Is it worth it?

(on Tibet & Alamy)



Norbu Gualtsen Rangzen (28), son of Tibetan refugee in Nepal, sustained injuries on his head, arm and back from police beatings during a peace march to mark the anniversary of the 1959 Lhasa uprising. Kathmandu, Nepal, 10. March 2008.

On Monday the Tibetans here in Kathmandu had a big demonstration, intending to march to the Chinese Embassy to deliver a letter demanding an end to the almost 60 year long Chinese occupation of their country. It was the 49 year anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising a.k.a. the Lhasa Massacre that forced the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in India. Allegedly, the Chinese government had put some pressure on the Nepalese authorities to suppress the event. They don’t want any negative publicity before the Beijing Olympics this summer, I gather. So the Nepal Police met the demonstration with force (see the above photo), but this time the Tibetans actually got within shouting distance of the Chinese Embassy.

Some background: I read somewhere that before the Chinese invasion, Tibet had about 5000 temples and monasteries. Today there’s only 2 left, the remaining 4998 having been demolished by Chinese “development aid”. Officially, Nepal recognizes China’s claim to Tibet, like many other countries. That’s realpolitik, considering China’s position in today’s world economy. Nepal still allows Tibetan refugees to cross into Nepal though, which about 2000 of them still do every year.

Later that night on BBC, some expert said he expects the last remains of Tibet to be gone within 10 years. I sometimes wonder how enlightened Tibetans view this historic development, being firm believers in the karma theory: If something bad happens to you, it’s because of the negative deeds you have performed in your past lives... Since the Tibetan exodus, the before so closed culture and religion have been forced to open up and have now actually gained worldwide popularity and support by Richard Gere, Uma Thurman’s dad and the likes. Is the whole thing some sort of divine play?

My stock photography

On another note, I just discovered last night that I’ve actually had my first 3 sales on Alamy during the last 3 months! One photo for an American school book, one photo for a British magazine and one photo yesterday that went into a large, national British newspaper with a circulation of 1 million. Cool! I quickly did the math and found out, money-wise, that it gives me a RPI of just around 1$. Less cool.

What is RPI?

Return Per Image (Per Year). This is the figure you get when you look at how much you’ve earned compared to how many photos you’ve had on sale for a year. A very useful benchmark in the stock photography business, since you can also use it to estimate your future income. Very useful.

How do you calculate your RPI?

You’ll need to know how many photos you’ve had on sale and for how long. And of course how much they’ve earned you. I’ll show you my numbers this time, so follow the example if you’re also a stock shooter and want to calculate your RPI.

number of photos uploaded		how many months available online		yearly equivalent *
10		8		6.7
278		6.5		150.6
21		4.5		7.9
122		1		10.2

* multiply the two other numbers and divide by 12 (months in a year)

TOTAL EQUIVALENT = 6.7+150.6+7.9+10.2 = 175 photos / yr

Total sales = $265

My cut (65%) = $172

My RPI = $172/175 = $0.98

$1 per photo per year is of course a ridiculous low number when you consider the time spent. I reckon roughly one hour for post-processing, upsizing, spot-checking, keywording, uploading, backing up etc. - not to mention time for research, training, the actual fieldwork, marketing and the investment in camera gear, computer and the whole setup. So is it worth it? -Not if you look at it that way, surely. But I’m also gaining valuable experience in this bizarre marketplace and so I expect to improve my RPI over time. + On long term, the photos will likely keep selling for perhaps 5 years or more. + I get “my name out there”, which has some marketing value, I suppose. + There’s always that chance that one of the photos is gonna get picked up for a global advertising campaign and fetch $10.000 or so.

Conclusion: Doing stock photography is a long term project which, in my case, has just begun. It might actually just be worth it!

Down for the count

A naga-baba* smoking a chillum on Shivaratri. Photo © by Morten Svenningsen 6. March 2008.

*If you’re not familiar with the term: a naked Hindu ascetic who have renounced the world - and the use of clothes.

The last 24 hours I’ve been through a cycle of dizziness, constipation, cramps, vomiting, diarrhea and now just headache and exhaustion. Thank God it seems to be over. It all started a few hours after I took the above photos while visiting the pilgrimage site where 178 Baba’s are smoking their fat, marihuana-stuffed chillums. And of course, nobody believes me when I say : I did NOT have a puff from the pipe!

Lately I’ve finally had some days with some more time on my hands, so I’ve started to make some improvements on my web-site. I’ve found a really cool way to make galleries, so looking forward to finishing that up.

For now though, it’s been put on hold, since Sabina’s brother is getting married. I only knew Sabina half a year before we got married and I thought that was rather quick, but this guy... He flew in from Europe Tuesday night, met the girl first time Wednesday morning, got officially engaged Thursday and they now have 2 days to organize everything, hand-deliver invitation cards to well over 100 people, organize the food and music, buy gifts, rings and all the other ceremonial paraphernalia, have tailor-made suits ordered and delivered etc. etc. Wedding takes place Sunday morning at 9.30, that apparently being an astrological optimum timing. Why the rush? Nobody gets married in the month of “Chait” (which starts next week). Everybody knows that here. That would be like celebrating Christmas in July or something.

Well, I’ve gotten used to lot’s of things here in Nepal, so this is not really anything special for me. But it does make me think a bit. Not sure what the point is, just a little illustration of that whole east-west thing, everything is so different that I’ve never been able to pin-point exactly what it is I love about living in Nepal. Chaos is such a negative word...

By the way: The Tarai shut-down is now over so we have normal supply of goods in Kathmandu again (=still shortage, just not so acute). And the traffic jams are also back!