Case Study- Science Photo Library: Maria Storey, Sales and Marketing Director
Can you give me a brief history of the SPL? When was it set up, etc?
We celebrated our 25th anniversary last year, actually. It was founded as a result of a book called World within Worlds, which was put together by Michael Martin, about specialist imaging techniques. After the book came out, a few people expressed an interest in using them. They'd never been gathered together in one place before. He said to the photographers ‘if I have requests for the images and I start supplying them on your behalf I'll give you a fee'. And that's how it started.
What is the library's coverage of subject matter? Are any particular themes hot topics at the moment?
The core of the collection has always been scientific imaging and scientific imaging techniques - microscopy, tomography, x-rays, high-speed, etc. though we have diversified over time and cover lifestyle and health issues, nature, plants, animals and environmental - which is a hot topic at the moment.
Health is always a hot topic for us, and about 50 per cent of the collection is health-related, from going to the doctor or going for a spa treatment. Environmental is always very big. We aren't a news agency, although if there is a story about MRSA or Avian Flu doing the rounds we do notice a surge in sales.
Does being an SPL contributor mean you have to have a PhD or an electron microscope?
Certainly not! The vast majority don't. Some of the scanning electron micrographs (SEM) are amongst our best-sellers, though many of the people who create these images aren't PhD scientists, they are photographers. It's complicated equipment to use; it's not just a case of sticking a subject in a box and pressing a button. Composition is still important and there are good SEMs and bad SEMs just as there are good photographs and bad photographs.
A lot of our photographers are just professionals - who are submitting to a lot of other agencies as well.
Who are your customers?
These days book publishers are amongst our biggest clients, and on the commercial side advertising agencies are sometimes after a unique image, which we can sell for tens of thousands of pounds. Designers and PR professionals that work with healthcare agencies often get in touch, looking for the more specialized healthcare-type images in our collection. They are all good customers.
How could a professional photographer go about submitting to you for the first time?
On our website, under the contact us section there are loads of details on what to do - the way that pictures should be supplied, property/model release and so on. We don't say that people should submit 500+ pictures, although if they are taking general photography we'd like to see more than two or three images. We recognise that scientists may have a couple of unique pictures of something that has never been photographed before, and in
that case we wouldn't turn down a single picture.
