Licensing · Published each January

What it costs.All of it.In one place.

€14,000 for a five-week commission, which is €2,800 a week with every cost in it. Everything below is what that buys, and what nobody can buy at any price.

Commission us

A day rate buys a day. That is the problem.

Photography is priced by the day almost everywhere, which quietly decides what kind of pictures exist. Five weeks is expensive to buy and impossible to buy by the day, so we price the assignment instead.

Ninety-one percent of income is licensing and commissions. There is no advertising side of the business subsidising the reportage, because that arrangement always ends up briefing it.

Rates are fixed on the January they are published and do not move for work already commissioned.

The rate card

€2,800 a week, all in

€340

per frame

Single editorial use

For a title that needs one picture, once.

One frame, one publication, one edition, print or online
No time limit, no takedown clause
Caption and photographer’s credit as they want it printed

Licence a frame

The usual commission

€14,000

five weeks, all in

Commissioned assignment

For a story that does not exist yet. The usual commission.

One photographer, named before departure, one lens
Travel, insurance, fixers, two edits, captions and consent records
First use for eighteen months, then the frames enter the archive

Commission us

€1,800

up to twelve frames

Editorial series

For a feature built from one assignment.

Up to twelve frames from one assignment, used together
The captions travel with the pictures
Same terms as a single use, per frame it is cheaper

Ask the archivist

Book or exhibition: €2,400 — Per project, negotiated on print run and territory. Museums and non-commercial shows pay half.
Archive research: Free — Done by the archivist, with a real answer, whether or not you licence anything afterwards. About a week.

What is included, and what is not for sale

Included: The frame at full resolution, the caption, the consent record where one exists, and the photographer’s name in the form they want it printed.
Not for sale: Exclusivity beyond eighteen months, the right to crop into a different meaning, and permission to remove the caption. None of the three is available at any price.
Payment: Thirty days. Photographers are paid their share in the same month the invoice clears, not when the client eventually pays.
The split: Sixty per cent to the photographer on every licence, archive or commission, published in the accounts each March.
Re-use: A second use is a second licence, at the same rate. We would rather that than an annual fee nobody can audit.

Before you pay

All the questions

What if the assignment comes back with nothing?: About one commission in six does. You are told in week three rather than week six, you pay for the weeks that were shot, and the whole take is catalogued anyway — an archive that only keeps the successes is a record of our expectations, not of places.
What does €14,000 include?: Five weeks, one photographer, travel, insurance, fixers at a published rate, two edits, captions and consent records, and first use for eighteen months. There is no expenses conversation in week four because there are no expenses outside the figure.
Is there a lower rate?: Museums, small titles, students and non-commercial shows pay half, on identical terms, and nobody is asked to prove anything. If the rate is the only obstacle, write and say so.
When do I pay, and when is the photographer paid?: Thirty days from invoice. The photographer receives their sixty per cent in the month the invoice clears, not when the client eventually pays.
Can I crop, or drop the caption?: You can crop for the page. You cannot crop a picture into a different meaning, and the caption travels with the frame in every use. Neither is negotiable at any price, which is why they are not on the rate card.
Who owns the pictures?: The photographer, always. The agency licenses on their behalf and takes forty per cent. Eleven of the eighteen also own the agency.

Where the money comes from

Where the money comes from: Licensing and commissions: 91% of income in the last published year. The rest is print sales and two exhibition fees.
What we refuse: Advertising work, corporate reportage dressed as documentary, and anything that needs a picture to prove a conclusion already written.
Grants: Two long projects are grant-funded. The funder is named in the caption every time a frame from them is published.
The accounts: Published in full every March, including what the eleven owners took out and what the retainers cost.