In a world where our photos are becoming more and more fleeting and disposable, Flickr is, and always has been, the one place on the web that treats photographers' images as a valuable, easily searchable, permanent archive. It houses tens of billions of images, including incredible national historic archives for countries, libraries, organizations and nonprofits around the world. (The Library of Congress, The US National Archives, The National Register of Historic Places, the San Diego Air and Space Museum and the British Library are all fascinating archives to poke around when you have time).
I've been a Flickr member since 2005, and to say it's been the single biggest part of my personal development as a photographer is a drastic understatement.
But last night, the CEO, Don MacAskill, sent a refreshingly transparent email that the service is losing money and struggling to stay in operation, and asked the photography community for help keeping it going.
If you're a photographer, or have an archive of digital family photos that need backing up and organizing in a way that you can easily find them, or you just want to help keep this important service going, you can use this code and link below to become a member. (I’m not affiliated with, or sponsored by Flickr in any way and don’t get a penny from this link)
For just $3 a month you can become a PRO member and back up your entire photo archive, with unlimited storage at full resolution, order prints, photo books, and lots of great discounts from partners like Adobe, Blurb, Chatbooks, Peak Design and more.
Thanks for your time, and thanks to Don MacAskill and the entire Flickr/Smugmug team for your passion, transparency, and dedication to keeping this resource going.