What I Used To Do

I set up and ran the global distribution department comprising more than 170 distributors for a New York based digital media company, (www.Photolibrary.com). We represented about 2,000 photographers. As their representative we licensed their photographs to end users, including advertising agencies and corporations.

To sell our photographers' images outside the US we used overseas agents (or distributors). As the VP of Distribution I traveled to 30+ countries to visit with prospective or current agents, negotiating distribution deals, and advising on their sales and marketing strategies.

As images were being valued more and more as a commodity, and not for their aesthetic value, the industry was consolidating, and companies were getting bought up. The old photo agencies, many in Europe, that were started and run by photographers were becoming fewer. This presented new challenges, and I had to find new ways to ensure that we retained an agent in each foreign country who was at or near the top of the heap in their respective market.

I loved this job and the people I worked with, and some of the great meals we had. When I quit from Photolibrary I think I was one of the few in my industry who resigned, and was not laid off.

Below are pics from visits to the offices of my "agents" in Warsaw, Budapest, Moscow, Prague and Hamburg.

Friends in Warsaw, Poland. I think this visit was part of a ten-countries-in-12-days tour. I was pretty tired, but loved every minute.

A relatively small agency, in Budapest. I didn't enjoy telling them that sales were not adequate.

This agency in a suburb of Moscow was in an apartment building with freezing hallways.

My Russian agent, Gennady, took me for a great dinner on my first trip to Moscow. Unfortunately I had to let him go, as he was too beholden to another supplier, to my detriment.

This lady was one of the first entrepreneurs to start a business when the Czech Republic opened up to free enterprise. Despite her savvy I choose another agent.

When I first visited Joachim's newfound stock photo agency in Hamburg it was an empty space with one desk, but a beautiful view of the Elbe River. I thought he was a gun runner using a photo agency as a front. He turned out to be one of the most profitable distributors for us (of photos).

One of the annual stock photo conferences. Every year it was in a different European city.