Coincidence

It has been a coincidence: yesterday I went to watch Valkyrie with some friends. Being it a WWII movie, I was surprised to receive a message today on Flickr about a similar topic.

I received a message from the publishers of Britain at War Magazine. They asked me for permission for using some of my Tate Britain pictures in their next issue.

I gave them permission to use my pictures on their magazine, and they kindly told me they would send me a printed copy of their next issue.

Receiving this message made me think about how journalists now might use the Internet as a source of cheap or free audiovisual material for their works. My pictures are surely going to be cheaper for them than paying a photo agency. And I get recognition on paper, which I do not really need, but it is always a pleasure to see one's pictures serving informational purposes. I am also glad they asked for permission. It would have been easy to just save the photos to disk and then publish them; I would never have noticed.

Some months ago I was asked for permission to use some of my Helsinki pictures in the Schmap tourist guide. It is a great pleasure to see my holiday pictures on some guide or magazine. At the same time, it makes me wonder how many people are currently practising some kind of flickr SEO in order to attract the attention of journalists looking for photographs.