A Gallery for Fine Photography As its name suggests, this New Orleans gallery exhibits and sells work by A-list photographers. Its site lists an impressive group of historical and contemporary photographers as well as a strong string of exhibitions.  

American Museum of Photography This virtual museum seems to achieve a balance between the curatorial research and critical content that goes into physical exhibitions and the succinct writing and image driven nature of web exhibitions. The site includes several intriguing exhibitions dealing with different aspects of the complex and profound impact of photography on American society, history and culture. Although all the images are carefully described, information about the collections and archives that own the physical photographs is disappointingly absent. 

Blue Earth Alliance Blue Earth Alliance holds that “Photographers are the eyes and conscience of society,” and as such the Alliance uses the knowledge and experience of its network of members to foster significant documentary projects on cultures, the environment and social issues. The user-friendly archive is searchable by photographer, title or project issue. Despite the relatively small images on the site, the impact of these select photo projects is clear, as is the importance of this active non-profit to the world of documentary photography.  

Blue Eyes Magazine The editor’s passionate belief of the power of documentary photography is mirrored in Blue Eyes’ selection of photo essays and reportages, which cover both major events and quiet moments from the world over. Work that has “a point of view and something to say” is welcome for submission. 

Camera Club of New York Founded in 1884, the Camera Club of New York has a very long history of supporting the art photography. This fine old institution offers its members photo and darkroom classes, 24-hour access to darkrooms, an ongoing lecture series, both physical and online gallery space, and the support of a like-minded community. The Club also offers an attractive darkroom residency for emerging artists, and also hosts an annual photo contest that is typically juried by a single, well-established photographer whose comments about the entries are published on the site.  

Cleveland Museum of Art This museum web site provides a substantial gallery of meticulously described, digitized images, which span from 19th century French and British daguerreotypes and calotypes to contemporary works by likes of Aaron Siskin and Sally Mann. 

Digital Journalist One of the best of its kind, this monthly multi-media magazine for visual journalism covers a lot of ground and provides a critical voice for photographers in an era of overwhelming change in the profession. Reporting on the facts of the profession, the publisher and his veteran contributors always maintain a humanist tone, speaking directly to the difficult work of being the witness. They offer the photojournalist’s perspective on national and international news, also spotlighting new work, book reviews, discussion forums, dispatches, and personal histories. The Digital Journalist offers an ethics column as well as a regular report on the business of photojournalism. Two time winner of the Online News Association's “Best Feature” award. 

File Magazine In the words of its publishers, “FILE Magazine publishes images that treat subjects in unexpected ways.” Along with the humorous and self-deprecating tone of the site, is a serious collection of work by photographers who see things differently. These unconventional, and often poetic points of view are showcased in well designed galleries that include, among others, reportages, travelogues, and photo-essays. 

Fixing Shadows is "concerned with photographs of historic interest and with contemporary straight photography." The website layout is a tad unconventional, but the content is deeply engaging. The eclectic collection covers everything from bicycle architecture to Zambian orphanages; found images to mortuary photography. Fixing Shadows is widely appreciated in anthropological and photo-history circles. 

Fovea The name refers to the area of the retina where our vision is most clear, a poetic title for a site that showcases humanitarian and social issues seen through the lens of photojournalism. Fovea’s website highlights exhibitions, photo-based outreach projects, and supports photo events ranging from a project focusing on homeless teenagers to the launch of James Nachtwey’s photo-based media campaign against Extremely Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB). Fovea’s real world work centers around education and community outreach; the organization creates opportunities for students of New York’s Hudson Valley to meet visiting photojournalists who share their experience and their work. Fovea also hosts panel discussions and outdoor projections for the area’s communities.  

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center — University of Texas at Austin Unique among photo–collecting institutions, the Ransom Center takes a broad view of photography, with holdings in diverse areas of photography, including fine arts, photojournalism, documentary photography, contemporary art, and literary imagery. In addition to 5 million photographic prints and negatives, you’ll find 400 pieces of original photographic apparatus and more than 35,000 (and counting) books about photographic history, theory, and technique. The Center founded its photography department with the acquisition of the Gernsheim Collection in 1963, at the time the largest privately–owned photohistorical archive in the United States, and has recently taken custodianship the crown jewel of photojournalism archives, the Magnum Agency collection. The comprehensive nature of their collections has made the Ransom Center a major hub for photo research and scholarship. Both the photo collection and the photo library have excellent searchable online databases, making these rich and diverse holdings accessible. The Center makes photographic copies of its materials available to scholars, and offers reproductions of some photographs for personal use. 

John Kobal Foundation (Portrait Galleries) John Kobal was a passionate collector who ultimately became the archivist of Hollywood’s golden era of portrait photography. The Kobal Foundation manages an impressive archive of glamorous screen star portraits and movie memorabilia. Their somewhat awkward site offers galleries of classic actor shots, as well as the winning entries in the Foundation’s annual portrait and book contests. 

Lens Culture Very much a community oriented site, Lens Culture comes across as an open invitation to experience and consider the impact of photography from as many angles as possible. The site not only features galleries of submitted work, but also includes photographers’ commentaries and discussions of influences and artistic process. Some interviews are available as audio clips. Moreover, there is news and events, interviews with established and up and coming photographers, calls for submissions, a blog, and some frankly unusual projects. 

Look at Me Building on the current interest in “vernacular photographs,” Look at Me is a communal collection of found photographs: images found on the street, in flea markets and other random places. Their lack of identity makes them fascinating, they are literally “stories without an introduction.” Submissions to the collection are welcome. 

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. 

