Leading up to this years fotofringe London – April 20 – we are asking photo professionals what triggers the yearly trip to Kings Place.
Hi Will, I see you’ve used Alyson Whalley’s answers without a photo so perhaps I can escape?
Fotofringe is a great opportunity to meet up with old friends from the days when we’d all sit round a hot lightbox together chatting away as we flicked through the trannies like professional poker dealers, but also a chance to make new friends and put faces to names I’m emailing or calling but haven’t ever met. For me, having a personal relationship with researchers at picture libraries is really important. If you get to know someone they are much more likely to research your brief appropriately because you can brief them in their terms of reference and even knowing how the pictures are catalogued can make a difference. You know who to go to in a crisis and it is just more fun if you can have a bit of a laugh together rather than only sending bald, business-like emails. Essentially the picture business is based on trust – a photographer or agency sends a hi res image and trusts us to tell them how it is used and pay the appropriate fee so anything that builds that trust has to be good. One of the things I especially like about Fotofringe is that everyone gets the same amount of space so it is much more personal. With no blaring loud-speakers and massive screens it is all about meeting people and catching up with what’s new in the collections.
I’ve been coming to Fotofringe since it started and only missed last year’s Fotofringe because it fell in the week I could fulfill my mother’s lifelong ambition to go to Ninfa gardens outside Rome – nothing less would have made me miss it. I’d recommend allowing at least half a day, though I often find I’m there for the full day as there are so many people to see. It is such a good opportunity to check out new sources, find out where collections you thought had vanished have gone and see what’s new in your old favourites, and as a picture manager I often have chance encounters with freelancers I’ve not seen for a while who might be the perfect person for a project. How often do you get to meet so many picture sources all under one roof? I usually just work my way round each hall in turn but it is worth checking the list of exhibitors online beforehand to see if there is a source you don’t know about and want to make a point of visiting as the day goes by very quickly.
I encourage my whole team to go. For freelance researchers it is tempting to think that you aren’t being paid for those hours, but having worked freelance myself for 27 years, and in-house for only two I’d say that spending a few hours getting to know the picture sources and in particular the people who work there will be more than paid back by the time you save hunting for something elusive or knowing who you can beg a favour of in an emergency. Their exhaustive knowledge of their own collections is your best tool. You might even pick up a job from another publisher you get chatting to over a coffee.
Julia Ruxton
Picture Manager
Laurence King Publishing Ltd
…still waiting on that photo Julia, I’ll get one at Fotofringe – see you on the day!
Book your day at fotofringe London here
2016 exhibitors so far include:
123RF; 4Corners Images; Action Library; Advertising Archives, akg-images, Alamy, Arcaid Images, Arcticphoto, Ardea, Arenapal, Art Archive/Kobal, Art Image, Ashmolean Museum, August USA, AWL Images, Bridgeman, British Museum, Caia Images, Camera Press, Capture, Cartel, Cody Images, Creative Image Library, Deposit Photos, FLPA, Gallery Stock, Getty, Glasgow Life, Heritage Images, Historic Royal Palaces, Homer Sykes My British Archive, IDS, Ikon Images, Imagesource, John Birdsall Library, LAT Photographic, Lebrecht, Lee Miller Archive, Living4Media, Mary Evans Picture Library, Mirrorpix, National Archives Image Library, National Museum of Wales, National Portrait Gallery, Nature Picture Library, Newscom, News Syndication, PA Images, Photofusion Picture Library, plainpicture, PPL, Rex, Robert Harding World Imagery, Ronald Grant Archive, RMN – France, Rossiya Segodnya, Royal Armouries, Royal Museums Greenwich, Scala Archives Italy, Science & Society, Science Photo Library, Seasons, Steve Bloom Images, Shutterstock, Sonia Halliday Photographs, Stockfood, Tate, Topfoto.co.uk, VIEW, V&A Images, Wenn, Werner Forman Archive….
PhotoArchiveNews.com is Media Partner to fotofringe London 2016