want to buy a good photo.
Why is it needed? Are women excluded from normal photo libraries? Why does it matter who took the image?
why does the sex of the photographer matter? Do normal libraries exclude women?