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UT Martin Develops a Superior System for Visual Storytelling

With PhotoShelter, UT Martin powers fast, secure content sharing—boosting e-commerce, video management, and campus-wide distribution.

  • ~250k assets housed in PhotoShelter
  • 400+ requests for visual assets automated per month with PhotoShelter
  • 110k+ total followers across social media channels

Crafting a clear narrative begins with better DAM tools

The University of Tennessee at Martin (UT Martin) has been a key educational institution in West Tennessee since its founding in 1900. It now serves over 7,500 students across six campuses and online. This long-standing university prides itself on a vibrant Skyhawk spirit, extensively documented through a vast collection of photos and videos. As its visual content grew, UT Martin’s existing methods for managing these assets became overwhelmed.

The challenge: Managing disorganized visual assets

Nathan Morgan, as the Assistant Director of News and Visuals, oversees UT Martin’s daily visual content operations and its distribution across numerous platforms. Nathan’s team—including photographer Arianne Boma and videographer Dylan Ingram—faced constant difficulties fulfilling asset requests due to disorganized and scattered storage.

  • Scattered assets wasted time and made work harder. Nathan’s team continuously lost valuable time trying to locate and share images  because, as Nathan explained, “everything was just living on hard drives and servers.”  Routine tasks became significant drains on productivity. Nathan said they struggled  with “being able to locate things” and “keeping things organized in one location.”
  • No self-service access slowed campus-wide needs. A critical issue was the inability for anyone outside the visuals team to find content independently. As Nathan stated, “Nobody could find their own content.”  Every photo request had to come directly through his team and be handled manually.  The process was an obvious bottleneck and only got worse as volume increased.
  • The photo sales process was outdated. Selling images was tough because the overall process was long and inconvenient. Parents or students seeking graduation shots or campus life images, and organizations looking for event highlights, all had to endure this same approach: contacting the team directly, staff finding the specific image, payments being handled by check or cash, and finally, prints being mailed out.

“For us to sell photos before PhotoShelter, somebody would have to contact us, we would find the photo, they would send us money in the form of a check or cash, and then we would send the photo to them or print it and mail it. That’s just streamlined now. If anybody wants to buy a photo, they just get on PhotoShelter and buy it – either a digital copy or a print.”

Nathan Morgan, Assistant Director of News And Visuals, University of Tennessee at Martin

The solution: Bringing visuals into focus with PhotoShelter

UT Martin’s visual content management was undeniably cumbersome and inefficient. Now, their workflows are significantly smoother and far more effective, transforming how the university handles its visual assets.

Here’s how PhotoShelter made the difference:

  • Asset requests are now fulfilled seamlessly and quickly. Locating and sharing images became effortless. Nathan highlighted this change, stating, “People have become reliant on PhotoShelter. It’s a part of my daily workflow. I’m on it every day. Our photographers are adding photos to it every day. We’re fulfilling requests every day, sending people links and photos through PhotoShelter.”
  • Real-time content distribution enhances event coverage. PhotoShelter enabled live uploads during events, significantly improving social media coordination and immediacy. “We shoot a lot of live events, and we’ll send photos live too, so our social media coordinator can pull those and post images. And that’s just been a game changer. There’s not that pressure to come back and edit photos, or send photos after an event, if you can send them live. We love that,” Nathan described.
  • Modern e-commerce experience streamlined the sales process. PhotoShelter completely changed how photos are sold, moving away from the old, inconvenient methods. Nathan Morgan explained that the process is “just streamlined now”, and users can “get on PhotoShelter and buy it” for either a digital copy or a print, without any of the previous manual steps or inconvenience.

  • Optimized video content management. Video clips are now found as easily as photos. For Nathan’s team, improved accessibility means that if there’s a request for a video, it can be easily shared. He highlighted an important use case where “Some of our student organizations, like our Greek organizations, are really interested in our video clips. They use them for recruiting videos, so they’ll come to us and we can easily share videos when they need them.”
  • The FileFlow app enabled on-the-go asset control. PhotoShelter’s FileFlow app gives Nathan remote flexibility, letting him manage assets even when not at his desk. He explained that if, for example, “I’m at home or out somewhere”  and someone needs a specific headshot, using the app means “I can go in and download it, and text it to them.”

“We’ve approached video content the same as our photography. We put selected video clips on PhotoShelter, and our social media folks can find them there. It helps our videographer be able to search for clips, too. And it’s just a way of keeping our content organized and available if somebody needs it.”

Nathan Morgan, Assistant Director of News And Visuals, University of Tennessee at Martin

UT Martin’s visuals now tell a clearer story

The campus has moved beyond scattered files and frustrating delays in fulfilling requests. Now, compelling photos and videos are effortlessly accessed and shared, empowering everyone from university departments to student groups seeking promotional content. Nathan’s team can focus on sharing compelling visuals that strengthen the UT Martin brand.

“We have a pretty good history of great photography here. PhotoShelter’s helped us be able to distribute it more efficiently and more quickly across campus. People are able to find current images and use them in their projects, slideshows, and digital displays. It just gives us the ability to take the work that we do, share it with the campus, and overall, that enhances the UTM brand.” 

Nathan Morgan, Assistant Director of News And Visuals, University of Tennessee at Martin

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