Last week, to illustrate a newspaper article about the foreclosure crisis, freelance photographer Grady Thompson went out to several of the region's hardest-hit neighborhoods to take pictures of houses with foreclosure signs on their front lawns. When he returned to the local newspaper's head office, however, he was told they weren't interested. "Turns out they had dozens of these photos from all these different photographers," he explained. "I spent hours of my time and developing costs and they weren't worth a dime."
The same stories are being heard at magazines and newspapers across the country: so many articles have run with photos of houses with foreclosed signs on their lawns that there simply isn't a market for any new ones.
Records kept by the Free Press show that at their peak in 2007, photos of foreclosed houses were being bought for fees approaching $300.00. By late 2008 they were worth only $50.00, and now the paper isn't even purchasing them at all. This has meant hard times for local photographers who had invested heavily in equipment to document the economic crisis.
"Yes it's a common problem," states editor Shannon Brown of The Free Press. "In this region in particular. I could show you our photo files - we've got dozens of these things. Then I get a a freelancer pitching a bunch of shots he's just taken of new signs going up...there's just no value in them. I see some of these being run on blogs now and then for free, but I can't understand why people keep taking them.
There's just no market. The bubble's burst."
What worries some people is that photographers will stop taking pictures of foreclosed houses. Rick Ferrelli, with Reliable Security, patrols the empty streets of Silverview Heights to ensure that the foreclosed properties aren't broken into. "But at least there's these photographers out on the lawns taking pictures of the signs. Makes the neighborhood safer. It's like what that Jane Jacobs said, you gotta have 'eyes on the street,' ya know?"
For now, Thompson says he is going to give up on taking pictures of houses until the market improves. "You know where the real money is now, is in photos of well-dressed people lining up at the unemployment office. I'm sure the newspaper will pay real money for those." He pauses as he loads his equipment into his satchel. "As long as the paper's still in business anyways."
(Photo credits: Top: Respres [flickr.com]; Bottom: Josh Warkentin)
(With apologies to The Onion...)
