Good morning. As the group creative director of Getty Images I am largely interested in the second part of our session title. In other words, my job is to focus on the state of the art– the ‘what?’ and the ‘how?’ and in particular the ‘why?’ of the pictures – I do not usually do ‘the state of the stock industry’. The industry I primarily care about is the industries of our customers and the industry of our contributing photographers and filmmakers. You might find me wanting when it comes to talking about the internal issues of the stock industry. This is my first attendance at a PACA meeting.

Some background: Getty Images is just over 10 years old. I have been with the company for seven years. In this time the imagery market has transformed. Within this there has been no greater transformation than in the classic definition of “stock photography” which has become a $2B billion+ (and growing) global industry.

I joined Getty Images back in 1999 despite viewing stock as, at best, a necessary evil. In this, I simply reflected what customer research of the time said about the industry: customers used stock, but they did not admire or love the work of the industry. In general, the more creative, and indeed the more they had money to spend, the less they valued the quality of stock imagery or the way it was presented. It was the vision that Getty Images’ co-founders Jonathan Klein and Mark Getty put forward to me in 1999 that encouraged me to join this almost pariah-status industry, at least viewed from my peers in the customer group. Back then stock was not really on the photographic landscape – money went into it despite the customers’ preference for something else. And yet the industry offered a service that should have been more accepted, it should have been welcomed. Then things changed with the impact of digital image files, the internet and the search engine, along with changes in the customer world and a drive by some of us to makeover the quality and range of pre-shot imagery. I am grateful that I was offered a dream job – one where you could develop your talents while being party to making a difference.

This has now become an industry that is seen as vibrant and open to change, an essential and accepted tool for the clients, often admired for its images and effectiveness. However,there is a long way to go in terms of image range, quality and service. And it is that which keeps me in the business, gets me up in the morning.

Our mission and ‘reason for being’ at Getty Images is to create and share the world’s most powerful imagery. Powerful imagery stirs emotion, captures the imagination, initiates dialogue and challenges the status quo. It is educational, it delights and exposes truth. The best imagery transcends the written word. As one world, we share one language - the language of image. As I said that is a mission – it is not something that you achieve and ever say ‘job done’. And with the pace of change around us, that ongoing quest is never more stimulating than right now.

At Getty Images we believe the following dynamics will shape the imagery industry in the coming years and they encapsulate a number of reasons why we believe the best is yet to come.

The Sophistication Boom. Images were once so rare as to seem sacred, or even profane. The past five hundred years have witnessed sequential innovation in making images ever easier to create, reproduce and distribute. A child born today, in the digital age, sees more images before the age of 10 than Leonardo da Vinci could have seen in his lifetime. While we are not all budding Leonardos, we are all demanding consumers of imagery—and increasingly creators of still and moving imagery as well.

Images are now commonplace. But these are not always the best images, the right images, the images with the most power to move people—and in fact a mediocre image has little power at all anymore. Therefore there is opportunity to create more compelling imagery products. Image sophisticates around the world respect quality when they see it—indeed it is how they identify the best brands and media. Professional communicators increasingly seek the high end of the market, of the various markets they are in —we believe that is why they so often depend on Getty Images’ high-quality creative imagery. Behind our products is our professional perspective, expert art direction and the other investments we make in and around the imagery. We will not cease to invest substantially in improving the photography.

We believe the supply of great professional photographers will keep pace and increase with growing consumer and business demand for high-quality imagery. The proliferation of digital imaging has put professional-grade photographic equipment within reach of the average consumer. We believe the availability of high-quality, affordable equipment, coupled with exposure to digital photography at a young age, will encourage present and future generations to pursue professional photography like never before. We are keen to partner with this new generation of photographers, filmmakers and photojournalists, offering them access to a world eagerly awaiting their images.And we don’t just wait for these stars of tomorrow; we actively help them grow. Each year Getty Images awards five grants of $20,000 each in an effort to fund, support and inspire the best global talent in photojournalism. With our New Photographers showcase and exhibition – that is what you are viewing on the screen here – we give global promotion to a select pool of the best emerging creative talent. This is not a conventional promo for our work – it is not intended to be our photographers or our images – instead New Photographers is an example of us using our expertise around imagery to foster the next generation of talent. You can expect to see more such activities.

Technology is also providing the means to meet the demands of new users of imagery, underscoring our business strategy of providing imagery and related services at all price points. It is giving rise to the extremely ‘long-tailed’ value or micro market of imagery users. This is good for us as we view it as mostly incremental to the markets we serve today. We view our acquisition of iStockphoto as an opportunity to significantly expand our market reach and help pioneer a new territory for imagery.

The second key driver of growth I want to highlight is how Imagery will move at the speed of New Business. The speed of business—and with it the business of communications—has accelerated over the past decade. Creative professionals are not exempt from the better, cheaper, faster, mantra. The day is long past when the answer to every imagery need is a lengthy and expensive custom shoot. One of the major hurdles in the past was changing the perception of pre-shot imagery, from that of low-quality or generic to a collection made for and by a first class stable of photographers, art directors and creative directors. We know that we have done a lot to move that perception. But as an industry we need to do more still. The imagery available at gettyimages.com is often superior to what today’s budgets would allow the creative team to shoot themselves and we want to ensure that is even more strongly recognized.

Top advertising agencies are openly embracing our pre-shot imagery as an integral component of award-winning campaigns. These agencies understand that our imagery helps deliver outstanding creative work that meets ever-increasing demands for communications efficiency.

