It seems to me that this type of article has been published before, but I am not surprised that many parents are starting to feel that official school portraits resemble “mug shots.”

So why don’t schools innovate and hire photographers who would be willing to spice things up and do something fun/unique with the school portraits? The Wall Street Journal reports:

It can be difficult for small companies to compete for business against bigger, established players that dominate school photos, in large part because public school systems often ask the portrait companies they commission to give them a percentage of the parents’ spending on photo packages. Sometimes, schools bill “Picture Day” as a fund-raiser, alerting parents that they will benefit from money paid to the photography companies.

Companies like Lifetouch National School Studios, which photographs about 20 million students around the country each year, gives schools anywhere from 10% to 25% of parent payments. Each arrangement is individually negotiated. “There may be a commission that a school is requiring or sometimes a school calls it a fundraiser,” says Kelvin Miller, corporate vice president of Lifetouch Inc., Lifetouch National School Studio’s parent company.

Seems like this business is ripe for disruption. What say you?