To mark its first anniversary, on March 7, 2012, Emphas.is decided to begin producing documentary photography and journalism books. After pre-financing the production costs on the Emphas.is crowdfunding platform, Emphas.is Publishing allows photographers to publish their own reportages. Three books were quickly published: UK Uncensored by Peter Dench, which collected $17,830 in two weeks; Faded Tulips by William Daniels ($10,370 in three weeks); and Trading to Extinction by Patrick Brown ($25,820 in four weeks).
For readers unfamiliar with the site, Emphas.is is an online “crowdfunding” platform that allows users to raise money for their projects. Donors are given no royalties or rights over the product. The structure focuses on visual journalism projects proposed by information professionals. With the help of the journalism community and several major festivals, the Emphas.is launch was a resounding success. A few months after its creation, the platform had raised nearly $100,000 and financed seven photography projects, including 21st Century Communism – Laos by Tomas van Houtryve of the VII Photo agency.
Today, six people oversee the site: Karim Ben Khelifa, Tina Ahrens, Fanuel Dewever, Walter Tjantelé, Ine Dehandschutter and Gunter Boutsen. The structure provides supports to the creators of the project and keeps 15% of the amount collected. The idea came to Tina Ahrens and Karim Ben Khelifa on the night of November 1, 2009. At the time newspapers were reeling from the changing editorial landscape as sales plummeted. News agencies were also hit by the recession. The internet was continuing its extraordinary expansion and many readers were neglecting the press for more general news sites and blogs…
Read the full text of Wilfrid Estève’s article on the French version of La Lettre.
