Photoshelter announced today they are shutting down the Photoshelter Collection stock photography agency to focus on their Personal Archive product, an image-management and delivery platform that allows photographers to upload their personal archives to display work, sell prints, license images and manage client image delivery.

John Harrington at Photo Business News & Forum breaks the news:

PhotoShelter has always championed the interests of photographers – seeking to be an advocate and a true representative (that is – looking out for the best interests of those they were representing) and when it came to pass that a change in the business model (i.e. a higher percentage to PSC, or a lowering of per-image pricing to compete with Getty/et al) was the solution, PhotoShelter opted to close the Collection rather than act to diminish their service to photographers.

Photoshelter explains on their website the shutdown process and timeline, and give full details to photographers and clients what to expect throughout the shut down.

Fact is Photoshelter was just unable to create the business to pay for the Collection, which offered a 70% payout to photographers and was free for photographers to use. The Personal Archive offers a similar platform to photographers with a wider range of opportunities to explore other products and sales opportunities, but costs photographers a range from free (limited basic account) to $50 per month.

Personal Archive might indeed be a better product for Photoshelter, and it might even be better for photographers because it delivers a broader set of business opportunities for photographers outside of just stock, but it is still (another) sad day for stock photography. Photoshelter emerged as an advocate for photographers, ran active blogs showcasing photographers and created educational resources (School of Stock) and large-scale events for photographers (including the Shoot the Day! event, for which they just announced the winners a couple days ago).

It will be interesting to see where the Photoshelter photographers go: it will probably some combination of:

• Re-focus on other stock agencies (many photographers use multiple agencies anyway)
• Switch to (and therefore pay for) the Personal Archive product
• Switch to competitive agencies such as Digital Railroad, Alamy and others
• Take a new look at the micro-stock agencies like iStockphoto and Shutterstock
• Explore alternative opportunities outside of stock

I’m sure Photoshelter’s announcement and shift in business strategy will spark a lot more debate about the future of the stock photography business and on the broader business opportunities for photographers. Looking forward to the discussion…