Flickr

           

Our last project in which we told a story using Flickr was very eye opening. I have made videos that told stories before, but never have I tried telling a meaningful story in 10 photos or less. My group had an idea to do an “above the influence” type story, in which we showed a student’s typical night if he chose partying, or if he chose to go out but stay sober. The first five pictures portrayed him getting invited out by friends, then getting into a party, then getting offered and taking drugs, then throwing up, and finally waking up the next morning hung over and getting helped up by his friends.  The next five photos were meant to show what his night would have been like if he hadn’t chosen to party and take drugs, so the first few photos stayed the same, but this time when he was at the party instead of a beer he held and Gatorade and turned down drugs, then helped his vomiting friend, and waking up the next morning bright and early and not hung over, in his own bed. Using Flickr turned out to be easy, since instead of uploading pictures my previous experiences with the site had been downloading pictures off of it that I thought were cool. This project gave me an opportunity to put a piece of art out on the internet on a site where people could view it easily. Flickr was not hard to use, and I think its popularity is due to the ease with which anyone can put their work on the internet. I think Flickr’s user friendliness definitely made it easy for me and the group to put our project on the site and the layout of the site makes the photos so easy to view and experience. Our ten photos would definitely have not told their story as effectively if Flickr had not provided a place where the pictures could be shown at their best.

            The site has become so popular that literally thousands of photos are uploading every day that can be randomly discovered by refreshing the home page. Flickr provides a place where people can learn more about photography and become more than just an amateur purely by viewing other’s work and having people give these amateurs helpful tips on how they can improve. As mentioned in the article Flickr changes lives, launches Photocog careers, “The way Flickr is designed makes discovering new images and new people easy and even fun.” (Madarazo) This shows how Flickrs site layout and different aspects encourages users to view tons of different people’s work. In this way amateurs like Daniel Krieger can rise to popularity and a professional photographer skill level purely by putting their work on Flickr and having people give constructive comments. Krieger says that “He joined in January 2005 and he learned 85% of what he knows about photography from Flickr.” (Madarazo) Now you may say that learning these skills doesn’t make him a professional necessarily, but he actually became a real professional working photographer, showing how Flickr truly can change lives.

The Flickr phenomenon is even more apparent after learning that after a survey in Britain in which 2,000 UK residents were questioned, the fact was learned that 10% of Brits now include their passwords to sites like Flickr in their wills. These is amazing, since it seems like people are now placing their work on the internet and its really becoming worth something. There have always been private photography sites on the internet where professionals put their work to get their name recognized, but now Flickr provides the same possibility for recognition on a far grander scale. People putting their artistic work on the internet has never been so prevalent, or worth so much. The reason so many Brits are leaving their passwords in their wills is that they are really starting to be worth something. “It discovered that Brits have collectively somewhere in the region of $3.6 billion worth of personal videos, music, books and photos stored in the cloud.” (Survey: Ten percent of Brits include Internet passwords in will, Trevor Mogg) The ease with which me and my group for the Flickr project put our work on the web was eye opening because it made me understand how people can become professionals so easily. Through reading these articles and using Flickr myself, it became apparent that becoming a professional simply takes dedication to your craft, the right tools to put your work out to the public, and a community such as the one on Flickr who are willing to guide you on the path to becoming a working professional.