The International photojournalists’ network is looking for new members

I have sent you some info about my work and links but I would like to know more about objectives and the PJ’s involved as Miguel said.

cheers michael

A communal archive, a network of photographers, working on social issues or towards a common goal, need to be established?

How is this not an agency or collective?

Thank you,

Alex

So far we are 40 photojournalists from all over the world, from different geographical and cultural backgrounds looking for new ways in which to co-operate.

A couple of weeks ago we started discussing online, ways in which we could collaborate on projects and take advantage of communal marketing efforts.

What we hope is, to be an active community of photojournalists working collaboratively and individually to produce, fresh exciting projects that highlight social issues from a global perspective.

As for the question about if we are an agency or not, it depends on your definition, our plan at the moment is to have a space on the internet to sell our work communally, but the network itself will not be taking a cut of sales, each photographer as an individual is just taking advantage of our common effort to promote ourselves as a group and sell our work in a communal space.

There are many aspects of the network which are still under discussion, so it is difficult to give you very much information at the moment, we are still finding out what the network should become and how it should all work.

Thanks,

Greg

no…

now.

done.

To see some of my latest work, go here: http://www.thephotojournals.com/index.htm

Again, just guessing, but I think what the groups founder is proposing is a collection of individual photographers working on similar projects totally freelance based, each photographer holding the rights to the pictures they take. I dont think there is a bank role to go along with this group.

If I am wrong, please tell me.

Just my $.02

Cheers.

Mark

Thank you for your e-mails, We have been completely overrun with photographers wanting to join the network, we are going thru all the applications and there are some really good photojournalists out there.

This is just a quick note to say sorry that some of you have not herd from us yet, its just going to take a bit of time to get thru all the e-mails.

Greg

As before, count me in.

TS

I will be shooting you an email shortly with my pictures. I am interested too.

Regards…

Let me know if you have just cover mexico..
here: okinreport@gmail.com

Thanks,
Emiliano

We have almost got thew the last huge batch of applications and are about ready to receive some more, at the moment, we have about 100 members and we have just started working on some assignments, our aim is as close as possible to collaborate with photographers in every country in the world, if you are interested in joining the network and collaborating on international projects please e-mail us with with some information about yourself and your work, a link to your website or up to 10 low-rez images, attached to the e-mail.

Send your e-mail to gregbuick@hotmail.com

We now have a most regions in the world pretty well represented but we are particularly interested in talented photojournalists from Africa and Latin America.

I’m afraid that with such a huge number of members this network may become not much of a network… Lightstalkers is already a network and from a business point of view is tough to know were collaboration ends and competition starts…

Dont get me wrong, I believe that agencies and collectives are probably the only way to survive in this fading market, but my experience tells me that every member must be tunned in the same frequency, and I suspect that with hundreds of members that is virtually impossible…

If the network flourishes, is expectable that clients start demanding stories… How will this stories going to be assigned? To whom? By whom? For how much? Is the structure going to have a fee?

Cheers
alex.

Greg

“If the network flourishes, is expectable that clients start demanding stories… How will this stories going to be assigned? To whom? By whom? For how much? Is the structure going to have a fee?”

But thanks any way for the polite ansewr…

What I find really surprising is the amount of people who look really interested in something they know nothing about it.

As I said I have nothing against the network, on the contrary, I think it´s a great idea, but I’m just unsure how it could work, and I’m afraid you did nothing to convince me…

But I guess I’m the picky one here…

Cheers

alex.

Obviously I’m just asking this things because I’m interested in the concept and I keep considering applying to. I just try to consider this things seroisuly…

Also, I can see the beauty in the idea that anyone interested can join (I hate elitist attitudes), but I’m also afraid of the risks involved…

The famous quote by Groucho Marx keeps hitting me:
“I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member”.

Best

alex

The network started with a simple idea, i then invited about 40 photojournalists from around the world to join an online discussion about that idea and what it could develop into, once we had the basics more or les sorted out I then placed this post hear on lightstalkers and sins then i have received hundreds and hundreds of applications a mall number of them have been selected and invited to join the network.

At the moment, we are completely flooded with applications ( so my apologies to those of you who haven’t received an reply yet ) and as every member of the network is a full time professional photographer and we don’t have any paid staff, the start up of things is a bit slower than it might have been, if this was a purely commercial venture.

Unfortunately the quote by Groucho Marx “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member” dos not ring true hear, as the competition to get in to the network is pretty tough, but if you send us a bit more information about yourself and your work as well as some pictures we will consider your application.

with regard to your questions about internal structure of the network I think this better discussed within the privet IPN forum, until everything is worked out compleatly, but essentially this is a cooperative venture were everything is worked out threw dialog between the photographers themselves, we are all on an equal footing and are in constant discussion about the way in witch the network should develop.

I am sorry if this seems vague but the very questions you are asking are all under hot discussion, in a way at the moment the application process is to be involved in that discussion, when we receive an application we will check that your work is at a high enough standard, that you resenably well established in the industry and that we are not overrepresented in you part of the world, then if we think you are suitable for the network, you get an invitation to join the discussion group, once we have everything sorted out and we are ready to launch the network then the members can decide if it is something they want to be a part of or not.

Thanks Greg