Aaron Siskind Library - Photographic Resource Center, Boston University Photographic Resource Center, Boston’s vigorous and independent photo non-profit, fulfills part of its wide-ranging mandate by offering superb research resources based in the Center’s Aaron Siskind Library. Open to all, the library houses over 4,000 photographic books and 80 periodicals from around the world, with a detailed online list of the holdings. The PRC’s many other activities are designed to engage a broad public with the art and ideas of photography. Located on the campus of Boston University, the PRC offers its members and the wider public up to eight annual gallery exhibitions, research resources based in the PRC’s Aaron Siskind Library and other unique events. If that were not enough, the PRC also hosts a web-based photo discussion forum, publishes In the Loupe, its stylish newsletter, and offers the annual Leopold Godowsky Jr. Color Photography Awards. Vigorous indeed!  

Camerapedia A free-content encyclopedia modeled on Wikipedia, Camerapedia looks to be an excellent resource for the hardware side of the history of photography. It is also a repository of information about all still camera brands and models. To learn more about this project, read the About Camerapedia.org page. 

Digital Camera Resource Page A comprehensive resource for digital photographers, this site offers honest, straightforward camera reviews. Clear, side-by-side comparisons of various cameras lay it all out, detailing maximum resolution, zoom, LCD type, price range, and such. Next, check out the FAQs for great tips on shopping for a digital camera. This much-hit site also has active forums, with users sharing tips on everything from how to take a great picture to where to get deals on cameras and equipment. Users can also post their work in the photo gallery (also located in forums). Keep in mind that this site is targeted toward the general consumer rather than the higher-end buyer. 

Directory of Photo Historians, Arkansas State University Minimalist in design, this site is a simple and useful database of working photo historians from around the world. Assembled by faculty at Arkansas State University, the list features names, contact information and areas of interest for those researching the history of photography. The fact that the list is so extensive that we are warned about long download times is heartening – and underscores the need for just such a tool for contact and exchange. 

DMOZ - Open Directory Project Whether you’re looking for an aerial photographer in Wisconsin, a magazine to pitch your work to, or tips on photographing holiday lights, you can find it all right here. This open directory of all things photographic offers links to galleries, museums, photographers, equipment providers, photography contests, and much more. The site is easy to navigate, with some subjects searchable by region, and can be displayed in 30 languages.  

Library of Congress, Searchable Photograph Collections The Library is a treasure house of remarkable and varied photographic collections that document the history, society and culture of the United States. Their comprehensive site is intelligently designed to help researchers access the 12 million photographs in the collections. Anyone can look through and download images online or at the LoC’s reading room in Washington D.C. 

Light Research Light Research is photographer and writer Robert Hirsch’s sophisticated business card. Here, Hirsch’s many, many approaches to photography are laid out, including consulting on analog and digital imagemaking, photo education curriculum, facilities and their construction, curatorial services, grant writing, E-commerce solutions for artists, not-for-profit management and website development, to name a few. Some of the more intriguing areas of the site illustrate Hirsch’s writing – he is the author of a good number of photo-related books, articles and reviews – and his work as an artist. Exhibitions of Hirsch’s photographic meditations on war and trauma, Manifest Destiny, and the American landscape, among others, are presented in sharp looking slideshows and documentation videos.  

Lightstalkers Resources, leads, links and leaks posted by photographers for photographers. Personal recommendations for everything from body armor to camera bags, processing laboratories to travel agencies. 

Luminous-Lint Luminous-Lint is the result of one man’s laudable mission to get us all involved in the creation of “the world’s leading collaborative knowledge-base for the history of photography.” Although complex, the site is very user-friendly. Information is organized by searchable sections that include themes, photographers, techniques, galleries and dealers, as well as times lines. Luminous-Lint makes very good use of the web’s elastic nature: each link in these sections unfolds into an amazingly rich page of historical and practical information, closely connected with other pages - including eclectic photo galleries - in order to give the most complete picture possible. The most original feature of Luminous-Lint is its very personal and direct requests for input; the site is dotted with areas for feedback and ways to get involved in building the content. The interactive nature of the site, somewhat like a Wikipedia for the history of photography, opens the door to an original and more comprehensive way of researching and displaying photographic history. 

Marketing Photos - Mary Virginia Swanson Marketing consultant, author and educator Mary Virginia Swanson uses her blog space to assemble and disseminate valuable and current information about photographers, photography, and the art market. The daily, annotated posts cover a wide range of photo-related information and events, and testify to Swanson’s experience and understanding of ways of the photography world. Among the useful features of this superbly organized site are the clearly identified categories of information, such as Approaching Deadline, Approaching Events, Funding for the Arts, and Swanson’s own picks MVS’s Musts. 

New York Public Library Digital Gallery The fabled New York Public Library’s sophisticated site offers free online access to a fascinating collection of three hundred thousand digital images. Amazingly, they are not all about New York! 

