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The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer. You're invited to help describe the photographs you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding tags or leaving comments.*

"Corentin Wauters: Gamma is one of the most famous photojournalism agencies. Some even call it legendary. How important has it been for photojournalism? Michiel Munneke: I think Gamma - but also others like Magnum, for instance - played an extremely important role from early years on, especially in documenting crucial news events around the world. It's important to realise that in those days you had magazines like Life and the Picture Post who very generously allocated tens of pages to events like the war in Vietnam, for example. Those publications and photographs made a huge impact on their readerships. I think it's fair to say that the founders of Gamma, like Raymond Depardon - although he moved to Magnum at the end of the '70s - and Gilles Corron, who died in 1970 in Cambodia, can be classified as legendary. They played a very important role in news documenting in those years. Raymond Depardon said that in 1966 you only had to travel far away and take three shots to get published in magazines Paris Match or Le Nouvel Observateur. How has the profession of photojournalism changed since Gamma was founded? If Depardon was saying that competition for space in publications like Paris Match or Le Nouvel Observateur is stronger, then he's absolutely right. Competition is far more severe. Circulations are going down, advertising revenues are shrinking, and consequently budgets for journalism and for photography are being cut. image Nowadays its very rare that publications send photographers for assignments overseas. Take a renowned magazine like Time. They still have photographers on staff but they very rarely get assignments to go overseas. It's a sign of the times. Gamma, but also other big photojournalism agencies like Sipa, were founded in Paris. The city had a big name as a centre for photojournalism. To what extent is that true today? I think for those years it was really true. But now, in the era of globalisation and digitisation, it doesnâ

"Increasingly music is finding its way into online multimedia journalism, and with good reason. A well chosen soundtrack can pull your viewers deep into your story, keep them hooked and make an emotional point. Music is, and let's be honest about this, a way of manipulating how your audience feel. There are those purists who are against that, who argue the story should be strong enough not to need to tell your viewer how to feel. Whichever camp you lie in, one thing is for sure: if you use music in any piece of online video journalism or digital story it must be legal. There is no excuse for getting your client or your newsroom shouldered with an expensive bill just because that bit of Arcade Fire fitted perfectly with the film. The good news is there are plenty of resources out there for free, or cheap, music. Most, but not all, operate under the Creative Commons Licence, which lets you use music on certain conditions."

"Courts have long ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of citizens to take photographs in public places. Even after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement agencies have reiterated that right in official policies. But in practice, those rules don't always filter down to police officers and security guards who continue to restrict photographers, often citing authority they don't have. Almost nine years after the terrorist attacks, which ratcheted up security at government properties and transportation hubs, anyone photographing federal buildings, bridges, trains or airports runs the risk of being seen as a potential terrorist. (Can an entire downtown be declared a no-photo zone?) Reliable statistics on detentions and arrests of photographers are hard to come by, but photographers, their advocates and even police agree that confrontations still occur frequently. Photographers had run-ins with police before the 2001 attacks, but constitutional lawyers say the combination of heightened security concerns and the spread of digital cameras has made such incidents more common. "

"Lessons from Perpignan: What We Learned at Video Camp For most of July we taught a videojournalism workshop in Perpignan, France, for eighteen American students. It was part of a study-abroad program co-sponsored by the Institute for Education in International Media (ieiMedia) and San Francisco State University. Here are a few tips we can pass along, based on common student errors and problems we encountered. "

Photo Tampering Throughout History\n\nPhotography lost its innocence many years ago. In as early as the 1860s, photographs were already being manipulated, only a few decades after Niepce created the first photograph in 1814. With the advent of high-resolution digital cameras, powerful personal computers and sophisticated photo-editing software, the manipulation of digital images is becoming more common. Here, I have collected some examples of tampering throughout history.\n\nTo help contend with the implications of this tampering, we have developed a series of tools for detecting traces of tampering in digital images (contact me at Ma'at Consulting for more information about our services).

Networking promotes archival interest, says satisfied National Media Museum The National Media Museum has praised its collaboration with Flickr, which saw the UK institution make some of its photographic collections freely available online. Initially launched by the US Library of Congress and Flickr in January 2008, the project, dubbed The Commons, aims to give the public easier access to thousands of archived photographs while helping the library categorise them through Flickr's photo- tagging system, in effect harnessing the power of social networks.

December 14, 2008 On the Road Robert Frank discusses his book, "The Americans," with Philip Gefter. The book is an intimate visual chronicle of common people in ordinary situations drawn from several trips he made through his adopted country in the mid-1950s.

Improving a bad contract It is all too common for a publisher to ask you to sign a work agreement that cancels your rights while imposing new obligations on you. But you can protect yourself. First, learn to recognize bad contract terms. Second, be ready to propose fairer terms. Below, we present an example of an extremely bad contract - one that is actually being used by a New York publisher - along with a point-by-point explanation of what's wrong and what would make it better.

