For AU students, and students on other campuses across the country, digital photography is becoming more and more a part of life. The accessibility of digital cameras, especially camera phones, means more and more people are taking more and more pictures. As a result, the Internet has become a haven for people looking to share their photos in a variety of ways.
Haven't heard of Flickr? Now is a high time to do so. Due to the site's unique organizing and sharing features, it has quickly become an online community for photographers of varying levels of experience to come together and share their work.
"It's different from photo sites like Webshots and Photobucket in that it provides a more artistic outlet for the photo community," said Laura Schuetz, a freshman in the School of International Service who is also a Flickr user. "It's more that just a site to share your pictures."
MK McKenna, a junior in the School of Communication also works as a professional photographer.
"I actually use smugmug.com, but I just started using Flickr because I think it's a useful tool to get feedback from other photographers instead of my non-photographer friends who just tell me 'Oh, that's cool,' when I show them something," McKenna said.
Perhaps the most used feature on Flickr is the ability for users to comment on other users photos. Comments can come from Flickr users all around the world, who applaud, critique or ask questions about how the photo was made. This allows users of the site to connect with people whose work they find interesting, and to learn new techniques. The site also has a messaging feature that allows users to communicate anonymously through email.
Flickr has a number of features that allow its users to get their work out to a vast audience. Every photo can be "tagged" with searchable keywords such as "subway" or "whitehouse."
"I went to Zambia a few years ago and I used the term 'Zambia' and found some amazing photographs," McKenna said. "The same for 'Latvia' where my mother emigrated from."
Users can tag their own photos, but also the photos of other users, allowing anyone to associate a photograph with work that is stylistically similar, even if the owner of the photo doesn't initially realize it.
Tags are also beginning to serve a purpose that the creators of Flickr did not foresee. Flickr users with their own blogs or websites can use the tagging feature to display all the pictures embedded with a certain tag on the outside site. For example, photos tagged with the term, "dcist" will appear on the popular D.C. weblog, dcist.com. DCist has a large readership, and provides another outlet for photographers to get their work viewed by others.
Flickr also allows for the creation of moderated groups around a certain theme. Users can use these groups to view and discuss the similar work they are producing. The focus of these groups vastly differs. Some groups are technical ("square format") while others are social ("feminists"). "B&W," a group that focuses on black and white photography, one of the oldest groups on Flickr has a relatively broad focus, with over 2,500 members featuring almost 18,000 pictures. Matt Billings, an AU student, recently started an AU group on Flickr. It now has seven student members displaying their artwork in a way that provides new and interesting perspectives on the everyday sights at AU. Hopefully more students will soon reap the benefits of Flickr and share their own visual diaries.
