Statistics of Photoforum - 2006
Today the Russian photographic market is one of the most promising in Europe, its leading players have a strong aim to promote new digital technologies. That was demonstrated by the sixth international exhibition PHOTOFORUM-2006 which took place through 13-16 April in IEC “Crocus Expo”.
This year the exhibition surprised everybody with its size and level moving from CEC “Sokolniki” to Crocus Expo exhibition center. 30 000 sq.m. of this modern exhibition space were occupied for demonstration of revolutionary solutions of the photographic industry. As representatives of the leading brand-manufacturers noted during the Opening Ceremony of PHOTOFORUM-2006 the considerable exhibition growth is the reflection of the photographic market development on the whole: every year the photographic industry brings more and more new technological products and solutions.
Exhibitors
This year over 300 companies showed their advanced technologies at the exhibition. Among the companies: Canon, Sony, Kodak, Panasonic, Konica Minolta, Nikon, Samsung Electronics, Fujifilm, Olympus, Pentax, Samsung Corporation, Noritsu, Epson, Casio, Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi Electric, Rekam, the largest Russian trade companies and also the leading manufacturers of mobile phones with photo camera.
Visitors
With rapid development of the photo technologies in Russia the number of exhibition visitors grows accordingly. This year their number made 75 300 persons, among which 33 400 – specialists. PHOTOFORUM unites amateurs as well as professionals: photographers, owners of photo and video stores, photo service-centers, specialists of photographic companies, representatives of advertising agencies, printing companies, designers and many others.
Visitors’ business activity
Services - 24,4%
Retail sale - 21,4%
Wholesale - 18,2%
Professional photographer - 12,9%
Manufacturing company - 8,5%
Advertising agency - 5,9%
Mass media - 3,1%
Museum/archive - 1,1%
Others - 4,5%
Categories
Photographic equipment - 37,8%
Design - 13,7%
Video equipment - 13%
Computer equipment - 12,2%
Printing - 10,9%
Others - 12,4%
Visitors’ geography
Russia – 57%
Moscow – 35%
CIS – 6%
Foreign countries - 2%
CIS visitors’ geography
Ukraine – 44%
Belarus – 29%
Central Asia countries and Caucasus - 17%
Baltic States - 6%
Moldova - 4%
Symbiosis of technologies and art
This year PHOTOFORUM united in a very harmonic way photo art and photo industry, showing not only the latest achievements of the photographic equipment but also true master-pieces of the photo art that were created by this equipment. For the first time within PHOTOFORM the PhotoGallery “WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY STARS” was held. This art project brought some special bohemian atmosphere changing the status of the exhibition as a mere technological event. The world photography stars, such as Douglas Kirkland (USA), Steve Bloom (UK) and International association of fashion photographers firstVIEW came to Moscow for exhibiting their unique works. Now these art expositions will become a traditional part of PHOTOFORUM: every year the exhibitions of the world and Russian photographers will be held within the PhotoGallery.
From shows to practice
Traditionally PHOTOFORUM visitors were able to improve their skills in photography attending master-classes of the famous professional photographers and experts. This year the skills were shared by such professionals as Luis Castaneda – popular landscape photographer, Steve Bloom – legendary wildlife photographer, Douglas Kirkland – world-known portrait photographer and also Deke McClelland and Dan Margulis – popular experts on image processing.
Mobile Imaging Show
PHOTOFORUM organizers paid special attention to promoting of mobile equipment with photo cameras. Today mobile phones with photo cameras are extremely popular. Due to the experts’ forecasts the interest will continue to grow, that’s why most of manufacturers stake on this trend particularly.
MOBILE IMAGING SHOW was held within PHOTOFORUM, the event was devoted to modern technological solutions for mobile phones with photo cameras. For the first time a separate stand with such mobile phones was represented by SAMSUNG Electronics. Visitors of Mobile Imaging became participants of a thrilling show – models on the stage were being shot by a famous Russian photographer who was making a photo session online with a Samsung camera-phone. The images quality could be seen on plasma screens.
Round-table discussion
One of the key events of PHOTOFORUM-2006 was the round-table discussion devoted to today issues of photo business and that gathered the leading players of the market together – they were representatives of such companies as: CANON, CASIO, EPSON, Hewlett-Packard, KODAK, KONICA MINOLTA, NIKON, REKAM, ĐĹČÍÂĹŃŇ-ŃĹĐÂČŃ, Sava Digital, Techsoyuz. Special participants of the round table were a representative of GFK company and Deke McClelland – number one expert in the world on image processing. Together with representatives of the leading mass media there were discussed such questions as: perspectives of the photo industry in Russia; further development of camera-phones; new technological ways of attracting consumers at the moment when the megapixel race is almost over; part of SLR cameras; development of the photo printing market.
Covering these and other issues the round table participants underlined that the Russian photographic market stays one of the most promising in Europe and its further development is aimed to become most attractive for consumer in “price-quality” relation and to be exact: a consumer gets more features for less money.
During the discussion it was noted that today the development of the Russian market is influenced by the growth of SLR cameras sales. Therefore the sales increase of SLR cameras on the whole made 158% in comparison with 2004, the model range increased considerably as well. The tendency of the rapid development of the semi-professional segment will be much stronger in future. What concerns the professional market in Russia due to the opinion of the round table participants it is in the process of developing if compared with the western markets but it has great potential. One of the trends that may influence its future development is growing demand on photography as a part of the interior decoration.
Discussing the subject of the amateur photo market in Russia the speakers noted that one can see dynamic growth of the industry in all its segments and the Russian market is far from saturation. Today it almost reached the European level and for foreign investors it’s as attractive as other markets of Europe.
“Product of the Year” Award
On 14 April the official ceremony of the “Product of the Year” Award was held. The award was aimed to bring out the best products and help consumers to make their choice among a wide range of photo and video market. The award jury consisted of representatives of the leading Russian magazines and newspaper, among which: “Digital Camera Photo&Video”, “Digital Photo”, “Mobile News”, “PL: Podvodnaya Ldka”, “ProFOTO”, “Publish”, “Russian Digital”, “Russian Mobile”, “Stuff”, “T3”, “Best Digital Cameras”, “Potrebitel. Photo equipment and video cameras”, “Foto Business News”, “Fotodelo”.
Results
Summing it all up one can say for sure that moving to Crocus Expo let the exhibition reach a new level. Both exhibitors and visitors noted higher organization level, appreciated new technological features and modern infrastructure of the exhibition center that meets the European standards of the exhibition business. The number of PHOTOFORUM visitors increased up to 75 000 persons that is almost 20% more in comparison with the previous year.
