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Author Topic: Dramatic images from protests in Kiev, Ukraine  (Read 6786 times)

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« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2014, 19:06 »
+3
Great blog and images of a terrible situation. Thanks for posting and well done to the photographers who captured the events.

stock-will-eat-itself

« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2014, 19:12 »
+2
It must take an enormous amount of guts to photograph the chaos unfolding there especially with the chilling arrival of state sponsored snipers. God knows how they resolve it from here.

« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2014, 19:23 »
+2
They are very brave, amazing images. I hope they all remain safe and healthy.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2014, 21:33 by cobalt »

« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2014, 19:56 »
0
Thanks for posting this.  Kudos to the photogs in Kiev for the great work amidst a very disturbing situation!!

« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2014, 19:58 »
+1
excellent work by those who put their lives at risk.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2014, 20:54 »
+3
Phenomenal images under extreme circumstances.
Hoping the situation in the Ukraine is fully resolved soon.

« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2014, 21:00 »
+2
Thanks for posting Scott. I didn't realize SS was involved in this type of photojounalism.

« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2014, 21:08 »
+2
Obviously I wish the protesters weren't faced with the awful circumstances, but that's a great collection of imagery telling a very powerful story.

Thanks for posting a link to the blog here

Ron

« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2014, 21:09 »
0
Telling images.  Wow.  Unbelievable hardship on the people of Ukraine. How can a country leader turn machine guns on his own people?

Hobostocker

    This user is banned.
« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2014, 03:08 »
+11
It would be interesting to know a bit more regarding sales, is there actually a demand for photojournalism on Shutterstock ? I'm following the clashes in Kiev on both western and eastern medias and can't remember a single image credited Shutterstock, of course i could be wrong.

Secondly, very unprofessional to keyword and to caption some of these images with the words "regime" and "dictatorship" as the actual government in charge has been democratically elected.

As anyone can see in the images there is just riot police involved, no members of the army or special forces, at least not yet.

By the way, in case the readers here don't know, the so called "patriots" and "democrats" killing policemen in the clashes are mostly composed by members of the ukrainian neo-nazi party "Svoboda" :

http://rt.com/op-edge/ukrainian-nationalists-attacked-police-888/

Hobostocker

    This user is banned.
« Reply #11 on: February 22, 2014, 03:16 »
+7
Telling images.  Wow.  Unbelievable hardship on the people of Ukraine. How can a country leader turn machine guns on his own people?

Rules of engagement in case the protesters start killing policemen and burning police cars and government buildings, in America they would be all killed or sent to Guantanamo as "terrorist".

Russian foreign minister Lavrov openly accused the US and Nato of fomenting and backing the ukrainian rebels while Russia was busy with the Sochi Olympics, just as they did in 2008 with the Tibetan and Xinjiang clashes during the Beijing 2008 Olympics.


Beppe Grillo

« Reply #12 on: February 22, 2014, 05:05 »
+5
Telling images.  Wow.  Unbelievable hardship on the people of Ukraine. How can a country leader turn machine guns on his own people?


The situation is/was not exactly as reported by the occidental TVs/Press propaganda.
Believe me, I live there.

What do you think will have done the police of any of our so called 'democratic' countries if demonstrators had begun to shot and kill them with guns to hunt wild boar and burn them with molotov cocktails?


-----

UNIAN is the ukrainian photo-press agency.
You can find a lot of good photos here
http://photo.unian.net
« Last Edit: February 22, 2014, 05:16 by Beppe Grillo »

« Reply #13 on: February 22, 2014, 05:19 »
+1
I spent a month living in the Ukraine as a young man - in Odessa. Great country and lovely people. Everyone should be able to live in peace and happiness.

« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2014, 05:21 »
+7
I totally agree with Beppe Grillo and Hobostocker...




... but  - maybe this is not good think - to start political discussion here...

Beppe Grillo

« Reply #15 on: February 22, 2014, 05:36 »
+3
I totally agree with Beppe Grillo and Hobostocker...




... but  - maybe this is not good think - to start political discussion here...

I agree.
it was only to invite who comments the events to try to see a little beyond the official version coming from countries having interests very different that the ones of the people directly affected.

No politics here, just common sense

« Reply #16 on: February 22, 2014, 06:05 »
-1
What a stunning drama and opportunity for photographers. I sooo wanted to travel there, but I just couldn't get away :((

I agree a lot with beppe and hobo. I think this is usa's answer to the political humiliation by russia in the syria issue. The ukrainians have real grievances, and probably would have protested very heavily, but I don't think this would have turned into such a militant affair without some covert action by major political forces from outside.


« Reply #17 on: February 22, 2014, 08:13 »
+6
Hello,

Thanks all.   In terms of editorial images - yes, there is a demand for news and we do sell editorial images and video.  As mentioned on the earnings call, we now have close to 1 million customers of all types, which includes large media and publishing companies.   While we're largely known for commercial images, illustrations, vectors, etc..., those customers are often excited to hear about our editorial coverage.   While we've often focused on credentialed events and our "On the Red Carpet" program -- with 55,000 contributors around the world -- there's fairly widespread coverage for documentary images of local and global interest.  We'd like to do a better job of highlighting the great work that's being done. 

