From FAQ:
The majority of the images come from companies like the AP, Reuters and Getty Images, who license them to the Boston Globe for our use. Other photos come from public domain sources like NASA, and others from private photographers who share them with the Big Picture for one-time use.
Can I buy/reprint/re-use the photos?
Well, I'm not the one to ask, since the Boston globe rarely owns the rights to the images - we only license them, or share them. In most cases the owners of the photographs are listed in the image caption, and you should ask them for re-use permission. Our main sources are the Associated Press, Getty Images, and Reuters Pictures.
"With teenagers sending and receiving an average of 3,276 texts per month in the last quarter of 2010, according to the most recent statistics from the Nielsen Co., it's no wonder that Michael Rich, director of Children's Hospital Boston's Center on Media and Child Health, is starting to see young patients who come in exhausted by being "on call'' or semi-alert all night as they wait for their phones to vibrate or ring with a text."