Last Updated on 08/30/2022 by Chris Gampat
In the past week, I’ve seen a lot of photographers go over to Vero. And there are a few reasons why that’s a terrible idea. A while back, we rounded up what we think are the best communities for photographers. On that list, we had EyeEm and talked about some of our ethical issues with it. You can make money with EyeEm, but apparently photographers weren’t being paid. However, that seems to be changing.
I think anyone who blames the photographer for not being responsible with their images and copyright is kind of victim blaming. I mean, how many photographers actually register their images with the Library of Congress? And how many have a ton of other protections in place? The answer is not many. Photographers are taken advantage of often.
Here’s the updated text from our blog post.
Update August 2022
EyeEm’s parent company, TalentHouse, issued a statement found on Photo Archive News. They’re working to pay their creatives, and there’s no word on a deadline, but they’ve apparently started the payout process. This is wonderful to hear.
Though this is great news, I’m still peeved about the ethics of EyeEm’s use of AI. Said AI is used by a bunch of other companies to help photographers cull their photos. But those other companies didn’t seem to think of it as replacing editors. Still, I’m very happy that the new company is trying to make things right.