Photo archives become a Challenge at Corbis
Corbis, started by Bill Gates in 1989, owns millions of images, some of them kept underground in a former limestone mine in rural
In some sense, the iconic photograph of Rosa Parks recreating her quiet act of rebellion on a bus in
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Arthur Sasse/Corbis
Marilyn Monroe during the filming of “The Seven Year Itch.” More Photos »
Anyone wanting to use that image in a book or on a Web site must first license it from Corbis, a corporation founded and owned by Mr. Gates, who is better known for starting Microsoft. The photo is among the 11 million prints and negatives in the legendary Bettmann archive, which Corbis bought in 1995.
Since that first purchase, Corbis has spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring image collections and other companies, hired more than 1,000 people and set up two dozen offices worldwide. Although Corbis says it brings in some $250 million a year in sales, it has yet to turn a profit.
Corbis has built up a formidable stash of historical photos, including those in the Bettmann Archive. In 1999, Corbis acquired the licensing rights to the Sygma collection in
Corbis also owns digital reproduction rights for art from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery in London.
In all, Corbis represents or owns the rights to more than 100 million images, including some of the most famous photographs ever — Arthur Sasse’s photo of Einstein sticking his tongue out and Marilyn Monroe on the subway grate. And Corbis handles the licensing of millions of other images on behalf of thousands of photographers.
The archival photos bring in about half of Corbis’s sales, but the company also has a stable of professional photographers who generate stock photos for advertising and media clients — images of children on playgrounds, people sitting in business meetings and men in khakis swinging golf clubs.
The times they are a changin' and Corbis is facing its biggest challenges yet from the rise of microstock agencies like Fotolia and iStockPhoto. These sites take advantage of the phenomenon known as crowdsourcing, or turning to the online masses for free or low-cost submissions. Thousands of amateur and semiprofessional photographers armed with high-quality digital cameras and a copy of Photoshop contribute photographs to microstock sites, which often charge $1 to $5 an image. (Corbis charges $250 per image on average)
“More interesting and innovative things are happening on the pages of Flickr these days than on Corbis and Getty. If we can use this type of opportunity to find the next great group of Corbis photographers, that also makes it a great opportunity for us.”
Gary Shenk, president and chief executive of Corbis
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