Interview with Pictarine CEO Guillaume Martin

Guillaume Martin CEO of photosharing site Pictarine took the time to share some thoughts on the future of photosharing and photography.

Photosharing is something quite common to us now but not so just a few years back.

Guillaume Martin gives us a pulse of the industry and perhaps as photographers and afficionados we can leverage photo-sharing to enjoy, share and expand our passion.

TNTD: What do you see as basic truth and reality in the picture sharing world these days?

Any trends or shifts?

Guilaume Martin : Photo-sharing is now a mature market.

What is interesting is that traditional photo albums are now co-existing with photo streams (Facebook / Instagram and others).

The question today is how to deal with these 2 sources.

Editing photos in one-click (such as Instagram's filters) is another emerging trend. I'm really wondering if it is the beginning of something big or a two-year trend that just makes photo-sharing more fun.

TNTD: Some more fine traditional art curators / directors seems to think there is a reversion to traditional photography because the swing to electronic sharing is so strong.

Do you see a trend back to prints / poloroids, etc. ?

Guillaume Martin: It reminds me of how some people prefer to listen to vinyl records instead of MP3: the touch, feel and sound is quite different!

But for most people, the convenience of digital files is just too good.

For photos, I think it's the same story.

The feeling when handing a polaroid to friend is not the same as sharing a picture by email but the convenience of enjoying the photos on the go on an iPad or a mobile phone or any connected display is just too good. Not to mention that it is a lot cheaper.

Still, it's interesting to see how traditional photography has inspired new services like Instagram and that Lomography camera has a growing and active community!

TNTD : How can companies? Groups? Organizations leverage photo sharing to gain more customer stickness or establish relationships with them?

Is there a place for corporation in the photo-sharing world?

Guillaume Martin: Clearly photo is now highly social. People take more and more photos daily and it can be easy to find out from a stream of photos what the photographer enjoy the most in his/her life. This is a huge opportunity for corporation. They can use informations from those photo stream to know better there customer or potential customer and engage better with them. I think Facebook fan pages will have their equivalent in the photo-sharing world very soon.

Now, there are new startups like Onefeat which allow you to share your photos through a game.

This is an awesome way for corporates to promote their brand and interact with their fans.

TNTD: Do you think in the start-up world, there will ever be a next flickr? Or will there be pockets of strong photo-sharing sites?

Guillaume Martin : Photo-sharing market is now dominated by a few well-established actors, Facebook being the first one.

I don't see how new actors will find a place in the coming years.

On the other side, it seems like a new mobile photo-sharing app is launching every day, but this market is now really crowded. So people are using several services to interact with their different communities and they don't care to have different services.

What they are looking for today are tools to help them deal with all these services and photos.

So yes, I think we will live a long time with pockets of strong photo-sharing sites, but services on top of these will be the next big thing.

TNTD : What are the key trends in photography and what do we have to watch out for in the next 5 years?

Guillaume Martin : At Pictarine, we receive a lot of feedback from our community and we know that what people are looking for today is organization: they have too many photos spread over too many devices and photo-services: their computer, their mobile, their iPad, their Facebook, their Instagram, their Flickr...

People want to see photos of their last week-end, photos of their son, recent photos of their friends right now. And automatic photo tagging is at the center of this: tagging your photos manually is tedious and image recognition is still not mature, so for me automatic photo tagging and photo organization will be one of the major key trend.

An other interesting development in the photo field is the new Lytro camera. It is really interesting to see a real innovation in a camera sensor. That innovation blur the line between the hardware and the software by allowing to change the focused subject in a picture later on a computer and I will definitely keep an eye it.

TNTD : Can fine art photography and amateur photography converge in the open world of picture sharing?

Definitively. On many photo sharing websites such as Flickr, 500px or even Instagram, pictures from fine art photographer are displayed along side pictures from amateurs.

I think this is something really important for both communities because they are inspiring each other and creating better photos in the process.

Of course the website has to make sure the quality of the photos are not too different. And that's why I think websites such as 500px are doing a better job mixing both communities because of their open rating system.

As an add note to this interview.

One of the things that really resonated with me is the rate and speed of photo-sharing adoption.

From concept, execution to rapid maturity in a matter of only a few years. I think that as there are enterprenuers and innovators like Guillaume Martin and his team at Pictarine those who love photography like me will have the options, services and choices to enjoy photos even more.