JOHN HEGARTY JOINS LENSMODERN BOARD

Legendary UK adman John Hegarty has demonstrated his support of Lensmodern, a unique on-line photolibrary, by joining its board of directors.
Throughout his award-winning career John Hegarty has been a leading proponent of imagery as the prime means of communication, but like many top creatives has tended to shun traditional photolibraries:
Says Hegarty: “Today we live in a ‘visual culture’ where the value of a powerful image is ever more important. Over the last decade, photolibraries have played an ever-increasing role in the search for outstanding images. (Sadly most libraries are about quantity not quality.)
“Lensmodern is unique. Set up by and for award-winning photographers, it pursues a policy of quality not quantity. It represents the best of the best. Many of its growing list of photographers have made available a lifetime’s work - a priceless collection of personal and public pictures that inspire the creative process.
“We live in an increasingly competitive world where any advantage to our creativity is sought after. Lensmodern helps deliver that. I do my best to avoid most stock libraries. They are dull, dreary and a waste of time. Lensmodern is exactly the opposite. It kick-starts the imagination with brilliant ideas and images. It’s somewhere you’d like to spend a lot more time - and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Hegarty, who joins the board as Non Executive Chairman, has been a supporter of Lensmodern (www.lensmodern.com) from the time of its inception and has closely observed its progress since its launch in January of last year. Lensmodern was founded by a group of award-winning photographers who had perceived the need to provide an outlet for the work of top photographers who were reluctant to join any of the monolithic libraries already in existence. By maintaining an invitation-only approach and offering photographer-friendly terms along with the ability to control usage, Lensmodern has successfully attracted contributions from many of the world’s best photographers, resulting in a unique on-line collection of exceptional, creative images, many of which have never been available before.
Speaking on behalf of Lensmodern’s board of directors about Hegarty’s involvement, Max Forsythe said: “John has been interested in Lensmodern from the start and we have benefited from his support and advice. In just a little over a year, Lensmodern has gained a presence across the world and we are sure that John’s involvement will accelerate our growth and raise our profile. We are delighted to have him on board.”

LENSMODERN
A visit to the States in the late 1990s by photographer Bob Miller provided the inspiration for the idea that was to become Lensmodern. Whilst touring the agencies there with his portfolio, he began to realise that, unlike the days when he himself was an art director and ideas were produced literally on the drawing board, modern agencies were using existing images from magazines and stock libraries to produce ‘finished advertisements’ to present to the client. It was obvious that less work was being commissioned and advertising was suffering, mainly due to the bland quality of available stock.
On his return from the States, Bob soon realised that the same thing was happening in the UK agencies, and during a conversation about the problem with a former copywriter friend, the concept of an on-line library and gallery offering stimulating and exciting images was formed.
Knowing that many top photographers were wary of existing stock outlets, Bob and his co-founders Max Forsythe and Rolph Gobits, set about creating a photolibrary for photographers who don’t like photolibraries, working with The Association of Photographers to produce approved terms & conditions and offering free shares in the company for the first 50 photographers to join. They also provided the opportunity for photographers to sell fine art prints of their images through the same site, an area which has quickly become the showpiece of the Lensmodern site.
www.lensmodern.com was finally launched in January 2006 and it has quickly gained the attention of many of the world’s top creative directors who, like John Hegarty, welcome such an easily accessible source of consistently creative imagery.