For our eighth anniversary series "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" we contacted Flickr members who joined Flickr in February 2004. We asked them what the best thing that’s happened to them since they became a Flickr member, what it is that they love about Flickr, and what their eight favorite photos from other Flickr members are. We will publish the eight installments throughout the day.

Our eighth and last story contributor for the celebration of Flickr’s eighth birthday today is Kathryn Yu from New York City, USA, who has met many wonderful photographers through Flickr and was able to keep up with friends who live all around the world. When a friend of hers moved to New Zealand, she gifted her a Flickr Pro account so they could easily keep in touch!

"A close friend of mine pointed out she was in one of my Flickr photos. But the photo was taken before we had even met! She found it afterwards. And mind-blowingly, she pointed out that Anthony Bourdain was in the shot, and I hadn’t even noticed at the time!"

Finally, Kathryn presents us her eight favorite photos.

"My friend Bonjwing is a food photographer & cookbook author who travels the world. I want to live inside of his photos. Please add this feature to Flickr."

"Because you never, ever see Grand Central empty."

"I love people who still shoot film."

"I like this one because it appears as if the bear is investigating these strange human specimens."

"Rabbit costumes are creepy. Period."

"Florent may be gone, but we still have the memories…"

"I’m pretty convinced that Roger can take an interesting portrait of anybody."

"Katie Sokoler is a great photographer but also has been documenting Improv Everywhere for the last 5 years. Who doesn’t love a black tie beach?"

Thank you Kathryn for telling us your story!

We hope you have enjoyed our "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" series!

Photos from dansays, Kathryn Yu, ulterior epicure, MTAPhotos, Yosigo, Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek, James and Karla Murray Photography, smoothdude, Roger Kisby, and colormekatie.

Posted by Kay Kremerskothen
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For our eighth anniversary series "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" we contacted Flickr members who joined Flickr in February 2004. We asked them what the best thing that’s happened to them since they became a Flickr member, what it is that they love about Flickr, and what their eight favorite photos from other Flickr members are. We will publish the eight installments throughout the day.

Meet our seventh story contributor, Milo Vermeulen (a.k.a. milov), from the Hague for whom the best thing that came from being on Flickr was making new friends, getting to know lots of interesting people and talented photographers, discovering and joining many photo meetups nearby and even making several trips abroad to London and Poland to meet other Flickr members.

Another way that Flickr has affected his life is the fact that Milo now has an easy instant visual reference to any period in his life over the past 8 years.

"I’m grateful that I thoroughly tagged and organized my photos from the very beginning and can usually find any photo I’m thinking of within seconds with a smart tag search."

Flickr changed Milo’s photography in the sense that various local Flickr groups were a constant source of inspiration for finding new landscapes or different parts of the city to go explore with his camera.

"I would recommend Flickr to people getting into photography as a great way to find photo meetups in their area, a fun way to get better and learn from other people with similar interests. And personally I’ve found that the Flickr groups are also very handy for finding sample photos when on the lookout for a new camera or lens."

At first Milov’s favorite Flickr feature was the ease with which he could follow the visual stream of many contacts on a daily basis. Before Flickr, that simply wasn’t possible for him. Nowadays, he says that the tagging and organizational aspects are what he appreciates most. As a webdeveloper, Milo also loves the extensive API, which enables him to integrate his Flickr uploads and metadata into his own site to his own tastes.

"One of my first Flickr faves, I like the sharp texture and pattern, and the way the edges of the broken metal look almost bloody."

"Another one of my oldest Flickr faves, I love the light in this photo."

"These are two of the sweetest cats I know. The ginger one, Hurley, is all grown up now and as big as grey Banks.. looking back at it now, i love how small he looks here."

"This is an example of the perfect street photo to me, a lovely composition of elements and layers."

"The composition and detail in this shot made it one of the photos that convinced me to get a Ricoh GR Digital myself, a great compact camera that I enjoyed shooting with for several years."

"A great juxtaposition, I love the expression on the cat’s face."

