TTV Blog

Why I’m giving my originals away

Here’s the headline: As part of my plan to make lots of money from my photographs I’m encouraging you to download high resolution versions of my TTV photos to make cool things with them and I don’t mind if you pay me or not.

There’s a new section in my shop: Roll your own. That explains how I expect this to work so go read it before reading on.

Done that? Good.

So all my TTV photos on Flickr are Creative Commons licensed and I’m actively encouraging you to make things, real or virtual, with them.

Why am I doing this? Partly it’s an experiment to put some of the core notions of Internet culture to the test and yes, I expect to use this in my consultancy and training work. But it’s more than that. I honestly think this is the right thing to do both financially and personally.

I’ve often said if you want to see some of the most innovative thinking alongside some of the most backward and reactionary thinking about the potential of the Internet for the arts, the best place to look is music. Steve Lawson recently caught my attention with his Dear Rock Stars post in response to pronouncement from industry figures that the Internet was harming emerging musicians like him. It’s a good read but here’s the meaty bit:

in the 3 weeks since I made ‘Behind Every Word’ available for free download, I’ve sold more CDs and downloads than in any one month since 6 months after it first came out.

This a four year old album. I’ve done no gigs in that time, I’ve taken out no ads, I’ve not given away a single bit of physical anything that cost me money. I’ve just talked about it, and invited people to listen to it. And guess what? They listened, and those who really liked it THEN PAID. And they paid more for the ‘free’ download they they do on iTunes.

Steve’s given his mp3s away and has profited from it. What do I have that’s analogous to an mp3? My jpeg files. I’m curious to see if by giving these away I can sell more prints (CDs) or get donations (paid downloads).

And lets be frank, at this stage of the game I’m not going to get taken on by a high-end gallery or sell my limited edition prints for thousands of pounds. That’ll only come when there’s a demand for my work. And that demand will only come when a lot of people have seen my work. A hell of a lot of people. I can’t reach them on my own. I need your help to do that.

Which brings me to the more personal reason for doing this. I really hate it when a photographer deliberately makes it hard for me to share their work or ruins the experience by putting some ugly watermark over it. And not just because it inconveniences me but because I think it’s fundamentally pointless.

If someone “steals” your work then consider that a compliment. If they try to pass it off as their own then sure, that’s not nice, but they’re still your photos. No-one can take that fact away from you. Also, you have something the fakers don’t – the ability to make more photos that are better than that.

Plus, by making the originals free so anyone can make prints I’ve deflated the market for copies of my work. The value is in the bespoke, signed limited editions which only I can sell.

I appreciate this issue is way more complicated than I’m making it out here and I would support any photographer who only makes small jpeg available on the Internet. I don’t really want to argue the points here as I’m expect I’ll get the chance if this post gets any attention. Plus I’ll feel obligated to draw a graph and I’d rather not do that right now. I just got fed up with people says “it’s okay for you use Creative Commons licensing but I’m trying to make a living from my work” as if the two weren’t compatible. I think they are compatible and since I’m looking to earn serious amounts of money from my work it’s only right I put this to the test.

So if you have an idea for something cool to do with my photos, be it sticking it on your blog, combining a few into a grid and making a print for your friend or using them to illustrate a book of your writings, go for it. Just follow the Creative Commons license and be non-commercial while giving me credit.

Send me a link or a photo of the object so I can mention it on the blog and if you want to pay me something for taking the photos in the first place you can do so here.

Let’s see how this works.

(Oh, and if someone wants to build a version of Bandcamp for photos, I’d be interested. Yes, Flickr is supposed to be good for this but the years of stupid users moaning about “theft” have blunted that somewhat.)