ASMP Strategic Plan

The Core Values of the American Society of Media Photographers

The three purposes of ASMP:

• To protect and promote the interests of independent photographers whose works are primarily for publication.

   

• To maintain and promote high professional standards and ethics in photography.

   

• To cultivate friendship and mutual understanding among professional photographers.

   

Mission of ASMP:

Creating sustainable information, advocacy and communication systems designed to empower and educate professional publication photographers.

Environmental Scan:

What motivated the founding of ASMP?

In the 1940s, editorial photographers were forced to work on speculation with no credit lines and no standards for minimum fees, making professional photojournalism not viable as a career.

Where are we today?

The challenges affecting independent professional photographers today are strikingly similar to the issues that lead to the founding of ASMP. In addition, the new-media technology for the distribution and publication of photographs, the information-for-free model as well as the culture of the amateur as professional creating widely available and inexpensive stock images of a reasonable quality, are impacting the traditional income models for independent professional photographers. Publication methods have expanded from traditional printing technology to include all methods of making images available to the public.

Who are our constituents?

Our constituency is primarily independent professional photographers and secondarily assistants, students, clients, industry colleagues and associations, the legal community and the copyright user communities. We define “professional photographers” as those who create photographic imagery as part of their scope of duties in producing a creative work. This also includes those who produce motion images.

Guiding Principle:

That independent professional photographers shall receive fair and appropriate compensation for the creation of their images and should control the copyright to their images to collect the continuing income stream created by those images.

ASMP’s greatest strengths:

Our history, the diversity of our members and the wide range of specialties they represent, as well as a strong chapter and specialty group system and a knowledgeable and dedicated staff.

ASMP’s greatest challenges:

• Cultural attitudes toward intellectual property and the organized movement to weaken the strength of copyright law, which are aimed at large corporate copyright owners, also weaken the copyright status and income streams of the independent artists.

   

• New technologies and business models connected to new media and the digital distribution and publication of photography have shifted traditional business models, and these new business models are not yet creating sustainable income streams for professional photographers.

   

• Traditional media clients facing their own challenges from new media are demanding expanded rights without fair and appropriate compensation.

   

• The diversity and fierce independence of our member photographers and their susceptibility to misinformation from new media complicates our ability to reach a sense of consensus in the industry.

• Our steadfast focus on copyright can lend itself to neglecting new business models.

   

External Trends:

• Continuous changes in cultural respect for and understanding of copyright laws.

• Legislation impacted by contemporary cultural attitudes resulting in a weakening of copyright laws.

• Multinational corporations, through consolidation, largely control traditional media and the distribution of photographs.

• The culture of the amateur photographer impacts the creation and distribution of photographs through new media technology.

• The movement away from static printed photographs to moving multimedia images.

• The evolution of “publication” has made it challenging to agree on its definition of “publication photographer.”

Our Critical Issues:

• Seeking appropriate compensation for usage rights granted.

• The impact of changing intellectual property standards as they affect professional photographers and the industry as a whole.

• Artist attribution, including metadata.

• Researching the business models of the future and the impact of New Media technologies on those models.

• Lack of negotiating power with an increasingly consolidated client base.

Goals:

• Continue to lead industry advocacy for our core values at all legislative levels.

• Continue leading the way for establishing standards and best practices for our industry.

• Maintain and expand our continuing education programs, including traditional seminars and new media platforms.

• Research, establish and promote new business models for independent publication photographers, including new trends relating to copyright and licensing models.

• Maintain a strategic communication and public relations plan across all media platforms for our key constituencies.

• Develop information and advocacy systems for traditional clients and new media copyright users.

• Continue to develop sustainable leadership for the ASMP.

• Continue to grow membership in all levels of the society through outreach, especially to the emerging and student photographers.