The internet is awash with images. Many professional photographers see this explosion of access as a devaluation of the art form, but most revel in the leveling of the playing field. Images from the dozens of popular photo sharing sites are tagged, ranked and categorized in a mostly democratic system. For Wikipedia and other educationally centered sites, the encyclopedic value of these photos has improved dramatically with time.
The legal status of images has stifled their appearance online, but as national archives from around the world recognize the cultural significance of their holdings, they are more prone to release them. A [...]