"This is the sort of little magic photogenic thing I wish I would encounter when out photo-exploring myself."

"ninnx is the best at finding faces in lifeless objects, her photos taught me to look for more than the eye can see."

Thank you Milo for telling us your story! Please stay tuned for our next episode.

Photos from milov, Caroline, Another side of yukita, njcvh, C。Yu, takazawa kenji, junku, Dal Jean, and ninnx.

Posted by Kay Kremerskothen
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For our eighth anniversary series "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" we contacted Flickr members who joined Flickr in February 2004. We asked them what the best thing that’s happened to them since they became a Flickr member, what it is that they love about Flickr, and what their eight favorite photos from other Flickr members are. We will publish the eight installments throughout the day.

Meet our sixth story contributor, James Mcmanus (a.k.a. james m) is from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. For him, the best thing to come out of being a Flickr member are all the fantastic friends he’s made through the Sydney Photobloggers group from their many outings, trips away (sometimes to visit the folks from the  Melbourne Silver Mine group) or spending Christmas with each other. Needless to say, he has many good memories from the last 8 years on Flickr.

"There are plenty of members out there who’s work I have been following for a long time and would love to meet someday for a beer then head out for the day photographing with them. Some I have already had the pleasure meeting but on the top of my list is notraces and his wife Supercapacity. Come May this year I am off to Canada and the U.S. for long overdue holiday and in June will get a chance to spend some time with both and maybe even meet a few others on the list while I am over there as well."

James’ first 2 favorites are from Bob and Ali and the remaining 6 are from other people he would like to meet up with this May.

Thank you James for sharing your story! We will be back shortly with our next episode.

Photos from james m, notraces, Supercapacity, PHOTOMO, joe holmes, Mute*, anniebee, diyosa, and sneakrluv14.

Posted by Kay Kremerskothen
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For our eighth anniversary series "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" we contacted Flickr members who joined Flickr in February 2004. We asked them what the best thing that’s happened to them since they became a Flickr member, what it is that they love about Flickr, and what their eight favorite photos from other Flickr members are. We will publish the eight installments throughout the day.

The fifth member who we spoke to about his experiences during his eight years on Flickr is Jared Tarbell (a.k.a. jared), from Albuquerque. While he doesn’t quite remember how he first found himself on Flickr’s chat rooms back in 2004, one thing he still remembers is that it was fun: interacting with strangers through images and text. He joined a transhumanism group. He started ťŗăΰęļïňŋġ ψϊţħǿμţ πőōνįńģ. He uploaded photos of his dog, himself, and some trees. He was thinking about design and his own growing website project, Etsy.com.

"If the Internet was rock and roll, Flickr would most definitely be the Beatles. It changed everything."

"Eight years later and Flickr is still the only website I check on a daily basis", Jared says. "I enjoy looking at photographs from my friends, telling their stories one thousand words at a time. I explore the world through a million lenses. My own camera contributes a small part to the expedition. Sure, maybe I take too many photographs of rocks or clouds, but I am also telling my own story of life on Earth."

"I am honored to be included in Flickr’s eight year anniversary. I’m going to go grab my camera now and hope for another eight."

And with that, here are Jared’s eight favorite photos:

"What planet are we on again?"

"One great space science photograph and all my troubles seem to fade away. Don’t forget that these photographs can be viewed at over 5000 pixels wide!"

"This computational artifact unfolds into our reality with beauty and mystery."

"The best kind of photograph."

"Holger Lippmann is one of my favorite people to follow on Flickr. He is continually updating with new algorithmically generated work. I’m happy Flickr decided to allow images generated from sources other than a camera."

"I can solve any problem looking at this photograph. Thank you YoungDoo."

"I don’t know Monique, but I feel like I do. She takes amazing photographs from around the world, with particular interest in small common multiples. I love small common multiples, forever."

"I love these two people (both sides of the lens) and all the Flickr team."

Thank you Jared for sharing your story! Please stay tuned for our next episode.

Photos from jared, Alexander Semenov, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, Syntopia, 0olong, HolgerLippmann (work in process), youngdoo, M00k, and Stewart.