The first installation of related video and photographic works by Joel Meyerowitz will premiere at Edwynn Houk Gallery from 21 February through 12 April. The genesis of "The Elements: Air/Water, Part 1" was sparked in July 2007, when Joel Meyerowitz was directing a video of Olympic divers from an underwater viewing room at a Florida pool. The repetition of dives had one thing in common; with every entry into the pool, an enormous plume of bubbles encased the diver. As each diver swam away, the bubbles coalesced into a cloud that rose to the surface and returned to the atmosphere. This small observation, about one Element's transition into another, led him to think about the individual qualities of the four Elements and their physical relationships. Meyerowitz responded immediately by beginning a study of the Elements and making a commitment to observe what these essential facts of life would look like in video and photographs.

The Raw File was created to produce and distribute socially reflective media that will provoke discussion. It is our hope that these conversations will intersect the lines of race and class, private and professional. Our content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License so that anyone may download, copy, exhibit, and distribute it for non-profit, educational purposes. We simply ask you to attribute this work to "www.therawfile.org". The Raw File has no agenda other than to provide a neutral and approachable environment for the documentation and dissemination of information by and about individuals and their communities, an outlet for stories that would otherwise go unheard into history. The Raw File is self-funded and in the process of being registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit . The Raw File… Founded by Brenda Ann Kenneally.

"January 12 marked the anniversary of the devastating earthquake that shook Haiti last year, killing more than 230,000 people and leaving several million inhabitants of the small island nation homeless. Though natural disasters are common, the humanitarian response this time was different: New media and communications technologies were used in unprecedented ways to aid the recovery effort. A report recently released by Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities, with support from Internews and funding from the Knight Foundation, takes a critical look at the role of communications in the crisis and recommends ways to improve the effectiveness of utilizing media in future disaster relief efforts. (The Knight Foundation is a major funder for MediaShift and its sister site MediaShift Idea Lab.)"

Welcome to OPF! We established OPF May 2006 as an open forum for professional and enthusiast photographers worldwide. You will find the latest discussions on technology, creativity, function and other issues related to photography. Furthermore, these threads are moderated and reviewed by expert photographers. We are a true community of photographers with real names and common interests and experience. OPF is a community of thinkers and doers, dedicated to the working Professional and the creative mind.

Photographic truth and manipulation February 23rd, 2009 We know photographs can be false yet we want them to be true. Indeed, the desire for photographic veracity has persisted, perhaps even intensified, even as knowledge about image manipulation becomes more widespread. Reflecting on the Oscar ceremonies, MediaGuardian has documented the widespread use of Photoshop to enhance celebrity photographs in fashion and gossip magazines. Every cover, says one media insider, has been altered to some degree, with some of these changes exposed in the "Photoshop Hall of Shame" and "Photoshop Disasters". So common is the practice that when an October 2008 Newsweek cover of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin was not airbrushed, conservative anchors on Fox television complained that this amounted to liberal bias. (Fox knew about the political power of such changes because it had earlier manipulated the photos of two New York Times journalists it wanted to discredit).

The window of a Humvee rolling through Baghdad's dangerous streets is essentially a television, watched in the dark. The glass is dirty and three inches thick: everything has a hazy and muted look, like a rerun of an old seventies movie. Humvees are dim inside even on sunny days; you can see out, but Iraqis can't see in, any more than a sitcom character can see us when we watch. Even the proportions are right: the older Humvee windows have the squarish shape of an old-fashioned picture tube; the latest armor kits feature wider, more horizontal windows, like the letterbox of plasma screens. And these screens show, for the American soldier-viewers, the day-to-day life of seven million souls: Iraqi children walking to school, men lounging in chairs outside of businesses, a food seller grilling meats. Women swathed in black abayas (so rare before the invasion and so common today) shuffling through the streets. Tall concrete blast walls, everywhere.

"Recent events in the world have again raised the issue of citizen journalism, especially for recording events in the "global war on terror". The events in Mumbai, India, have demonstrated that citizen journalism is now an established way to relate events, such as acts of terror, to the mainstream media-consuming public. This is certainly not the first time that citizen journalists have recorded an act of terrorism. It is unlikely to be the last time. When discussing an issue like citizen journalism, initial clarifications need to be made. The first question that comes to mind: What is citizen journalism? This needs to be broached before anything else in order to bring clarity of understanding and to ensure readers have a common understanding about this key element. There are some who object to the use of the term 'citizen journalist', dismissing it as inadequate in correctly describing what is really happening. "

Tips and Tricks for the 5D MKII - PART II - Audio Monday December 08th 2008, 2:10 am Filed under: Articles, Hardware One of the most common questions that I get relates to audio and the Canon 5D MKII. My first recommendation is always to record your audio independently - i.e. with a separate device. This gives you much greater freedom with your edit when you have a continuous sound recording - and are now free to cut between shots even if they weren't sequential. If you want to shoot stills and video - an independent audio recording device allows you to cut between stills and video - shot with the same camera.