Photo District News Online An indispensable resource, PDN Online’s comprehensive site literally covers the “waterfront” of information relevant to photographers. Its front page is dedicated to extensive photo news coverage, product reviews and features, but there are also links of several PDN initiatives and alliances- each a distinct and valuable source in its own right. PDNedu is a support system for emerging photographers, offering news, photo critique forums, features, contests, portfolios galleries and examples of photo-essays from students around the country. PhotoServe is a “visual database of the world’s best photographers,” a sort of society page that keeps track of assignments, exhibitions and awards of establish photographers. The site includes a monthly portfolio gallery that comes complete with a search engine for its archives. PhotoSource is PDN’s all-in-one professional photography directory, full of national and international industry resources. There is also a link to IPN, the Independent Photography Network, an organization that provides stock photography from independent photographers and small agency reps. PDN shows its support of photographers of all types through its generous gallery space. Here you find all levels of photographers and photojournalists- established, emerging, or even “legendary”. Online only features as well as in-depth reporting for subscribers. 

Photo Histories Photo Histories’s creators are doing the important work of capturing what is essentially the oral history that documents the culture of photography in the 20th century. The site is indeed full of fascinating stories from a cast of “tell it like it is” characters who have been witness to the major events of the last century. The content is skillfully presented in the form of interviews, slide shows, first-person accounts and even book reviews that each bring to life a time and place, often with rueful humor. Photo Histories was created out of an admitted sense of nostalgia for the golden age of (analogue) photojournalism, a project bent on preserving the stories and spirit of an era rapidly vanishing into an uncertain (and digital) future. Given that this was the time when photography came into its own as a powerful medium for documenting events and provoking change, the site’s authors are providing a useful historical anchor in this present age of all powerful and infinitely malleable images.  

Photoblogs As the name suggests, this site is all about photo blogs; in fact it is an exhaustive list of photoblogs, managed in a wiki format and may be the closest thing we have to a hub for the ever-expanding universe of photography–related web logs. 

Photograph Magazine Formerly Photography-Guide.com, Photograph maintains its useful and well-constructed compendium of listings for photographers and photo lovers with scrupulously up to date information tracks a very wide range of people, events and resources. Their resource page, for example, offers rare and valuable listings for such things as appraisal and conservation services, while their calendar lists current local, national and international photo events. Be sure to investigate their rich Links page and the 'Eye On The Scene' announcements. 

Photojournalism Links Compiled by the very resourceful Mikko Takkunen, Photojournalismlinks is a wide-ranging and comprehensive list of links to all things related to photojournalism. Presented on a tidy site that features images from newly added sites, the links are divided into a large list of descriptive categories, each with an eclectic mix of entries. This is excellent place to keep track of the evolving photojournalism scene in all its permutations. Photojournalismlinks even offers a Twitter feed for those who can’t get enough…  

Photolinks A free directory and portal service committed to making photographers as visible as possible. The site includes comprehensive national and international photography directories, articles and tips, and a “find-a-photographer” search engine.  

PhotoMuse George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film and the International Center of Photography (ICP) have joined forces to make their collections accessible in this collective, searchable image archive. Offered as a resource for scholarship in the history of photography, Photomuse is primarily a search engine that delivers annotated images from the combined digitized collections of these two important institutions. Other features include teasers for the series of joint exhibitions that ICP and GEH have organized as a further expression of their alliance and an odd (perhaps still incomplete?) chronology of the history of photography, cross-referenced with selected concurrent events in culture and politics.  

Women in Photography International – Reference Library For over two decades this group has been advocating for women’s photography and working for its increased visibility in the world. An example of the scope of their enterprise is the Women in Photography International Archive, now housed at Yale’s Beinecke Library. Created by the archive’s curator, the WiPI site includes an online reference section of bibliographies by and about women photographers and their art, an amazing resource for researchers. In fact, the WiPI’s busy website is packed with resources and useful information, a reflection of the organization’s commitment to supporting women photographers through the entire process of creation. There is WiPI Member’s Network Board, a forum for exchange on a range of photo topics and areas of interest. The site is also home to f2, an e-Zine that assembles news, new photo projects, business tips and book reviews related to women photographers (and women in general). Other useful sections include a member database searchable by photographic specialty and an ongoing series of juried online exhibitions.  

Zeroland Photography Directory This searchable online directory lists Web sites that focus on the arts or have artistic value. This particular link leads to the site’s photography sections. Categories include awards, black and white, daguerreotypes, digital photography, fashion photography, history of photography, journals, montage, museums, photojournalism, pinhole photography, and stock photography. Surf to the root URL to find other (non-photography specific) topics such as art history, art movements, artists, auctions, galleries, journals, libraries, museums, news, resources, and writers.