By Bampia James Bundu
Sierra Leone Union of Photographers (SLUP) has frowned at a decision taken by owners of photo printing studios to increase the cost of printing by a hundred percent.
Hence, the executive of SLUP has asked all photographers across the country to down tools, effective Wednesday, April 15, although only a handful of them are presently obeying the executive order.
The union’s president, Steven Momoh, while speaking to Politico, explained that the photo lab owners took the unilateral decision to make the increment in printing prices last weekend but that no convincing reasons were given.
“We are not against the increment, but the procedure was not correct, and the reasons for the increment were not reasonable,” Momoh said.
Noting that his union had been sidelined, the SLUP president accused the studio owners of seeking to change the system without due consideration of the photographers and the challenges they were facing in the country.
For over a year, Momoh said, there had been very few activities prompted by the emergence of Ebola in Sierra Leone, adding that activities like thanksgivings, funerals, weddings, parties, conferences and school activities from which photographers made money, has been cancelled.
Momoh said they would withhold their services to the public until the proprietors decided to meet with the union for proper arrangements.
The SLUP President accused Universal and Digital Photo Printing labs, from whom they (photographers) bought all their printing materials, of “masterminding the price increment in the western area, as well as, in some part of the country. This is unacceptable,” he said.
Momoh also accused the printing labs of stockpiling the materials in order to increase prices and create unnecessary scarcity in the country.
Revealing that there were only twenty functional photo printing labs countrywide, the photographers’ president observed that their greatest challenge was with the labs in Freetown which, he said, influenced the few labs in Bo and Kenema.
“Digital Photo Lab has already increased their prizes in Freetown, Bo and Kenema,” he said.
He went on to say that the reasons given to them by the management of Digital Photo Lab was that they would be bringing five foreign experts into the country to provide technical advise in the photo printing industry.
“We have trained and qualified printers who have been working in printing labs for years so we see no reason why experts should be brought in,” the SLUP president pointed out.
Meanwhile, the manager of Digital Photo Lab, Issa Sesay, has denied all the allegations levied against them by the SLUP. He said they never made a 100% increment in printing prices as alleged by the photographers.
“We only added Le100 to the prices of 4x6 and 5x7 sized pictures and Le200 to that of 6x8 size pictures,” Sesay said.
For the last five years, he said, no increment had been made on the prices normally paid for printing pictures even though the dollar price kept fluctuating from time to time.
He said he was surprised to see that the photographers were refusing to work because of “the small increment. We will continue to talk to their union for them to understand our situation as things are very hard.”
“We only collect Le 500 for 4x6 sixe pictures whereas the photographers ask people to pay them Le 2,500, for 5x7, we ask for Le 900 they ask for Le 5000, for 6x8, we ask for Le 1,200 they ask for Le 10,000 and for passport size pictures, we ask for Le 1, 500 they ask people for Le 15, 000,” the Digital Photo lab manager explained.
He said they had to make some adjustment on the cost because “we are also doing business and we have to maximize profit.” He said they would not allow themselves to be pressured by the SLUP for every decision they took.
© Politico 16/04/15
