eric kim goes open source...
- Thread starter back alley
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raytoei@gmail.com
Veteran
hoot! i applaud this approach, no matter how disruptive it may be.
paulfish4570
Veteran
forgive me: what does open source mean?
msbarnes
Well-known
In this context it means free. He is basically giving everyone acces to use his hi-res images on flickr.
fdarnell
Well-known
I hope this will work out for him, but it further enforces if it's on the internet it's free. That's ok with me, as long as we all know what it is and treat it accordingly. Not sure how he will make his "enough to get buy on" or to afford some of the latest gear or nice plane trips to exotic locations to talk with people like Alamby.
Brian Legge
Veteran
It's sloppy use of terminology.
Open source usually means the raw source of a program can be read and used by others (within some licensing terms). The closest photography equivelent would be if people related photoshop psd files and let people use and modify them - the layers, the actions, the image data, etc - to produce new works.
Kim just set licensing terms on the output itself. Nothing wrong with that but open source is a weird terminology choice. It does market well to tech people I suppose.
Open source usually means the raw source of a program can be read and used by others (within some licensing terms). The closest photography equivelent would be if people related photoshop psd files and let people use and modify them - the layers, the actions, the image data, etc - to produce new works.
Kim just set licensing terms on the output itself. Nothing wrong with that but open source is a weird terminology choice. It does market well to tech people I suppose.
stompyq
Well-known
Hmm.. I read the article and the comments. Why does this guy generate so much hate? I think he has some decent work. He makes a living out of something he loves and I for one respect him for that. Wish I had that kind of balls....
maddoc
... likes film again.
Looks like he makes (made) enough money from his "workshops" ... 🙄
Noll
Well-known
That's a pretty ballsy move. I just resolved myself in the opposite direction recently! (That is, not giving away free usage to photos that I have an intent to publish in the future).
Honestly I can't imagine ever actually downloading someone else's photo, printing it, and hanging it on the wall as art. Just seems wrong. It will be interesting to see if this helps or hurts his ability to make a living.
Honestly I can't imagine ever actually downloading someone else's photo, printing it, and hanging it on the wall as art. Just seems wrong. It will be interesting to see if this helps or hurts his ability to make a living.
back alley
IMAGES
i think it's because he is doing what many others would like to be doing.
i have been asked by a few folks over the years to teach 'street' workshops...on my own not through a local establishment...and i always defer...
if i were a bitter man i might be jealous enough to dislike him too.
msbarnes
Well-known
Good question....it's a strange internet phenomenon.
Murchu
Well-known
In a way, I think this is a little akin to what is happening in the music industry, ie artists making the pragmatic choice to forego income from record sales, instead focussing on income from live perfomances. Without second guessing his intentions or sincerity, Eric perhaps has made a similar pragmatic choice, opting to forego income and the effort to generate that income from print sales, in favour of other means, in his case, perhaps workshop income.
EDIT: the deeper question here perhaps, is whether the market for one's photography is more viable than the market to simply sell to other photographers. If the latter, that is depressing, although in my opinion, most photographers price their work too high. I think the market can bear more than free, though.
EDIT: the deeper question here perhaps, is whether the market for one's photography is more viable than the market to simply sell to other photographers. If the latter, that is depressing, although in my opinion, most photographers price their work too high. I think the market can bear more than free, though.
fdarnell
Well-known
Actually, after giving this some thought, I believe I understand his model. We all love Beethoven and Mozart and Chopin. When you learn to play the piano, you can get this music for free. What you pay for is the lessons on HOW to play the piano.
So if he gives his work away for free, and I think his photos are pretty good, perhaps he is thinking that people will want to come to workshops and learn how to shoot like he does. Maybe he will make his money that way.
In fact, given the absolute flood and torrent of street photos and the deluge of digital street images (most of which are not anywhere near his work) perhaps this is the only model that will work. You can always find something cheaper or free on the internet, but learning something that could truly set you apart is not so easy to find on the net.
For example, go find a sample USDA Feasibility study for a B&I loan. It's quite difficult if not impossible. And learning how to do it is even more difficult to find. Perhaps I should learn something from Eric Kim.
So if he gives his work away for free, and I think his photos are pretty good, perhaps he is thinking that people will want to come to workshops and learn how to shoot like he does. Maybe he will make his money that way.
In fact, given the absolute flood and torrent of street photos and the deluge of digital street images (most of which are not anywhere near his work) perhaps this is the only model that will work. You can always find something cheaper or free on the internet, but learning something that could truly set you apart is not so easy to find on the net.
For example, go find a sample USDA Feasibility study for a B&I loan. It's quite difficult if not impossible. And learning how to do it is even more difficult to find. Perhaps I should learn something from Eric Kim.
Brian Legge
Veteran
So reading this, it only applies to non-commercial use of the photos. I wonder how many sales to individuals he has has a year. If nothing else, this is permitting what people were probably doing anyway. I may have an overly pessimistic view though.
msbarnes
Well-known
I think so too. He seems most interested in teaching photography more than anything. I hardly browse his website/flickr, but has he been trying to sell prints?
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
A lot of photographers today, even really famous ones, are not making money taking pictures and selling them. They're making money selling dreams to people with the money to take their workshops, who think if they spend the money to study with someone famous that that famous someone will help their career. It doesn't work that way, and the career isn't worth having anymore anyway.
I love photography, and I still make decent money from it, but I make more as a high school English and History teacher than I have ever made as a photographer and I think the days of me making decent money from my photos are numbered. In fact, I make more than most professional photographers...as a second year teacher. People used to say if photography became that devalued that no one would take pictures, and then the value of images would go back up. Problem is, there are enough idiots willing to give it away forever.
I love photography, and I still make decent money from it, but I make more as a high school English and History teacher than I have ever made as a photographer and I think the days of me making decent money from my photos are numbered. In fact, I make more than most professional photographers...as a second year teacher. People used to say if photography became that devalued that no one would take pictures, and then the value of images would go back up. Problem is, there are enough idiots willing to give it away forever.
Aristophanes
Well-known
In the music industry more money is now generated from concerts and pad performances than from single or album sales.
alphonse2501
Established
"Open source" usually used in computer programming. In the case of Eric Kim, he probably needs use "Creative Commons".
http://creativecommons.org/
http://creativecommons.org/
thirtyfivefifty
Well-known
Does this mean we can edit his blog in the spirit of open source? No? How about access the raw files and edit. No? This is nothing more than free press.
Aristophanes
Well-known
A huge amount of music was always made by people who played for others for free. That's mostly how it was done until the advent of recording. Paid musical careers depended on an aristocracy who could pay others to play. There was a time when music for 99.9999% of the population was played by those same people in a shared, social environment. No formal exchange needed.
Photography and a substantial amount of music are going that way again. This may not be a bad thing for people to make their own photos and music and other works of art.