Posted by Kay Kremerskothen
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For our eighth anniversary series "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" we contacted Flickr members who joined Flickr in February 2004. We asked them what the best thing that’s happened to them since they became a Flickr member, what it is that they love about Flickr, and what their eight favorite photos from other Flickr members are. We will publish the eight installments throughout the day.

The fourth member we would like to introduce today is Chris Heathcote (a.k.a. antimega), from London. For him Flickr really is the Eyes of the World, as it lets him keep up with what lots of friends are doing, as well as find new people that are doing interesting things.

Whilst Flickr is often thought to be for ‘photographers’, what Chris enjoys most are the slices of life it allows you to share, in particular what you’re interested in, and what means something to you. "Flickr was the first website to really push sharing in public – ‘why would someone want to see a photo of your lunch?’ – but it’s proved that the random, the banal, the matter-of-fact really does keep up a constant communication with hundreds of people."

To illustrate, Chris shows us his most popular food photo (out of around 5000) – a brilliant dessert he had at the San Francisco restaurant Citizen Cake (now sadly closed, but our eyes can still feast on this beauty).

Here are the eight favorite photos Chris’ wants to share with us:

"I have many friends that go to places where I haven’t been, and through Flickr I get to experience them too. I’d have loved to go to the Shanghai Expo a few years ago, but thankfully people like Dan have taken great pictures."

"Timo‘s photos are always beautiful, but his explorations of rain and focus are particularly poignant."

"Paul‘s got a great eye for the city, and the shapes and textures therein."

"I think Flickr has really sparked a revival in many kinds of traditional photography – from pinholes to plate film. Heather‘s solargraphy shows what’s possible with just a film canister and a piece of film – a stunning shot that took 6 months to make."

"The Hello Little Fella group explores pareidolia – the experience of seeing faces in things. Matt‘s photo is one of my favourites – a slightly poorly little fella having his temperature taken."

"Glen catalogues many of the food disasters that prevailed in 60s and 70s cookbooks. Constantly amusing, but builds into a great resource as more and more of the food from recent history gets catalogued."

"Likewise, Steve is building a great collection of British Rail ephemera (as well as documenting 50s-80s architecture)."

"I think the Flickr Commons is one of the greatest achievements of Flickr: getting institutions to publish their archive online – not only letting everyone have instant access, but it also makes them easy to find, and even lets you use and reference the images too. Institutions have also found it useful for crowdsourcing tagging and filing, plus sometimes more information comes out through comments and notes than would have been found if the image was just filed in a physical archive."

Thank you Chris for telling us your story! Please stay tuned for our next episode.

Photos from foe, antimega, cityofsound, Ti.mo, blech​, heather, moleitau, glen.h, smallritual and The National Archives UK.

Posted by Kay Kremerskothen
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For our eighth anniversary series "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" we contacted Flickr members who joined Flickr in February 2004. We asked them what the best thing that’s happened to them since they became a Flickr member, what it is that they love about Flickr, and what their eight favorite photos from other Flickr members are. We will publish the eight installments throughout the day.

Our third story was told us by, Ranjit Bhatnagar (a.k.a. ranjit), from Brooklyn, New York. He tells us that he has met some great friends through Flickr, and even had the chance to go travelling with them to amazing places. Flickr is also the place where his pet dog gets all the international adoration it deserves. Lastly, Ranjit is a great fan of Video on Flickr: "I don’t know much about video, but I am learning, and the 90 second limit to Video on Flickr keeps me (and everyone else) from getting too long and boring."

   

One other very positive experience Ranjit had with Flickr is that it got him a big show in a major NYC subway station a few years back ( read more about it here). He also used Flickr to coordinate his latest show with the curator at the Brooklyn Public Library. And those nice 90-second-or-less videos are perfect for documenting his sound/art projects.

Here are Ranjit’s eight Flickr faves:

"LOOK AT THOSE TEETH!!!"

"I have no idea how to take pictures of moving people, but spatialk really does!"