This has always been true for photojournalism, but "evergreen" subjects tend to be most popular over time - for example, a portrait of President Obama might get downloaded over and over because customers are looking to illustrate editorial stories on that subject on a fairly routine basis. 

We also just launched "
illustrative editorial" photos. 

The images to that category are already getting lots of downloads, because it's a content type that hasn't existed that fills an existing demand among a large customer audience.

One of the most misleading statements that I see in the forums and in the industry is that "it's all been done" or that "there's no opportunity anymore."   There's nothing that could be further from the truth.  We see millions of searches; our customer base is growing and expanding (nearly 1 million Shutterstock customers backed by relationships such as Facebook, which has 1 million active advertisers).  Customers needs change over time (for example - more customers are using video) and we're acquiring new customers in different areas of the world.

Any time we've seen contributors add content to the collection that fills a gap -- it doesn't matter if it's high-impact photojournalism, illustrative editorial, local families, a certain quality level, "authenticity" that you see in Offset, etc..., it will serve a need among a very large audience of nearly 1 million buyers.  The marketplace and demand is constantly evolving.   

Best,

Scott
VP of Content
Shutterstock
« Last Edit: February 22, 2014, 08:17 by scottbraut »

« Reply #18 on: February 22, 2014, 08:50 »
+4
Hi Scott, thank you for communicating with us, but I have one question. High-impact photojournalism is very often very risky business and also the demand is short. Usually only during the peak of those news. Do you have any plans to differentiate it from microstock ? I cannot imagine someone risking life for $0,34 even if multiplied by 100x.

« Reply #19 on: February 22, 2014, 08:55 »
0
very unprofessional to keyword and to caption some of these images with the words "regime" and "dictatorship"

I do not know enough about the background to these events to have any sort of opinion about the politics.

But I agree that an editorial caption should be strictly accurate and impartial. I am surprised that captions including words like "regime" and "dictatorship" have got past the bureau chief or equivalent. Unless Shutterstock is taking sides.

« Reply #20 on: February 22, 2014, 09:01 »
+2
Hi Scott, thank you for communicating with us, but I have one question. High-impact photojournalism is very often very risky business and also the demand is short. Usually only during the peak of those news. Do you have any plans to differentiate it from microstock ? I cannot imagine someone risking life for $0,34 even if multiplied by 100x.


Hi Toopy,

Thanks.  Right now, this type of conflict photography isn't common among the type of editorial images that we receive.  Incidentally, my own professional background includes having worked with AP, ABC News, and other editorial outlets -- at times, specifically with conflict photographers and this type of imagery.   

On one side, our Core offering includes higher price points through large agreements with publishers and media companies, as well as the benefits of widespread volume.  Offset also has editorial feature-type imagery.  At this point, I'd be speculating on future plans.  We're always open-minded and learning. 

Best,

Scott
VP of Content
Shutterstock


« Reply #21 on: February 22, 2014, 09:17 »
+2
Thanks very much Scott for the detailed answer to the many questions above however I have serious reservations how this can really work.

News is news and images of it are most valuable the instant they are available. That's why professional photojournalists will have the means to transmit their images almost immediately, if not in real-time. What facility does SS have to accept such images other than via the standard submit route where they can take several days to be reviewed. 'News' images that are 3 days old aren't going to make the front pages.

How can SS be confident that the 'news' images are as described by the contributor without some means of verifying the photographer and also the history of the image to ensure it has not been manipulated? SS and their customers could be placed in an embarrassing position if images sold were later found to be doctored or of a different event. It seems clear to me that there are many contributors who are so desperate to sell images that they spam their keywords all the time. Having "55K contributors all over the world" is a potentially useful resource but only if it can be trusted, both by SS and also their customers.

For 'editorial images' to work on SS there needs to be a totally different pricing architecture with much higher royalties paid to photographers. I'm amazed that some contributors are risking life and limb and damage to their equipment to send images to SS to be sold at current prices. I certainly wouldn't. I wouldn't even drive 5 miles down the road to capture an event for SS as I'd be unlikely to recover my transport costs let alone actually earn some money.

I just don't understand this 'toe dipped in the water' attitude to editorial images at SS. Surely, if you are intending to offer this service to customers, you need to think it through properly and offer the appropriate facilities and decent compensation to your contributors.

MxR

« Reply #22 on: February 22, 2014, 09:28 »
+1
awesome images available ... for 0.25 to 0,38?

« Reply #23 on: February 22, 2014, 09:30 »
+1
But I agree that an editorial caption should be strictly accurate and impartial. I am surprised that captions including words like "regime" and "dictatorship" have got past the bureau chief or equivalent. Unless Shutterstock is taking sides.

Hi Bunhill,

From the images I saw, I believe "dictatorship" was put in the original captions in quotes to indicate that the protesters are protesting against what they (the protesters) were calling a "dictatorship."  It's a good catch and important for impartiality, but there's no editorial stance applied by Shutterstock.

Best,

Scott



 

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