Quick Pitch: Meet Foreground, A Holistic Customer Photography Service Company

Foreground, a dynamic marketplace empowering photo consumers and photographers, recently launched as a new umbrella entity, harnessing the power of photography with online media hub ShootProof and digital production company Collage.

As part of the development, Benzinga spoke with Foreground CEO Stephen Marshall.

What Happened: ShootProof is a global hub that allows client-based photographers to run sustainable businesses. In a move supported by leading growth equity firm PSG, ShootProof, as well as design services solution Collage, are now part of Foreground.

In a conversation with Benzinga, Marshall, who joined the company in March 2020, said the development was meant to ignite synergies between so-called category pillars.

His background in engineering firms that served the largest media companies — NBC, ABC, and ESPN, for instance — was key in his selection, the CEO told Benzinga. 

“Foreground is a holding company integrating some of the key assets around ShootProof’s brand which were built to serve photographers and help them run their businesses,” he said in a conversation about the company’s assets which, in addition to Collage, include Táve, Cole’s Classroom and Design Aglow.

In the simplest way, ShootProof drives revenue for photographers by helping them engage with their customers. Additionally, through Foreground’s other education, e-commerce, and relationship management channels, photographers can seamlessly learn, sell, and better manage their services. 

“Cameras have made it easier for people to take better photos,” the CEO said.

“It’s opened up opportunities for people to learn about photography, and we see them on that journey, going from consumer to photographer, making money — and we help them.”

Why It Really Matters: Summing it all up, Foreground is a place for photographers to hone their craft and scale their business. It’s a seamless coming together of customers and photographers over the efficient trade of media assets.

“What we’ve seen, especially during the pandemic, is that people really treasure memories,” Marshall said in reference to fostering creative expression and memorializing important moments for nearly 40 million consumers.

“This is the move toward taking what is in the digital world and putting it in the physical world, especially if it can be customized.”

Where To Next? Marshall expressed his company’s interest in scaling the consumer side of its e-commerce platform, in addition to existing photographer-focused initiatives.

“So, e-commerce platform Collage gives us the scale to be able to see what types of products consumers like, what types of products will they buy, and how do we make it easy for them to take a photo, put it on a product, and get it shipped directly to them two days later,” he explained.

“We’re putting that together with how a photographer can serve customers more than just taking their photos, but preserving the memory for them.”

One Big Takeaway: “ShootProof helps photographers spend more time doing what they love — which is photography — and less running the day-to-day business,” Marshall said.