New Images
“I’ve always been in love with the image.”
That quote says it all when describing Jerry Tavin and his new imaging venture called IC Worldwide (www.icworldwide.com), which stands for International Collections Worldwide.
Jerry Tavin is the guru of the stock photo industry. Recently The American Society of Picture Professionals ( www.aspp.com) named him The 2008 Picture Professional of the Year. According to Cathy Sachs, Executive Director, he has “demonstrated significant contributions to photography, has touched so many lives, and is universally beloved by his colleagues, friends and students.”
History
Jerry’s long history has seen him as a teacher, a law school graduate, business executive, and a music manager. In 1994 he and his wife, Janou Pakter, who is CEO of one of the most prestigious creative executive recruiting companies in the world and Jerry’s partner, founded nonstock, a precursor of IC Worldwide, and a high-end collection of international imagery including over 500 advertising, fashion and fine art photographers and over 40,000 images. That business was sold to PictureArts in 2004, which was later sold to Jupiter Images, now recently sold to Getty Images. This aptly reflects the never ending era of the mergers and acquisitions that the stock photo industry has been known for over the last decade. As Janou says about his current venture, “Photographers, as well as any other artists, know intuitively that Jerry is for real; they recognize his genuine feel and love for the arts, which is why they respond to him so well.”
Jerry is Vice President of IC Worldwide, which has been a collaborative venture among PhotoAlto Agency, France and Glasshouse Images, USA. The collection will be all rights managed imagery, and Jerry believes, “there is a strong market for great photography which has visual impact for clients who want to be singular in their tastes.” He says that Frederic Cirou, the owner of PhotoAlto in France, feels the same way. Frederic has, through the years been a great admirer of the content of nonstock, “It has been in our minds to do an exceptional rights managed collection for a long time.” Jerry brought in Glasshouse Images (www.glasshouseimages.com) because of their rights managed expertise and great esthetic, putting himself in the middle of a French RF and RM company and a US RM company. That offers a “happy collaboration with the European and American aesthetic offering editors from both countries, and allowing us to choose the best international images.
An Image Oasis
Jerry’s substantial contacts have brought in highly selective collections which offer artistic and commercial imagery. The idea is not to have millions of images, but to be highly selective, have an excellent website, good branding, be service oriented, and nurture photographers. That’s why we brand our site an “oasis for distinguished photographers”. “We may never go back to when RM was king, but I do feel that the marketplace for distinctive photography will never die.”
The client base will be sophisticated and the quality of the images will be the attraction. Last October 23rd was the public launch. There will be ongoing high quality
collections added to the site, along with opportunities that are collaborative for the artists, such as newsletters, blogs, galleries and focus groups with specific attention to the photographers. According to Jerry, “We are in a position to stay with it, and see it through to get the best photographers back into the RM market again.”
The images might seem international or American, but the quality gives it cache anywhere in the world. There will be the same “cross pollination of tastes” as was offered at nonstock. Mixing up the international flavor worked very nicely there. Just by going to “ic categories” on the site, the creative message is clear:
“images conceptual in essence, diverse in message, rich in possibilities”
“a selection or photography ideal for showing how the power of image paired with word can tell a story”
“images capturing voices from the past that speak in a timeless honesty to the present”
