Case Study- Trevillion Images: Sharon-Terese Horlor, Marketing and Business Director
What is the background of Trevillion Images? How did it start?
The owner and founder of Trevillion Images, Michael Trevillion, is essentially a landscape photographer who has always loved black & white photography. He developed a passion for printing and is a master at this craft. Michael's sales were to book publishers, and these clients started to ask him whether he had any images in his archive which they could use instead of commissioning him. At first Michael sold images from his own back archive, and then from the archives of one or two photographer friends. There was obviously a gap in the market for highly atmospheric, conceptual images, and so, in 1996, he launched Trevillion Images.
Who are your customers nowadays?
We sell to publishers of books, posters, magazines and newspapers, as well as manufacturers of CDs, greeting cards, advertising campaigns and design projects. Trevillion is an international library, and a large percentage of our business is overseas. We sell images everywhere, from the USA to Russia, Japan, Netherlands etc.
You describe Trevillion as a fine-art picture agency. What is your definition of fine art?
Our definition of fine art is a picture that would be strong enough to be sold in a gallery as a print for wall art. However, we only sell commercial licences to our ‘fine-art' images, and do not get involved in individual print sales.
Our aim is to continue to have a worldwide reputation for top quality art images. This means that we must continue to refuse work which is not in the style on which we have built our unique brand and success.
What kind of agreements do you offer to photographers?
All our images are rights-managed, and we license most of them on an exclusive basis. We belong to BAPLA and our photographer's contract is based on the standard one in the UK. Our photographers receive 50 per cent of the net sales revenue.
How should a Pro reader go about submitting to Trevillion?
Our full submission guidelines are on our website. We prefer digital images (high-quality scans or digital capture) on a disc, which nearly all photographers can do now. On rare occasions we will scan 10x8 prints for photographers, and currently we do not charge for this. We do not have a minimum number of images for an initial submission. But, as with all libraries, success to an extent is a numbers game, and photographers who regularly send us fresh new work can expect regular sales.
What kind of images do well with Trevillion?
Good images for us are timeless, atmospheric and have a narrative quality. Timeless images are future proof. Ideally you should be able to look at a Trevillion picture and not really know when or where it was taken. We tell our photographers that if people are involved, that they should try and avoid personal items which would place and date them, as well as contemporary architecture or street signs etc.
Our images cover all kinds of subject matter, but they have a specific style. They really tell stories. This is what we keep in mind when selecting images. It is not simply a matter of technical quality or even composition. And simple images with minimum manipulation and Photoshop do best with our clients.
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