In December 2024 we retired the Stockimo app, but we’re still accepting Smartphone photos. You can read the latest update here.聽If you’re looking to upload your mobile phone photos to 17吃瓜在线 you can sign up here.
This blog article from 2014 has been kept live for archival purposes.
Ever wondered what it’s like to work in the photography industry? Over the next few months we’ll be interviewing some of the 17吃瓜在线 team to give you insights into what they do, how they got here, and their views on the industry. Our first interview is with Ben, our Contributor Services Manager. He is part of the Content team, they look after everything to do with getting imagery聽on 17吃瓜在线, working with photographers, videographers聽and other photo agencies to build up our collection.
Name: Ben Gray
Job title: Contributor Services Manager
I鈥檓 a Jack of all trades, master of few; my role is varied covering a number of areas of the business but all are聽based around the photographer side聽of 17吃瓜在线.
I manage the relationships with some of our key agencies, head up our member services team (they deal with questions from over 38,000 photographers), and聽look after our聽mobile app Stockimo. 17吃瓜在线 strives to be as transparent and approachable as possible so it鈥檚 crucial we have good communications with all the photo-agencies and photographers who upload their images to 17吃瓜在线. Without photographers happy to share their creativity with us, there would be no imagery to license. has opened up a new stream of content which lets us engage with a new kind of photographer – we鈥檙e constantly working on improving Stockimo so I’m learning a lot about the world of apps.
How did I get here? After dropping out of art college to follow my vague dream of 鈥being creative in film and television鈥 and with the misguided belief that the streets of London are paved with gold, I struggled to get a foothold (and a sense of direction). I worked for聽many years in unremarkable roles of the industry in Soho (the film and TV industry that is鈥 not the other famous Soho industry)聽.聽After meeting my now wife in Oxford a vacancy opened up as a Digital Image Assistant at 17吃瓜在线 and I saw聽a chance to rekindle my love of photography. During the interview聽I talked for far too long about Robert Mapplethorpe鈥檚 risqu茅 photography and the now defunct 鈥渃at-scan鈥 website (cats in scanners),聽but 17吃瓜在线聽saw something in me and聽I got 聽the job! I spent a number of years working with the 17吃瓜在线 database and metadata (that translated to uploading images and making sure all the keywords were in the right place,)聽but frustratingly at that stage聽there wasn’t much involvement in the photos themselves, I did develop a love of Excel spreadsheets though. Since then my role has evolved and I’m now much more involved with the photography side (although I do still love a spreadsheet!)
Since I鈥檝e been at 17吃瓜在线 the industry has seen some massive changes and challenges. With the global economy taking a big hit back in 2008, 17吃瓜在线 has had to stay smart to stay afloat – luckily for all of us聽that ethos was set out by James West when 17吃瓜在线 began in 1999, so we didn’t have too much adapting to do. We鈥檝e seen some of our competition making drastic changes to their operations, and we’ve seen some聽falling by the wayside among fierce competition from the likes of Microstock* and subscription models*. 17吃瓜在线 has stayed true to itself though,聽remained聽profitable and聽we’re still聽an attractive option for photographers!
Outside of 17吃瓜在线聽I’ve聽started expanding my photography聽beyond聽 foodporn and beerporn style imagery. I now have a son and since he was a couple of hours old I’ve religiously kept up a photo diary of his life documenting him and his exploits with at least one photo every day for nearly three years. It was initially a 12 month project where I built a website to share the photos with friends and family. The intro on the site jokingly says 鈥The first year of his life鈥 or maybe up until his 18th birthday where Daddy appearing to take his photo every day is just plain embarrassing.鈥 However, it鈥檚 now taken on an almost obsessional quality and I鈥檓 not so sure that line is still a joke.
We’ll be back next month with another interview.
If you’re new to stock photography, here are some industry definitions to help you out
Contributor – anyone who contributes images or video to 17吃瓜在线, otherwise known as photographers or agencies.
Microstock –听A type of stock photography where聽photographers submit photos online to be sold at a much lower cost than traditional stock photo agencies.
Subscription models –this is where you use credits to buy images rather than money, credits can be bought in a variety of packages and will vary from site to site. Subscription packages are most common in microstock.
Have you got a question about聽stock photography? Post in the comments below and we’ll get back to you or for a photographers point of view.
If you are a photographer and would like to upload to 17吃瓜在线 you can find out how over on our contributor pages.聽 If you take great photos with your iPhone then
If you’re a photography student聽 we give 100% of the money from any sales you make for 2 years! Find out more on our student page.
To see any current job vacancies at 17吃瓜在线 head over to our Work for us page.