The idea and topic for my thesis was born out of my own personal interest. One influencing matter was also the fact that I wanted to choose a topic which would benefit myself and my future career after graduating from Oulu University of Applied Sciences.

I’ve been familiar with imagestocks since year 2004 when I joined and enlisted in my first finnish imagestock. My thesis as well the production part of it were both my own projects. They didn’t involve any kind of an outside client. The whole work was done on behalf of myself and for myself.

My main purpose with my thesis was to find out if there is any sense in the whole business from photographer’s point of view. Is there any clear logic in making money out of your work and photographs or is it just a waste of time. I have used very little ready and set up resources as most of the text is my own writing and based on my own research and experience on the matter.

The main conclusion is that there are no easy way straight to riches. The logic in this particular area of business has crumbled down alongside the 21st century digital revolution. The same has happened to the overall appreciation of photography in general. The amount and supply of photographs has exploded which has lead to the depreciation of the concrete real value of an single image. The competition between individual photographers as well between imagestocks has tightened. Many individual facts are now encouraging and pointing towards “quantity before quality” ideology. Mass production is one of the keywords for the most successful imagestock photographers. Photography as a media in general is continuing on its breaching path through evolution.