For images with a desi touch: This B'luru company is building a stock photo service with an Indian focus

For the shutterbug who can’t resist taking a good image when the opportunity presents itself, there is now a way to get a wider audience for your work, not to mention remuneration. 

PhotoConcierge is a digital marketplace for photos, vectors and videos. It provides a platform for photographers and visual content creators to not only showcase their original work but also monetise it.   

Shefali Dadabhoy took to photography as a hobby around eight years ago, while she did a corporate job. But it led to a total career switch and she eventually co-founded PhotoConcierge in February.

"I wanted to do something more scaleable. I was chatting with a friend about it who put me in touch with the other co-founders of PhotoConcierge,” says Shefali.

Shefali and her co-founders hope to build the website as a go-to a platform for all images Indian and Asian. Most popular stock photography sites such as Shutterstock and Dreamstime are either based-out of the West or have content that lacks an Asian touch. 

"Content is needed everywhere today. For a blog, you need content, for a social media you need content," says Shefalii Dadabhoy.

That’ why, she has an appeal to both professional and amateur photographers. "Don't let your photographs sit in your hard disk. Let them see day light." While it is great to put pictures on social media and get likes, the right platform could help them showcase their talent along with helping them earn, Shefali says.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, PhotoConcierge’s team of 15 – Including photographers, photo editors, social media and marketing professionals – approve images after checking for copyright and ethical violations.

"Our platform encourages talent across photographers, be it professionals or amateur. Also we have a higher commission than most other similar sites. We have a dedicated team, helpline and an app to ensure a personal connect with both buyers and sellers," says Shefalii. Photographers, illustrators and videographers also have the option of setting the price for their work. 

When they started, the organisation had 200 photographers. In four months that number rose to over 1,400. "Earlier we had 90% Indian photographers and the rest were from overseas; now 20% of our contributors are from overseas.” 

The site has over 100,000 (and growing) images across 50 categories that can be bought and used for both personal and commercial use. In four months, over 200 images have been sold. "We see a mix of images being booked and some of the popular ones are photographs on travel, heritage and food," Shefali says. 

PhotoConcierge also has a custom service through which brands, companies and individual buyers can "Request" for photos by providing a sample along with specifications of budget, time frame, etc. 

"Once the team accepts the request, an email mentioning the specifications go out to all contributors. And if they have photographs meeting the buyer's requirements, they upload it on the site following which the latter can decide which one to buy,” Shefalii says.