photographers and photo supply shops have their
own websites while many of the major photo-
graphic companies maintain elaborate sites dedi-
cated to their products and their history. Personal
websites offer family photographs, amateur art
photography, and self-styled commentary on the
technology and aesthetics of the medium. Chat-
rooms and newsgroups, maintained by internet ser-
vice providers, offer discussions of the medium and
its specialized components. Students of photogra-
phy may find a variety of photography courses,
ranging from collections of tips from self-styled
experts to university-based curricula. Established
photography journals such asThe British Journal
of Photography, the AmericanPopular Photogra-
phy, and the French ReVue Photography offer
online editions. Entirely online ‘‘zines,’’ likeOnline
Photography, andDigital Photography and Imaging
Internationaloffer news and how-to articles, as well
as links to the work of lesser-known photographers.
As photography-oriented websites grew in num-
ber and diverged wildly in quality, photography
enthusiasts began posting lists of what they had
found to be the most worthy links. One of the first
of these ‘‘portal’’ sites,Bengt’s Photo Page, was
created in Sweden by Bengt Hallinger in 1996. As
of this writing, it continues to offer a vast number
of links to online photo exhibitions, digests, how-
to articles, magazines, user groups, and a set of
links to digital photography news groups. Charles
Daney’s Photography Pages provides a slightly
different though no less extensive selection of
links.Still Journalprovides articles and reviews
and a ‘‘portal to the art, technique, history and
culture of photography.’’
Amateur photography websites proliferate, espe-
cially those of local camera and photography clubs.
Vernacular uses take many forms, including the
‘‘Are You Hot’’ website, wherein an individual
can post a photo, presumably his or her own, and
be evaluated by others. Professional organizations,
such as the Society for Photographic Education,
feature extensive and informative websites to com-
municate with their members.
Photojournalists, who were among the pioneers
in the use of digital cameras, have continually
expanded the uses to which internet photography
has been put. Digital images are instantly trans-
mitted worldwide to editors who have an unprece-
dented range of options in editing and presenting
them. Newspaper and magazine websites offer
photo essays, often with voice-over commentary
as well as photo galleries that contain collections
of images not shown in the print edition or held
over well beyond its run. One of the first uses of
these galleries came with the death of Princess
Diana in 1997—though by the turn of the century,
this practice had become a standard item on the
websites of most major publications. The events of
September 11, 2001, depicted in extensive archival
sites in journals worldwide, created photographic
coverage of a single event unprecedented in terms of
the number of posted images and their accessibility.
Traditional photo agencies, such as Magnum
Photos or Alinari, moved quickly into the digital age,
developing detailed sites for interested individuals,
professional researchers, and commercial visitors.
The internet and world wide web also facilitated
sales of archival photographs, providing an im-
petus for the creation of ever larger and more
accessible photo archives. Among the largest of
these commercial archives is TimePix (with archi-
val images fromTime, Life, People, Fortune,and
Sports Illustratedas well as the million-image Man-
sell collection). Other online suppliers of archival
images include WireImage, PhotoDisc, and Micro-
soft’s digital photography company, Corbis which,
in1995, purchasedthe Bettmann Archive’s17million
images to achieve a collection of some 70 million
photographs. Many of the larger circulation news-
papers and magazine have online ‘‘stores’’ marketing
their own photo archives.
With the spread of the internet as an educational
tool, other photography collections make samples
of their holdings and their exhibitions available
online for research and teaching purposes. George
Eastman House and the Library of Congress have
been leaders in this practice, the Library currently
offering over 300,000 of its 5 million images acces-
sible online. Other institutions, such as the Interna-
tional Museum of Photography, the New York
Public Library, the University of California at Riv-
erdale Museum of Photography, and Musee ́ de
l’Elyse ́e Lausanne Museum provide a diverse selec-
tion of historical photographs and current exhibi-
tions. Local and regional archives also make use of
the internet, either individually or collectively, as
exemplified by sites such asBritish Columbia His-
torical Photographs Online. The internet has also
spawned its own, entirely online photography
museums. One of the earliest and most extensive is
theAmerican Museum of Photography, founded by
William B. Becker in 1996 based on his personal
5,000-image collection of historical photographs.
In addition to these general collections, the history
of photography is well served by a number of addi-
tional online resources. Among these are Robert
Leggat’sHistory of Photographysite, founded in
1997 as an overview of the subject and, of course,
PhotoHistorians, a site maintained by ProfessorINTERNET AND PHOTOGRAPHY, THE