State Library of New South Wales

State Archives and Library of Florida

On July 20, 1969, two men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made history when they stepped off the Apollo 11 lunar module onto the surface of the moon while the command module pilot, Michael Collins, orbited above.

Why not explore the Flickr Commons and see what photographs of the moon, space travel, and the cosmos you can find? There’s lots of images to tag!

Federico Ezquerra (Spain), on the Galibier, 1934, and the same stage of the Tour in 2007. Be sure to check out the rest of the historical Tour de France photographs from the Nationaal Archief! We’d love to see more “now” photos that correspond to these same stages in the Tour, in the Flickr Commons group.

Nationaal Archief	Ruth Wytinck
THEN	NOW

Otto Sarony
Ruth St. Denis in Egypta, 1910
New York Public Library: Digital ID: DEN_0237V

view + comment on Flickr

Eugène Atget
Heurtoir – 18 Avenue Montaigne (8e arr), 1901-02
George Eastman House: 1981:0950:0033.0001

George Eastman House celebrates their first year on the Flickr Commons with a few words about their achievements on Flickr. We asked Ryan Donahue (Flickr Commons Picture Mover) and Jessica Johnston (Flickr Commons Picture Picker) this question: “If you had to pick 3 things that being on Flickr has done for GEH, what would they be?”

What the Flickr Commons has done for George Eastman House:

1. Engaging and sharing Eastman House collections with Flickr users is fun and helps fulfill our mission to tell the story of photography. What’s better than that?
2. Commons users are giving us a lot of really interesting data about our photos: thousands of tags, hundreds of comments (some insightful, some interesting and some funny).
   There is interesting work yet to be done on the data the project has gathered.
3. The Commons is exposing the museum to online communities that are new to George Eastman House. The Commons is also preparing George Eastman House for the Museum 2.0 movement that is opening new lines of communication and creating conversation between curators and the public. The Commons has fostered George Eastman House’s relationship with innovators in this movement, such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Powerhouse Museum, and the Library of Congress.

Jiu-Jitsu for Women

Outdoor urban market scene

Happy Commonsversary, George Eastman House!

And thanks to Ryan and Jessica for their own words!

GEH as transcribed by Wordle, licensed cc-by

George P. Hall & Son
View of Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1905
George Eastman House: 1977:0144:0081MP

One year ago, George Eastman House entered the Flickr Commons. We celebrate the breadth and depth of GEH’s collection in this special post.

George Eastman House is the world’s oldest photography museum. It opened to the public in 1949 in the mansion and gardens that George Eastman, the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, called home from 1905 to 1932. Eastman  is often hailed as the “father of modern photography” — and remarkably, this week also saw the 155th anniversary of Eastman’s birth … while this year marked the end of the production of Kodak’s famed Kodachrome film.

One of George Eastman House’s more popular sets of photos is that of Nickolas Muray’s images. From sleek Dodge sedans to women with kittens, Muray’s advertising portfolio has captured the hearts of Commons fans.

Nickolas Muray (set)

The second most “interesting” photograph in the GEH photosteam (right behind that of a rather iconic woman …) is of Grace Sutherland, a carte de visite — the most popular format for portrait photography in the nineteenth century.At turns whimsical, macabre, or poignant, these images are a treat.

Carte de Visites and Cabinet Cards (set)

The Eastman collection on Flickr contains gems from photographic geniuses.The most recently uploaded set contains the timeless work of Eugène Atget, who refused to work with the latest advances in photographic technology (for examples of the technology achieved in his era, check out the GEH’s set of images from William M. Vander Weyde).

Eugène Atget (set)

Personal favorites of mine in their collection are the James Jowers images from the ’60s and ’70s. This street photography is, simply put, stunning.

James Jowers (set)

This past year, George Eastman House, along with other members of the Flickr Commons, celebrated International Women’s Day with a special series of uploads (including, arguably, the most iconic image of a woman ever taken).

Women! (set)

One of GEH’s early uploads is a set from a collection of more than 10,000 glass plate negatives held at George Eastman House by Ch. Chusseau-Flaviens. Not much is known about the collection, so its importance on Flickr cannot be overstated. A rough sampling of comments on this set demonstrate the power of crowdsourcing (and that Flickreenos love these photos!)

Chusseau – Flaviens (set)

In closing, for your amusement and enjoyment, please click through any of these thumbnails to discover treats of the Eastman legacy, and congratulate the museum founded in his name for its first, fabulous year in the Commons.

Images for the Future has posted a report, Taking Pictures to the Public, from the Nationaal Archief about their involvement in the Flickr Commons pilot. Here are some of the highlights that the Archief discovered about their first six months on the Commons:

• There were 1 million+ page views, 2,000+ comments, and 6,800+ tags on 771 photos
• 74% of the photos are annotated in some way (comments, notes, tags)
• 3% of the comments received were used to update the images in their archives
• 10% of the crowdsourcing comments including links to other relevant internet sites
• Of the 6,800+ tags, about half were left in English and half in Dutch
• 2,000 Flickr users have added the Archief as a contact

The report goes into some detail about the impact of these statistics, especially on learning how to use social media (when to step in to moderate discussions and when to let it go), that particular subjects (world wars) can evoke robust discussion, and that being on the Commons also increased page views and their Google ranking for their website. However, they also note in their conclusion that Flickr should not be used in place of professional archivists and experienced volunteers, though it acts as a good adjunct, since such a small number of the comments received had information that could be fed back into their archives (tags are not yet being fed back into their system).

