Lately, I have been once again toying with Unsplash and have rekindled my love for it. Unsplash is a photo sharing platform with a twist — Every ten days, they post ten photos, and they are free to use as you choose fit. Even commercially. It was created as a labs project by Crew.co, a creative services platform, as a side project, back in 2013.
They had a photo shoot, paid for it and used only one photo. “We only used one photo, so we had extras. We thought, there’s probably a bunch of people having the same issue as us so let’s post these photos online and give them away for free,” Crew.co team explained in a blog post. It is now the top referral source for Crew.
That’s too much of history. If you get picked, you as a photographer get a lot of attention, and you get a link back to your website. A pretty nifty way of getting attention! The photographs have become better and better. I mean, many of them are just stunning.
Some who make a living from making photographs don’t much care about it, and their reasons are articulately argued by the author, Aleksandra Boguslawska. It is hard not to sympathize with Boguslawska. That said, as an admirer of top-notch photography, I can’t help but go back and marvel at the work of others. I don’t want those photos for anything – though if I do, I will make sure to link to the original and the photographer.
What I like about the service — it is simple, doesn’t overload my senses and it allows me to see photos from the viewpoint of others. And lately, some Internet people with good taste are using this platform to curate their ten favorite photos as a collection.
Also: My Unsplash Collection.