EVOLUTION OF STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT

In this project, I exam­ine the struc­tural evo­lu­tion of stock pho­tog­ra­phy busi­ness from the early twen­ti­eth cen­tury to the present. I give a thor­ough his­tor­i­cal analy­sis of stock photography’s evo­lu­tion and ref­er­ence spe­cific sig­nif­i­cant his­tor­i­cal pic­ture libraries, agen­cies, and today’s lead­ing cor­po­ra­tions in an attempt to more clearly tell the story of the expan­sion of this dynamic and fas­ci­nat­ing indus­try. I am par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in exam­in­ing the trans­for­ma­tion of the busi­ness with the advance­ments in dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies. This fun­da­men­tal shift had caused a rad­i­cal reor­ga­ni­za­tion stock pho­tog­ra­phy indus­try. All the aspects of stock pho­tog­ra­phy moved online. Dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies dis­rupted and accel­er­ated the busi­ness. There­fore, I refer to Clay­ton M. Christensen’s “Dis­rup­tive Inno­va­tion The­ory” to bet­ter explain this fun­da­men­tal change in the business.

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