Life cycle of a stock photo part 2

This post looks at the advantages and disadvantages of taking a ‘conceptual’ stock photo rather than a ‘typical’ or ‘real-life’ stock photo.

It’s a continuation of my previous post  ‘life cycle of a stock photo‘ in which I published a photograph of a dollar bill stuck with surgical tape to represent the world financial crisis.
A typical real-life stock photo of the financial crisis is a photograph of a stockbroker or share dealer looking at a computer screen which displays a graph or lines of figures which are declining.
The problem with a typical stock photo is, it’s typical – there are probably thousands more photographs like it out there.
Because of this, there is more competition for your photograph of a share dealer looking at a computer screen (assuming that you took one); there is less likelihood of it being used by a stock photography agency.
At least, this was my reasoning when I created my photo.
Another part of my reasoning was, surely it’s more satisfying to create a kind of image that as far as I’m aware hasn’t been created before.
So really, my photograph is a concept, it’s how I conceived the financial crisis, rather than a real life photograph of the financial crisis, as represented by a share dealer looking at a computer screen .
This kind of stock photography, which portrays a concept rather than a real-life situation, is often called ‘conceptual stock photography,’ although definitions of ‘conceptual’ sometimes vary.
The intriguing question is, which kind of photograph is more likely to sell – the real life stock photo or the conceptual stock photo?
It might be worthwhile researching this, or at least trying to research it, maybe by asking other stock photographers on the various photography forums.
I have an opinion about it, but it’s always preferable to get several opinions.
Whatever the general verdict might be, even if your conceptual stock photo doesn’t sell, at least you will have the satisfaction of having created something that is unique, that is an expression of yourself.
This post is continued in life cycle of a stock photo part 3