Getty Images takes Flickr commercial

Getty Images and Flickr are working together to establish the first commercial licensing opportunity for photo-enthusiasts in the Flickr community.

The Flickr collection will feature photography selected by Getty Images editors based on their expertise in licensing digital content and insights into customers’ needs.

In the next several months, Getty Images will begin inviting selected Flickr members who will have the choice to participate in the collection. The two companies are collaborating to build online tools to help editors contact Flickr members, and to add images to the new collection. Over the next several months, thousands of high-quality images will be available for licensing on www.gettyimages.com with a goal of making many more available over time.

“Through this partnership, we will be offering an expanded choice of imagery with more regionally relevant content and a wider range in the style of photography available,” said Andy Saunders, Vice President of Creative Imagery at Getty Images.

“Flickr’s philosophy of personal sharing and immediacy has already impacted commercial photography. The new Flickr collection will expand the definition of stock photography by making it even easier for our customers to find and license imagery that works in the full range of traditional and digital media.”

Getty Images will be the exclusive commercial rights manager of the photos selected to become part of the collection. Flickr members will benefit from Getty Images’ global sales and distribution teams helping to market their images and from Getty Images’ expertise and experience in rights and clearances of visual content.

The exclusive partnership allows Getty Images to invite Flickr members to participate in a Flickr branded collection on www.gettyimages.com that will be available for licensing to Getty Images’ creative, commercial and editorial customers in the coming months.

“We are excited and proud to be partnering with Flickr to offer our customers even more choice for their projects. Our customers will be able to select and use the best imagery from a fresh collection of high-quality images chosen by us from Flickr’s diverse and prolific community,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. “Flickr is the ideal partner as we continue to move the imagery industry forward by offering the broadest range of high quality digital content to our customers.”

“This partnership is testimony to the Flickr community of photographers who have influenced the aesthetics of photography with authentic, creative and cutting-edge images which will now be available to Getty Images’ customers around the world,” said Kakul Srivastava, General Manager, Flickr.

“We share Getty Images’ commitment to the power of imagery and are thrilled to be working with the unrivaled leader in image licensing. Getty Images offers an unbeatable platform, licensing expertise, and a premier brand for Flickr members who want to bring their imagery to a worldwide customer base.”