They do note how infrequently comments had to be moderated, and described Flickr as a self-policing community, with the Archief having removed a total of only 3 comments due to inappropriate language. These seemed to revolve around arguments between Nazi sympathizers and Russians, or anti-German comments being posted to certain war images.

You can download the report (in Dutch) here.

Welcome back to the Craft Cabin, where we play with art supplies and Flickr Commons images to make cool stuff. Today’s project: the stenciled t-shirt.  We don’t have detailed instructions here, because there’s a whole Flickr group, Freezer Paper Stencils, with a tutorials thread – pick the one that works for you.  What you’ll soon realize is that they vary in specifics, but the basic idea is this:  make a stencil on freezer paper, iron the stencil to a t-shirt, and apply paint (fabric paint or spray paint). It’s easier and quicker than it looks, and fun to do with kids — adults should obviously wield the Xacto knife, hot iron, and spray paint, but that still leaves a lot of participation opportunities for young artists.

For best results, choose an image that’s already pretty simple and high-contrast — as I did below with the portrait of Portuguese actress Beatriz Costa (from the Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian). Or just make an outline stencil of something more elaborate — this  baseball action shot would be well suited to that approach. Architectural features are also interesting to stencil. Think about the image a bit before diving in — which parts will you cut out?  Which parts will remain the color of the t-shirt?

Working with images like this — really sitting down and studying their composition, cutting and painting with them — is a great way to engage with the riches of the Flickr Commons. And when you wear a piece of the Commons, you’re inviting conversations about the photo, how you found it and why you chose it. So choose wisely, and enjoy the opportunity to share what the Commons project is all about.

Printing out the stencil onto freezer paper.

The stencil after cutting.

Ironing the stencil onto a t-shirt.

After first of several rounds of spray paint.

The big reveal peel!

Cooler than a Hannah Montana shirt, right?

All of these images are taken from a Flickr Commons group discussion topic on “Landscapes across the Commons”. Those of us who posted in that topic found that while we knew there was a lot of historical landscape photography in the Commons, it was often not tagged to make it easily searchable. If you find more, please add tags, in English and other languages you may speak, to help later users find it as well.

Hakone Lake, Japan, late 19th century, chosen by Nina.

New York Public Library

Swallow Cliff Woods area, Illinois, 1917, chosen by Nina.

Field Museum Library

Sintra, Portugal, 20th c., chosen by Penny.

Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

Loch Earn, Scotland, about 1864, chosen by Penny.

National Galleries of Scotland

Percé Rock, Quebec, 1898?, chosen by Criz.

Musée McCord Museum

Willoughby Falls, Australia, turn of the century, chosen by Criz.

Powerhouse Museum

Ryfossen, Norway, 1890?, chosen by Criz.

Swedish National Heritage Board

Diamond Lake, Oregon, 1945, chosen by Nina.

Oregon State University Archives

Castelet falls, France, circa 1900, chosen by me.

Bibliothèque de Toulouse

Your weekly introduction into the newest photographs uploaded to the Flickr Commons.

Our lead story? The George Eastman House uploads a set of Eugène Atget’s photographs just in time for their one year Commonsversary.

Atget’s unique documentation of the French capital captured the eye of surrealist photographer Man Ray, who worked to promote Atget as one of the pre-eminent photographic modernists. Later, the efforts of Berenice Abbott, who acquired Atget’s negatives and prints after his death, finally situated Atget’s work in the history of photography, where it continues to gain in stature and influence. Wow. Just. .. wow!

Eugène Atget

The State Library of Queensland, Australia, delivers yet another stunner as their Picture of the Week! Flickr user orangecats says, This pic taught me this Qantas stands for somthing … Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd.

Picture of the Week

Do you know how thick Gotham was? Find out in the fabulous set of news supplements from the Library of Congress. I enjoyed this one since it provides a look at a skyscraper of yore, long ago torn down.

Illustrated Newspaper Supplements

The Bibliothèque de Toulouse uploads charming images of a village in France. They belong to quite a few different sets; I like the Personnages et portraits set for the stories it seems to tell.

Bélesta, France

Tag! Comment! Enjoy!

Over at Wired magazine, they’re enjoying the Library of Congress’s set of your and LOC staff’s favorites from the LOC’s Depression and World War II photos.

But Wired’s Pete Brooks has decided that the LOC is “hogging the limelight”. Head on over to Wired to see ten of their favorites from other Commons institutions — Hidden Gems from the Flickr Commons.

Ostraciidae, Juvenile (Boxfish) - Smithsonian Insitution