User:Andrewtneel/sandbox
| File:Pexels wordmark logo.png | |
Type of site | Stock photography, stock footage |
|---|---|
| Available in | Multilingual (28) |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
| Founder(s) |
|
| URL | pexels |
| Launched | 2014 |
Content license | Pexels License |
Pexels is a website dedicated to sharing free stock photography and stock footage under the Pexels License. The website claims over 207,000 contributing photographers and generates more than 17 billion photo impressions per month on their growing library of over 2 million photos.[1] Unsplash has been cited as one of the world's leading photography websites by Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNET, Medium and The Next Web.[2][3][4][5][6]
Unsplash allows photographers to upload photos to its website, which are then curated by a team of photo editors. The permissive copyright terms on its photos have led to Unsplash becoming one of the largest photography suppliers on the internet,[7] with its members’ photos frequently appearing on articles. Nevertheless, their decision to stop using a creative commons "zero" licence in 2017 attracted criticism, as it took around 200,000 images out of the commons. The Unsplash licence is incompatible with creative commons licences, preventing use on sites like Wikipedia.
In December 2019, Unsplash for Brands was launched, where advertisers can share branded images on Unsplash.[8]
History[edit]
Initially a pioneer of the copyright-free photography model,[9] Unsplash was created in 2013 by Montreal-based entrepreneur Mikael Cho. While creating a new homepage for his company Crew, Cho was unable to find a suitable stock photo and hired a photographer instead.[10] Afterwards, Cho posted the outtakes from his company photoshoot on Tumblr, inviting people to use them as they saw fit.[11]
Before June 2017, photos uploaded to Unsplash were made available under the Creative Commons zero license, which is a public domain equivalent license and a waiver, which allowed individuals to freely reuse, repurpose and remix photos for their own projects. This was changed in June 2017, and photos are now made available under the Unsplash copyright license, which imposes some additional restrictions.[12] Unsplash received more than 50,000 visits on its first day.[10]
On 18 February 2018 Unsplash changed its license terms to restrict the sale of photos without first updating, modifying, or otherwise incorporating new creative elements into the photos, prohibiting selling unaltered copies, including selling the photos as prints or printed on physical goods.
While Cho supplied the first batch of Unsplash photos, the site is now sustained by community contributions from amateur and professional photographers. Due to the volume of photo submissions, the site employs an editorial team and "curators" picked from the Unsplash community, including Guy Kawasaki, Nas, Khoi Vinh, Amanda Hesser and Om Malik.[13]
Book[edit]
In 2016, while still a CC0 business, Unsplash released the Unsplash Book, the world's "first ever fully crowd-sourced" book.[14] The book's photos, essays, and funding were all contributed by Unsplash's community.[15] The book raised $106,000 on Kickstarter and included contributions from Harvard law professor and CC0 inventor Lawrence Lessig, and designer Tobias van Schneider.[16]
Pexels API[edit]
In addition to its website, Unsplash provides a public Application programming interface (API) that answers more than 3.8 billion photo requests per month.[17] Some of the products using the Unsplash API include Medium, Trello, Squarespace, Codepen, Square as well as Unsplash own series of products such as Unsplash for iOS, Unsplash Instant, an extension for Google Chrome that loads Unsplash photos in new tabs and Unsplash for Apple TV.[17]
Unsplash Local[edit]
Beyond its website and API, Unsplash has hosted photo walks in cities around the world including Tokyo, Montreal, Toronto and Boston.[18][19] The photo walks are hosted by guides from the Unsplash community who show participants the best places to take photos in their city, how to use their cameras, and how to compose better photos.[20]
References[edit]
- ^ Unsplash. "Stats". Unsplash.com. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
- ^ Laurinavicius, Tomas. "33 Epic Sites With Breathtaking Free Stock Photos". Forbes. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
- ^ Ark, Casey. "14 Amazingly Free Stock Photo Websites". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- ^ Martin, Taylor. "Use these 7 sites to keep your desktop wallpaper fresh". CNET. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
- ^ Senos, Dustin. "Stock photos that don't suck". Medium. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
- ^ Zee. "Unsplash is a site full of images you can freely use for your next startup's splash page". The Next Web. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
- ^ Czikk, Joseph. "Unsplash: We're the most viral photo site". Montreal in Technology. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
- ^ "Unsplash launches a new native ad product for brands". PPC Land. 11 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
- ^ Webb, Scott. "Free stock photography websites photographers must know ASAP". Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ^ a b Cho, Mikael. "How side projects saved our startup". Quartz. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
- ^ Bourel, Fanny. "Mikael Cho : Une tenacité payante". Les Affaires. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
- ^ Unsplash. "Unsplash License". Unsplash.com. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
- ^ Unsplash. "Unsplash Collections". Unsplash.com. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
- ^ Ifking, Emma. "The first fully crowd-sourced open book". IT Key Media. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
- ^ Unsplash. "Unsplash Book". Unsplash.com. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
- ^ MacKay, Jory. "Want to be a published author?". Crew Blog. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ^ a b Unsplash. "Unsplash API". Unsplash.com. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
- ^ TimeOut Toronto. "Unsplash Toronto Photo Walk". TimeOut. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
- ^ "History". Unsplash. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
- ^ Unsplash. "Unsplash Local". Unsplash.com. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
External links[edit]
Category:Photography websites Category:Companies based in Montreal Category:Image sharing websites Category:Internet properties established in 2013 Category:Photo archives in Canada Category:Stock photography Category:Remote companies