Unique Pictures

The Guardian – My Best Shot
Absolutely delicious stories about the making of some of the most memorable images in contemporary photography. Photographers from Annie Leibovitz to William Wegman select their favourite shot, not necessarily the most famous one, and relate the story of that image. The collection reveals moments of hilarious awkwardness, careful observation, blind luck and transformative insight. The Guardian’s chatty photo blog is also an excellent source for photo historians.

Great Images in NASA (GRIN) 
As opposed to a general archive, GRIN is a collection of over a thousand purposefully chosen images of significant historical interest. Scanned at high-resolution in multiple sizes, this collection is intended for the media, publishers, and public looking for high-quality photographs

Hubble Site 
The mechanical eye of the Hubble Space Telescope has captured some of the most compelling and poetic images of our time. Polished and dynamic, the Hubble Site is information central for those fascinated with the progress of this voyage. There is news from space, descriptions of discoveries, explanations of science, and hundreds of beautiful high resolution images of planets, stars nebulae and more. These remarkable images are all ready to download as wall paper or as prints. It is hard not to get caught up in the excitement that this project generates; photographing space means expanding the limits of our known world.

Iconic Photos
Photos that have captured a moment in time, influenced public perception, relate an untold story and photos that have described what words could never hope to are the subject of blogger Alex Selwyn-Holmes’ writing. Selwyn-Holmes investigates the often murky history behind “famous, infamous and iconic” photos, teasing the facts out of the myths and asking important questions about how these pictures have shaped our present understanding of events. This is a serious exploration of the power, both benign and malign, of photography.

The KKK Project
This is a difficult and disturbing subject to examine at best, and yet photojournalist James Edward Bates spent 16 years documenting the day to day lives of people who identify themselves as Ku Klux Klan members. The result is a collection of images that offers intimate insights into the contemporary lives and beliefs of a group that has long been the face of violent intolerance in American society. Bates’ Passing the Torch, Documenting the 21st Century Ku Klux Klan, a project that refuses simplistic answers, has been displayed at the prestigious Visa pour l’image festival in Perpignan, and was a finalist for the 2002 Gordon Parks Photography Competition.

Legacy Project - The Greatest Photograph 
Somewhere in Orange County, California, there is an abandoned military airfield that is being transformed into a huge metropolitan park, a process that has attracted the attention of group of artists who have taken the long view in documenting this process. The Legacy Project is the work of six “photographic artists,” who are committed to tracing the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station’s transition from barricaded military zone to public park. Although photography is their principal medium, video and oral histories will help to frame the subject. Size is a recurring theme in this project: what will be one of America’s biggest urban parks will be transformed over the length of a decade and captured on the world’s largest photograph. In a clever and compelling re-use of an abandoned airplane hangar, a building becomes a camera that captures its environment in a three stories high and eleven stories long panorama. This is just one of the Legacy Project’s means of approaching its subject, the rest will be revealed over time on this sharp looking site. An unusual and fascinating project, in essence and in scope.

lluminado Vidas, Fotografia Moçambicana 1950-2001 
This site documents a traveling exhibition that offered up something rare to western eyes: a view of the rich tradition of reportage photography in Mozambique. This project was created to help Mozambique, and indeed the world, re-discover this nation’s important photographic tradition. Led by the country’s most renowned veteran photographer, Ricardo Rangel, the exhibition showcased the next generation of great documentarians continuing in the Mozambican line. The website features the photographer’s biographies and personal statements – fascinating - as well as a sampling of images from the exhibition. 

NASA Picture of the Day Archive 
Rather than the joyous entanglement of endless archives, one is served up with a single image per day. Laid bare is the astonishing evolution of astronomical imaging. The sophistication of pictures today compared to 1995 when the initiative began is plain for all to see. What will opti-technological advances reveal in the future?

NASA-NSSDC Photo Gallery 
NASA’s photo gallery contains images that have profoundly changed the world - or at least our perception of it. The somewhat awkward and low-tech presentation can do nothing to diminish the power of first pictures of the earth from the moon, or the surreal images of Jupiter taken by the Voyager satellite. NASA’s collection of space photography serves to remind us of the photography’s power to reveal what had only been imagined before.

Photogravure 
This well-organized site offers a great overview of the history of the age-old photogravure process, in which metal plate engravings were used to create lush, artful photographs. The site also includes extensive information on conservation and collecting, including historical articles, texts by experts, a glossary, a blog, and links. After getting a primer on the medium, visitors can peruse examples of photogravure by dozens of photographers including Édouard Baldus, Peter Henry Emerson, Paul Strand, and William Henry Fox Talbot. 

Time Magazine Photo Essays 
One of the few remaining publications that showcase traditional photojournalism and reportage, Time Magazine’s site offers a fascinating compendium of photo essays and current news pictures. To flip through Time’s numerous slide shows, featuring a truly eclectic range of topics, is to remember how vital professional photojournalism is to the way we understand the world and the stories we tell about ourselves.