Magnum Photos Founded by legendary photographers Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David “Chim” Seymour in the wake of World War II, Magnum Photos is a powerhouse of a photographic co-operative. With a network of fifteen sub-agents and editorial offices in New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo, Magnum provides photographs to the press, publishers, advertising, television, galleries, and museums across the world. Magnum photographers have covered the great events, people, and places of this era, evidenced in the approximately one million photographs in their physical archive and 250,000 images online. Despite the fact that some of the most iconic images of this century and the last are part of Magnum’s ever-evolving archive, the site is remarkably un-intimidating and informative. 

Minneapolis Institute for the Arts The MIA has organized its collection in a compact and easy to use format for the web. Most of the legendary names of photographic history are included. Possibly the neatest cluster of great photographs available under one URL. 

National Geographic As the grand old man of photojournalism and travel photography publications, National Geographic is a treasure house of images and photo-knowledge. The Geographic’s online site offers thematic photo galleries that link to feature stories, stunning “wallpaper” images, milestones in the history of Geographic photography, and a wide range of photo tips from the professionals. This boldly designed site makes for absolutely enthralling viewing.  

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-Eye Specialized in fine-art photographs and photography books, Photo-Eye disseminates high quality work in many ways as possible. Their online galleries feature exhibition previews for the formal Photo-Eyes gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico; a gallery for Magnum Photographers collector’s prints; and Photographer’s Showcase, a virtual gallery that exhibits jury-chosen submissions from fine-art photographers. Photo-Eye’s other activities include publishing Photo-Eye Magazine and mail-order catalogues, as well as running a retail bookstore. The site includes detailed formation for submitting to Photographer’s Showcase. 

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 an ongoing series of online exhibitions and projects. Current and previous exhibitions are elegantly presented on the Center’s website, complete with excellent critical writing, captions and image quality. 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!  

Photovoice Pictures prove more effective than political speeches according to this socially engaged non-profit. Photovoice is not only the name of the organization, it’s also a step-by-step program for giving communities a voice through photography. Photovoice gives cameras to communities that would not otherwise have the means to document their lives, trains people to identify issues and to illustrate them and, finally, uses the community photographs to open a dialogue with policymakers who can affect change. The Projects page gives a list of current PV proposals, while the Gallery page shows completed projects with captions written by the photographers.
 

Pixel Press Presenting tough and relevant political and social documentary projects, Pixel Press seems to be on a mission to stir up an active dialogue between viewers, image-makers and subjects. The magazine' s makers view the digital revolution as the beginnings of a “new paradigm of journalism.” By collaborating with artists, documentary photographers, and various human rights and non-governmental agencies, Pixel Press seeks to use this new paradigm heighten public awareness and involvement with human rights, global responsibility, and local action. The site includes feature documentaries, articles and essays, links to new sites of interest and “Pixel Picks” recommendations. See the list of past gallery exhibitions to get a sense of the scope and humanity of their endeavor.  

SF Camerawork This is the online resource center for SF Camerawork, the San Francisco based community-minded organization that fosters the work of emerging and mid-career photographers. Exhibitions in their online and physical gallery spaces, a lecture series, workshops and the journal Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts are there to engage the wider world on photography’s aesthetic and social concerns. The organization’s mentoring program invites photographers to act locally and teach the craft to youth at risk. 

Smithsonian Photography Initiative The Smithsonian Institution boasts more than 13 million photographs covering science, art, history, technology and more - and now the Smithsonian Photographic Initiative is providing the public easy entrée to these extraordinary images. There are currently 1.1 million digitized Smithsonian images. The Initiative’s user-friendly site, which won a Webby Award, allows visitors to view images from its many museums, galleries, and research centers, even from the National Zoo! Users can search for an image by topic, country, photographer, medium, decade, collection, or simply search by key word. Each photograph has accompanying text so the viewer can learn about the subject in the photo. For a bit of hands-on fun, site visitors can click “Enter the Frame” to choose specific images, create their own photo sequence, and even e-mail it to friends. Educators should visit Learning Resources, where they’ll find lesson plans and other teaching tools. The site also offers online exhibitions, scholarly commentary, and dialogues about photographic imagery. 

Social Documentary Social Documentary, a sort of collective online gallery, investigates the “global human condition” by inviting documentary photographers to share their work. The well-designed site features an egalitarian mix of photo-reportages from an international cast of established and amateur photographers. Covering issues such as the devastating effects of Nigerian oil on local populations, stories of forced and voluntary migrations, and tales of the lives of marginalized people from around the globe, the themes are broad and the stories are personal. Photographers are invited to create their own web pages within Social Documentary.net, posting a slide show, information about the work, and links to groups and NGOs that are addressing the issues. The makers of this site believe in the power of images to create change in the world; the variety and depth of the work here gives viewers plenty to think about and act upon.  

Times Online Galleries The Times of London provides a fix of daily news in photographs, presenting photo galleries on topics from international news to local sports.  

Webistan Playfully but aptly named, Webistan is a Paris-based photo agency founded by Middle Eastern photographers whose images provide a distinct cultural point of view on the international stories they cover. Webistan’s home page features the agency’s latest stories, news and podcasts. 

Winterthur Fotomuseum Fotomuseum Winterthur, located in Zurich, features work by contemporary photographers and artists. Its Web site, in English, offers an online gallery, organized by artist. The 300 photographers and other artists represented include Robert Frank, August Sander, and Weegee. In addition to the publicly accessible gallery, curators, students, and specialists can register to gain access to the entire online collection. The museum also includes a library, seminar rooms, a lounge, a shop, and a bistro. All visitors can purchase various photo books and publications at the museum’s online shop. 

Zone Zero Particularly attuned to the diversity of the world of photography, Zone Zero features a large, curated gallery space for international photo essays and documentary projects. In addition to generous, non-curated galleries for photographic work submitted by individuals, they also provide a web log open to all. In English and Spanish.