Of course the expense of a shoot is not the only barrier to creating new imagery— so too is the organizational hassle and risk. But assignment shooting is often unavoidable, and we believe that will continue to be a large, if not largest, part of the market… and we want to be in it. Our customers often find our Photo Assignments service to be of great help in achieving their goals. We aim to bring new levels of quality, efficiency and choice to the assignment model. This is not ‘stock’, but it is our customers’ need and it is a growing, important part of our business.

The speed of emerging business, particularly that of online and interactive advertising, is in a constant state of flux. When we look at the innovation driven by companies such as Google, with its focus on serving the right ad to the right consumer at the right time, we see a world where the definition of the “right image” is a highly customized one, where communication speaks to the individual. We‘re working hard to ensure advertising and graphic design professionals have the tools they need to bring their creativity to bear on these new industries.

Custom shoots will by no means go away and our Photo Assignment business will continue to grow. What will go away is the false concept that only live shoots maintain creative integrity from concept to completion – and that stock imagery does not fit the model. We intend to finally bury that myth that exists in some customer sectors still.

Image Truth and Image Trust. This is the next key driver for growth. Or perhaps it is also a threat to growth if as an industry we don’t get it right. ‘Image truth and image trust’ might seem to be concepts that relate only to photojournalism, but it is broader. We must bear in mind that if imagery as content is increasingly important then it must build trust around its provenance – the credibility of content, the nature of authorship - this is vital to the value of photography. We believe in the power of the image to advance human progress and are committed to a future where images are a trusted part of the global conversation. The increased discussion surrounding editorial integrity, given world events such as the war in Iraq, as well as the proliferation of citizen journalism, highlights the growing need for authentic, unaltered imagery. Just as provenance is a critical issue in the art world—with its entire culture around tracing ownership and guaranteeing authenticity—consumers and professional deserve and increasingly demand leadership from our industry around these issues that go to the heart of trust. We are providing that leadership. In what we believe is an industry first, Getty Images hired Seattle Times Photo Editor Cole Porter into a new Editorial Ombudsman position designed specifically to ensure our editorial business adheres to the highest levels of journalistic integrity and upholds the public trust. And our support of organizations such as the World Press Photo and International Center of Photography underscores our commitment to raise the bar for the photojournalism industry.

Our next key driver is ‘the global factor’. Around the Globe, Imagery Transcends Words. Imagery increasingly rivals – indeed beats - the written word as a universal communication tool, not only in Western cultures, but throughout Eastern and developing countries. This is well known. We also know that new innovations in broadband and mobile technology are opening up whole new categories of imagery demand, and nowhere are these technologies growing faster than in the developing world.

Less understood is the need for relevant, authentic imagery that resonates with its intended audience—a need that has never been greater as globalization raises fears of cultural hegemony for many around the world. While an image can transcend cultures, there is also tremendous demand for creative and authentic imagery that reflects local culture, custom and tradition. Global growth, for Getty Images, is not just about creating and sharing images that transcend borders and unites consumers. It also means having the fine-grained knowledge of local diversity that allows us reach out respectfully to individuals in every culture. Our Creative Research group makes it their business to understand the preferences and subtleties that resonate with increasingly influential audiences – such as mature consumers and burgeoning ethnic group, and how that varies by region.

On to my final key driver for our industry, what we call… The Novelty-Driven Economy. Development cycles are now measured in months, not years, as the life expectancy for products shrinks. We continue to hear about this challenge from our clients. In Japan, soft drink brands are launched with the hope they can stay on crowded shelves for six months! So too are technology products incredibly short-lived.The role of imagery in announcing “the new thing” cannot be overstated—and Getty Images strives to help our customers rise to this challenge. We share our key Creative Research findings in consultation with clients to help them develop where their visual identity is heading.

And so to conclude…

The Imagery Industry Is on the up. The evidence that imagery is growing as a vehicle and a driver of business value is unmistakable. To support this, at Getty Images we know that our success relies on developing and supporting a wide community of photographers and filmmakers, customers and partners. As such, we will remain committed to creating positive dialog between all stakeholders.

Imagery is ascendant in the communications mix. Getty Images is resolutely focused on the future, mindful of the growing role of imagery in a changing world and committed to continually refining our approach to better serve shifting customer needs.

Some final projections on the future of the industry…

• The future will involve pictures, but not necessarily always photographs as we know them. Photography is like language, it is constantly evolving. In fact, tomorrow’s photography will assuredly involve images that are not as we know them today. Not only different content in the images, but a different concept of what the image actually is. For example, perhaps more of a blurred boundary between still and moving imagery or between the photographic and illustrative.

• The future will involve more wholly-owned content because image services to clients need to be even more highly responsive – which requires being empowered to take the risks and responsibilities around the image, and not always represent somebody else at the same time.

• The future will offer some great opportunities to more photographers to make a living – but worldwide. If American or European photographers want to dominate home markets and benefit from export sales they will have to stand up to stronger global competition.

• The future is more images everywhere, less words. This is because images are a fast-developing language significantly under-used in some markets for media, due to political, economic or technological reasons. Those barriers are going away – fantastic new markets are opening up, bandwidth and software transforming the potential.

• The future will be stimulating, but not more comfortable. We have a relatively easy job, but it requires some application. We just have to be there promptly for all the different established and emerging customers, be there with the right pictures easily accessible at the right price. That’s so much better than being in a shrinking or uncompetitive market. These are the good times… or could be for everybody in this room.

Thank you.