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Research

At the Flickr Foundation, our aim is to be a research-driven organization. This means grounding our programs, tools and priorities in what our community needs and values.

Our Approach

Our research is guided by ethical, anti-extractive principles that acknowledge photography’s complex social histories and the contemporary challenges of networked data stewardship. Where possible, we aim to keep our research documentation and publications open-facing and accessible.

Research Fellowships

We host yearly fellowships, ensuring the Flickr Foundation is shaped by a diversity of perspectives, leading to better long term preservation of the Flickr Archive. Fellows allow us to explore the creative possibilities of Flickr as a archive and reinterpret otherwise dormant narratives. Bringing fresh perspectives to Flickr helps keep Flickr alive for the next 100 years, as a used archive is a living one.

Learn more about fellowships
Day 1, London Data Lifeboat Workshop

Building with our community

Our work doesn’t take place in isolation, we regularly host workshops and attend events as both speakers and guests, keeping us connected with the wider world of photography, archiving, and tech.

See upcoming events

Research Partners

We are building an intersectional group across history, ethics of care, the commons, digital humanities, organisational development, and archival practice. Please do contact us if your work blends well.

Eliza Gregory

Eliza is a social practice artist, a photographer, an educator, a curator and a writer. She’s in the Department of Design, Sacramento State College.
elizagregory.org

Dr Padmini Ray Murray

Padmini is a feminist researcher, maker and the founder-director of Design Beku—a collective of researchers, artists, technologists and designers who work towards making design and digital practice more locally rooted, contextually relevant and ethical. She’s based in Bengaluru.
designbeku.in

Dr. Temi Odumosu

Temi is assistant professor and curator at the University of Washington Information School in Seattle. She is an art historian and archive excavator challenging distorted images. Her artistic research approaches ethics of care in the digital cultural commons.
temiodumosu.com

Professor Melissa Terras

Melissa is Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh‘s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, since 2017.
melissaterras.org

Professor Matt Ward

Matt Ward is Professor of Design at Goldsmiths, where he has worked for over 20 years. His work engages in a wide range of subjects from speculative design to radical pedagogy. He’s a practicing designer, writer and all-round enthusiastic amateur generalist.
gold.ac.uk

Professor Jane Winters

Jane is Professor of Digital Humanities and Director of the Digital Humanities Research Hub at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
sas.ac.uk/jane-winters

Latest research posts from our blog

Oreoluwa’s Midpoint Reflections

Flickr Foundation's Winter Research Fellow shares their reflections on the Fellowship so far and the next phases of their creative, archival research

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Flickr Foundation at Mozilla Festival

Tori and George headed to Barcelona to talk digital legacy in the age of social media and what should be done about it

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Data Lifeboats at the XVI International Conference of the Image

Our second stop on the European conference circuit was Paris, for the Sixteenth International Conference on The Image where George and Tori shared the release of Data Lifeboat and the importance of citizen-driven collecting.

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