| The Think Tank futurists must've figured it out in the | | | | shepherds of our pictures, we could assume the |
| 1970's: With illiteracy prevalent in the country and TV | | | | stock world would be handled in good taste. Now |
| being the absentee educator and babysitter, pictures | | | | what? We have only to recall what happened to the |
| would soon compete with words as a means of | | | | quality of content of former family-owned magazines |
| communication in our society. | | | | and newspapers after corporations bought them up |
| In the early 90's, probably picking up on this research, | | | | in the late 70's and early 80's. |
| Kodak announced that it had expanded and bought | | | | In the not-too-distant future, it looks like there won't |
| The Image Bank. Bill Gates stepped in forming his | | | | be any more family-owned stock photo agencies. |
| Corbis agency, and then along came Mark Getty | | | | Picture content (remember, it's a language) will be |
| whose Getty Images currently is the top dog in the | | | | controlled by corporations. Royalty-Free clip art and |
| industry. Alan Meckler bought several stock agencies | | | | commercial stock photography will become supreme |
| and set up his Jupiter Images, placing himself at | | | | fabricators of the commercial myth. |
| number three. | | | | And what of the individual photographer who doesn't |
| If I'm reading this right, these corporations are | | | | care to cooperate with this scheme? Not to worry. |
| saying, future + pictures = hard-core profits. And if | | | | There will always be a need for good editorial |
| pictures are becoming a second language for us, I | | | | photography, by publications that cannot afford, or |
| have a question, "Who is writing the dictionary?" | | | | don't want, the contrived look of conglomerate stock |
| In the past, with family-owned stock agencies as the | | | | photography. |