New Online Marketplace Offers Image Buyers Unparalleled Diversity of High-Quality Photography From Both Pros and Flickr Users Alike

New York, NY -- November 15, 2007 –– PhotoShelter is pleased to announce that it has begun transacting image sales on The PhotoShelter Collection, the first online marketplace to provide the benefits of a commercial agency and a wholly transparent sales system to pro, amateur and hobbyist photographers alike. The PhotoShelter Collection will now offer image buyers access to the widest and most eclectic array of commercial imagery that is quality-sorted, keyworded, priced, licensed and ready for instant purchasing.

PhotoShelter’s open-but-edited marketplace allows photographers to keep 70% of all transactions and set their own prices. Attracting the highest quality work from the widest range of photographers, The PhotoShelter Collection gives buyers what the company calls ‘edited diversity’: an ever-growing collection of the freshest imagery available online in a single, edited location. As a result, buyers no longer need to explore numerous unconventional resources in a scattershot search for unrealized talent and new inspiration. With new images added daily, The PhotoShelter Collection is available for viewing at www.photoshelter.com.

Since an initial launch to photographers on September 15, over 5,000 photographers have uploaded more than 225,000 images to The PhotoShelter Collection in the first eight weeks. “The overwhelming response from photographers in support of The PhotoShelter Collection is a clear signal of the shift from mega agencies to an open platform for creatives,” said Allen Murabayashi, CEO of PhotoShelter. “We’re very excited to show image buyers what the world looks like through the eyes of what will surely become the most diverse group of contributors, both amateur and pro, in the stock photography space.”

Beyond offering an unprecedented catalogue of user-contributed images, The PhotoShelter Collection has taken several steps toward simplifying the purchasing process. All photos sold through The PhotoShelter Collection are intelligently keyworded and searchable by both aesthetic and quality, helping the buyer target images by content as well as stylistic genre. Every image displayed is available as a high-res comp download and priced for immediate licensing (either as royalty-free or rights-managed), enabling the buyer to procure images with a credit card or corporate account – and without negotiating directly with photographers. The PhotoShelter staff of photo editors also constantly culls through The PhotoShelter Collection for trends and emerging talent as part of the monthly ‘Showroom’ online exhibit.

“I’m very excited to see a photography collection that is dedicated to providing such gorgeous, original and cool imagery,” said Marni Beardsley, Director of Art Buying for Wieden + Kennedy. “It feels like I am browsing through an eclectic mix of fine art from a wide variety of emerging artists rather than visiting a stock site.”

PhotoShelter has recruited a team of experienced photo editors who scrutinize every image submitted to The PhotoShelter Collection in consideration of both technical and creative quality standards. Their collective experience comes from working at national magazines like Time, InStyle, Details, The New Yorker among others, as well as at photo agencies including Getty, Corbis and WireImage. “The diligence and talent of our editorial team is as much a part of our product as the technology or the images themselves,” said Meagan Ziegler-Haynes, PhotoShelter’s Director of Photography. “Their discerning vision is what transforms hundreds of thousands of user contributed images into a concentrated, organized and highly usable collection of very hip photography.”

"I have wanted to put my work into the stock photography market for some time but found the existing options to be unattractive from both a business and a creative side,” said photographer Gus Powell. “PhotoShelter takes advantage of D.I.Y. skills that are a part of most photographers, and then adds the right amount of industry and technical savvy.   The process of submitting material is simple; the photographer friendly contract is short and sweet; and the growing collection is a mixture of the expected and unexpected."

The buyer launch announcement was made to a supportive audience of art directors and photo editors on November 7th in New York City at a reception co-hosted by several regarded figures in the photo buying community including Blender Magazine photo director Amy Hoppy, Wieden + Kennedy’s Marni Beardsley and James J. Williams III, artist, photographer, critic and curator with the Thorstein Foundation. Also on the host committee were Leslie Dela Vega (Time magazine), Mike Joyce (Stereotype Design co.), Sean Carmody (Sean Carmody Studio), Laurel Ptak (iheartphotograph.com), and Kirk James (Cinco Designs). The event included a special exhibition of images available for sale on PhotoShelter by established and emerging photographers from around the world, and selected by the host committee, including Joel Barhamand, Amelia Bauer, Diego Fernandez, Justin Hollar, Alexei Kondrachov, Moeshe Menagen, Landon Nordeman, Gus Powell, Jennifer Sargent, Hillary Duffy, Caleb Condit and Will Steacy.

About PhotoShelter
Created by photographers in 2005, PhotoShelter has quickly become a trusted partner to the professional photography industry. More than 18,000 working photographers rely on PhotoShelter’s Personal Archive system every day to host their online archives, power their websites and manage their businesses. With the launch of The PhotoShelter Collection, photographers of all levels can now benefit from a worldwide image-selling marketplace that returns commercial and creative independence back into the hands of the artist. The PhotoShelter Collection aims to offer commercial buyers a fresh, editorialized collection with a broad selection of imagery. With hundreds of new members joining daily, PhotoShelter is a thriving creative community where advanced technology combines with a native understanding of photographers to power the future of photography online. To become a part of our community, visit http://www.photoshelter.com/ .

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