RooM by Pocketstock launches: A Commercial Platform For Elite Instagramers
There are plenty of platforms for selling mobile phone images, where there are few or no barriers to entry. It’s not common then, in the fast growing mobile photography world, for a company to come along with a policy that has little interest in the numbers game but a whole lot more in absolute quality.
RooM by Pocketstock, we have been told, is much more than a mobile stock photography agency that will just sell images – if they’re accepted in the first place. It’s a platform that’s being developed around promoting mobile photographers to a broadening number of clients who are looking to undertake campaigns using Instagram: any compensation is usually based on the number of followers, as well as the photographic capabilities and location of the photographer.
RooM has two accounts, Elite and Lite. Elite is invite only and even Lite membership, which is actually open to anyone, is strictly controlled by RooM’s Briefing system, where a contributor can only upload images to Briefs, as created by RooM’s Art Directors – based on what is likely to sell. Even then, any uploaded images are edited for quality and only the best get through.
Russell Glenister CEO and founder, puts it this way, “Whereas all our rivals will take just about anything, because they believe they can become a commercial Instagram, we have a more discerning approach, only taking quality imagery that we believe we can sell well, we take nothing else.” Having been in the business of selling stock images for over 25 years, he should know quite a bit about what sells.
How then do RooM researchers find the best mobile photographers? Glenister says, “We have no secret, we just work hard at researching talent – I personally have to sign off all Elite accounts and only those that are serious Street or Commercial shooters are ever put in front of me. Currently we have around 100 on our list of invitees and that’s out of over 130,000 mobile photographers we have looked at, so you might say, we are a bit selective.”
One of TheAppWhisperer.com’s Columnists Richard “koci” Hernandez, Emmy award winning photographer, was the first to be invited onto RooM as an Elite member, Koci said, “I’m very excited by the approach of RooM, after all there are some exceptional shooters out there, so there is no need to dilute any offering?” He added, “Why would any client want to look through many thousands of images of questionable quality? At RooM the editing is done for them; the way it should be.”
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
