MAP Report Live Meeting

I've just come off of a Live Meeting hosted by Getty Images London. Lewis Blackwell, GI's Senior VP of Creative Customers, took us through the findings of the recently published MAP report. The report is the result of research conducted by GI.

'One Life' is the title of this first MAP (Make A Picture) Report. A tidy reference to the common thread that runs through its findings: Visual media is moving away from depicting social groups and shared activity and towards representing individuality and a reflection of self. The report is broken down into several sections, each with it's own peculiar title: Anchorage, Guru Joe, Trickle Down Time, Solo Chic, and more. It's particularly relevant to imagery that falls into the lifestyle photography sector. I have copious notes scribbled in dodgy shorthand but I'll try to keep it succinct and summarise a few of the key points...

Anchorage & Guru Joe: The sense of place & belonging, either physical or spiritual. Concepts such as security, comfort & family are key. This is tied in with a re-affirmation of character represented by faces of character. A move away from individuals as part of a corporate 'machine' and the hero figure, to individuals we can relate to and trust. Lewis summed them up as "people we want to meet".

Mono-tasking: The opposite of multi-tasking. Doing just one thing and doing it well. Time devoted to ones self on things important to 'the self'. Simplicity, balance and control are in. Overtime, working lunches, and TV dinners out.

Solo Chic: It's now OK (cool even) to be alone. Whether as an honest-to-goodness singleton, or as one who aspires to spend more time alone. On a survey conducted by the MAP researchers 79% of those surveyed were in favour of using people alone in visuals (in China it was 91% against!).

These trends and others were summarised as "a rejection of the hyperlife": In essence a move towards the personal, the simple and the spiritual. All positive concepts that I look forward to tackling as photographer.