Gilbertson, Ludwig, Kickstarter.
Written by David WhiteI got an email this morning from Gerd Ludwig asking me to promote his kickstarter project around the legacy of Chernobyl. And I will, because Gerd has listened to his critics, which included me: (link). I mainly wanted to know more details about the project, a better breakdown of costs, a few other things. Gerd has provided a lot more details, links, context and background on his kickstarter page. He’s putting out multilingual press kits. He’s upped his game.
That is great news. I still think there are a few points to be ironed out, but that’s a bit like complaining that your 2 year old can’t walk very well. This whole idea is very much in it’s infancy. It will be interesting to see how different people take different approaches. I personally wish you didn’t have to have a US bank account, otherwise I’d be writing a proposal myself.
Ashley Gilbertson is also running a campaign to extend his phenomenal ‘Bedrooms of the fallen’ work, which I don’t imagine will struggle to get donations.
I wish both Gerd and Ashley good luck in achieving their goals… I want the critique and debate to be constructive, so that this whole funding method can mature.
Discussion (7 Comments)
apparently http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ is the uk version but i don’t think it’s really taken off yet
Good dialogue from the photographer. He needs to publish an audit of his costs. That should be the minimum requirement if you ask the public to take the financial risk of a project. Audited breakdown verified by an accountant of his $50,000 cost because if you see what he is wanting to give out, he has to show how he intends to get there. If you are going to say your name is going to be on a list of sponsors, then I would have thought that the list of interested galleries would enable donators to assess in more detail.
I really hope Emphas.is understand the need to provide a comprehensive set of audited costs and a pre-constructed distribution infrastructure. Employ a team to build a bespoke business plan per project. I hope the people in Empas.is are brave to work with big name agencies in order to get them to fit into your demands for what is a successful sustainable Kickstarter model with the potential to expand, not just feed the establishment to keep them alive.
What worries me is the absoluteness of their conviction when they start making statements like “If our audience doesn’t come, then that will mean that editors were right, and interest in photography is waning.” (Karim Ben Khelifa in the BJP article http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/feature/1936101/crowd-funding-little-help-friends). That is like saying that if they fail, the problem is in the medium because our editors are the best in the business and the presumption is that they must be right.
Kickstarter has at the very least provided a powerful feedback mechanism to counter the curatorial and editorial ideology where academic qualitative judgements dominate without due consideration to audience engagement. That model feeds the ego of the editorial community in control of the industry that I have long since argued is one of the central problems.
Their idea of what the public want to see has proven to be very out of touch and a better structure needs to be developed to promote creativity from below instead of work being filtered from editors and curators sitting from above.
Look at Kickstarter partners the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund and how their editorial board has their chosen projects. They have chosen an emergency in China called “Substitute Teacher”. I know of many current emergencies, long term emergencies or possible emerging emergencies but the lack of substitute teachers is pretty low on the list that includes institutional political reform, human rights, feeding the rural population, urban migration, environmental problems from industrialisation, the currency peg with the dollar, the Hokou system, religious tension on the western regions, unemployment in the pearl river delta, corruption, welfare provision… that is what happens when you get visual people making judgements on these sorts of things.
I would love the Kickstarter and the Magnum Foundation partnership to succeed as they obviously want to do some good and have brought investment into the industry but I am not sure it will be sustainable unless they show they can react and evolve.
I am noticing a very interesting dynamic… fellow producers support and the public scrutinise. I can only assume that as the crowd funding scene matures, it either responds and changes or it reduces itself to a mechanism where only photographers support other photographers.
Kickstarter is great because it will force the industry to change or die. I want it to change and I would love to see the imposition of new ideas and greater rigour before this whole crowd sourcing loveliness turns only into the piggy backing on the crowd funding idea developed by others.
I love Kickstarter but I would certainly work harder at getting the right formula for sustained success!
‘Audited by an accountant’
Great … so we have to pay for that too?
Nah, accountants work for love.
(was that constructive enough?)
Magic, thanks, And in less than 1000 words 😉
This is an excellent article http://verbal.co.za/2011/01/ideas-for-crowd-funding/ and essential reading for the great and the good in photojournalism. Lesson 1 on Economics 101 as they say…
“Why should anyone give me money?”- I love the bottom line and in more ways than just financial!!!
(sorry David… this is more than 1000 words long but it is not mine! 😮 )