"Oops, there’s another picture of my dog."

"The slight overexposure makes this especially comforting for some reason."

"diastema made all these crazy tiny scenes that were part of the inspiration for the play with your food group."

"horticultural_art does amazing things with plant bits and scanners."

"Just amazing."

"Thin colored stripes are kind of hypnotic."

 

Thank you Ranjit for sharing your story with us! The next episode will be coming up in a bit.

Photos from SpatialK, ranjit, La Mariposa, helveticaneue, diastema, horticultural art, Fifi LePew, and * tathei *.

Posted by Kay Kremerskothen
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For our eighth anniversary series "8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Stories" we contacted Flickr members who joined Flickr in February 2004. We asked them what the best thing that’s happened to them since they became a Flickr member, what it is that they love about Flickr, and what their eight favorite photos from other Flickr members are. We will publish the eight installments throughout the day.

Meet our second story contributor, Bryan Boyer (a.k.a. bryanboyer), who spends most of his time in Helsinki. For Bryan, contacts and exploring new ideas are what matters most on Flickr. Connections to new friends, new ideas, new communities, new foods and new places.

Bryan tells us that the best thing about Flickr has always been the high quality photography paired with member’s willingness to not only upload, but also generously share details behind the photographs by tagging, adding descriptions and responding to comments.

"I started using the site because it was the best place online to share images and learn from others.
Eight years on and this still holds true."

As a student and later as a practicing designer, Flickr provided Bryan with a creative community to explore ideas. He recognizes the inspiration that comes from the steady stream of fresh uploads to the site, but for him, the most meaningful aspect of the site is when there’s a conversation. In particular, the design community seems to especially love the notes feature. Few other sites enable a visual conversation so effectively and with such precision.

Here are Bryan’s eight favorites:

"I like this photo because it reminds me of a nice time years ago, but makes an unexpected connection to the present day. This was taken by my friend Gregory while we were visiting the Villa Mairea, a house by the famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. I had always loved the project and it was a joy to see in person, at the peak of summer, when the forest was exploding with life. Little did I know that years later I would find myself living in Finland."

"One of the things I love about the community of architects that I am friends with on Flickr is that I occasionally get a glimpse into the secret life of icons, like the Farnsworth House pictured here, as they are really lived in. Not just the glossy, perfect pictures that you see on postcards and in history books."

"Existing architectural icons are one thing, but what I enjoy even more is using Flickr as a way to see the next round of interesting projects from architects around the world. This photo by the talented Belgian architects Ony One is a favorite because it shows the messy side of making buildings. Sometimes it involves crawling head first into unexpected places. After following Ony One’s work for about six years on Flickr we finally met up when I was in Brussels on business last year."

"As a graduate student I felt a strong connection to other students in schools near and far who were also posting their work online. This sketch by a good friend of mine is particularly meaningful because it marks an inflection point in Samba.‘s design work. From this point on things were different. Maybe the 16 favorites helped encourage Samba. to go off the deep end into fantastical architecture?"

"Recently Samba. and I had the pleasure to meet Sevensixfive in person. We had both followed Sevensixfive’s work since he was in graduate school at the same time as us. This is the proof… posted to Flickr, of course!"

"Besides this community of nerdy architects, the other thing I use Flickr for is to keep up with the lives of my friends who live far and wide. This self portrait of Spenceke is one of my favorites because she’s wearing an Optimus Prime helmet. And cooking. Protect humanity and cook dinner? Those Autobots sure do know how to be nice."

"Ivo, the darling son of close friends Rena and Derek, always makes me laugh. Moments of simple humor like this are one small way I enjoy keeping pace with the lives of my friends in other cities, on other continents."

"I don’t know how he does it, but Ti.mo can take a picture of two people opening the door and stuff it with anticipation and meaning. While I particularly like this image of Ti.mo’s, you could just as easily select one of the other 31,000 (!) in his photostream and you are equally likely to find a slice of the mundane suspended in a precise, crisp light."

Thank you Bryan for sharing your story wi