I do appreciate any flash of genius in the vast, dark universe of image licensing, and last week there was one, in the form of the following quote from the Dan Heller blog (via Andy Goetze), on the second largest picture agency, Corbis (privately owned by Bill Gates): “[…] Corbis say their main asset is their vast number of images. This makes as much sense as selling snow to an Eskimo […] Folks, it’s snowing in PhotoLand, and those of you who sell snow need another way to put it to use.” The question raised in that entry, whether Corbis is currently profitable after almost two decades of continual losses, is indeed worth asking. It reminds me of an encounter with a Corbis employee several years ago who, after she had finally finished a mundane task in an incredibly erratic and inefficient way, justified her approach with this great line: “Don’t worry, Bill Gates’ wallet is big enough for that.” She said it with such casual confidence as if everybody in the company was using the line at least ten times a day…
Drawings, Photographs, Papers, and Notes From Nowhere