What is an amateur to do with a newsworthy picture ?

[jean_marc_liotier]

Imagine an amateur photographer that somehow finds himself at the

right place at the right moment and unexpectedly shoots a major scoop.

This photographer has no press contacts whatsoever. The pictures may

be very valuable to the press, but of course since they are a news

item their value will sharply decline over time. So who should this

lucky amateur turn to ? Do agencies accept pictures from unknown guys

out of the blue ? Is it better to try to talk to a newspaper ? What

sort of people at agencies or newspapers should one try to talk to ?

Do press organisms have an e-mail address where to submit such

pictures ? Are there intermediaries or brokers that can handle that

for a commission ? Is there any sort of standard pricing or is

bargaining necessary ? As you can see, I am completely clueless about

this whole industry. With the proliferation and near ubiquity of

digital cameras it seems to me that news pictures may be something

that will increasingly come from lucky nobodies. Are the press

organisms prepared to take advantage of that somewhat chaotic incoming

stream ?

[gaius1]

Sure - the BBC for example openly welcome anyone to submit news images (they won't pay you tho'). Just have a poke around their website.

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I>Imagine an amateur photographer that somehow finds himself at the right place at the

right moment and unexpectedly shoots a major scoop.</I><P>Call your local newpapaer

right away. If you think it is of national importancecall a national newspaper (New York

Times, Washington Post, USA Today) or national magazine immediately. As you realize

timeliness and speed is ofthe essense in news photography. You can find the phone

numbers from directory assistance or your phonebook. Ask for the Photo editor.

[tholte]

Amateurs get lucky all the time! Newspapers don't pay much but magazines do. Sabastiao Salgado (just starting his career in photography) got about $250,000 for capturing Ronnie Reagan getting shot by John Hinckly back in 1981. Those were big bucks back then.

[paul t]

Make sure you establish a share of the syndication rights. One party-goer in

London snapped photos of Princes William and Harry in fancy dress, thinking

the sight of William dressed as a cat would be newsworthy. They didn't realise

Harry in a Nazi uniform was even MORE newsworthy. They sold the shots

outright, I think for circa UKP5k. The Sun made over 100 times that in

syndication.

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I> Sabastiao Salgado (just starting his career in photography) got about $250,000 for

capturing Ronnie Reagan getting shot by John Hinckly back in 1981.</I><P>Salgado was

actually already established as a news photographer in Europe when he was in the right

place atthe right time ofthe Hinckley assasination attempt. he was qalready a member of

Magnum Photos , had just returned from being on the "Day in the Life of Australia" book

project and that day he was working on assignment for the New York Times Sunday

Magazine about Reagan's first hundred days in office but since he didn't have the right

credentials wasn't allowed in

the official photographer's area. Magnum made a lot of money that day by being very

aggressive about how they read the NYTSM contract as not including usage in the daily

editions of the NYT. Salgado used his portion of the proceeeds as seed money to stop

doing new stories and to start working on his first documentary projects.

[wingedrabbit]

Dr Scott Lieberman received an nomination for a <a href="http://www.easternecho.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?1393">Pulitzer</a> after taking pictures of the space shuttle Columbia breaking up. This picture was seen by 2.4 billion people around the world. He seemed pretty smart in the way he handled it.

[tholte]

Ellis, thanks for all the background info but I still think 1981 was in the "starting" phase of his career since it took him till the 1990's to really become an internationally famous photographer. Check out when his books were published, not many before 1981.

[bill c.]

Jean-Marc-- I think your best bet would be to contact an agency. If you are based in France, try the Paris offices of Gamma. Also call other international photo agencies. Most of them will offer a 50% contract. Tell them what you have and offer to email it to them.

 

Best of luck. -BC-

[httpwww.photo.netphoto1664877520]

Thanks Tom, I would like to think I was. At the time I was only clear that I wanted my local newpaper to have the image, and that I thought it was useful. Wanting to be fair to me they did not want any share in possible proceeds, and suggested that "we" send it to the Associated Press (AP). I worked out a sharing agreement with them, that has been very fair, and led to the it being one of the most widely published front page images for a breaking news story in history. In answer to your other question, news agencies are really gearing up to get images from the many new sources as you stated. Every cell phone is almost a reporter on a beat.