Public Domain Photos

June 29, 2008 7:23 AM

I'd like to find some public domain photos for a book proposal on urban sprawl and smart growth.

I'm helping my professors with a book proposal for my graduate assistantship and have been tasked with finding high resolution photos. They must be in the public domain and should be examples of either urban sprawl or smart growth. Where should I start looking?

Thanks for your help!

posted by hamster to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

you might want to check out the LOC's flickr stream. everything there is public domain, as far as they know.

Q: Can I reuse the photos the Library has made available on Flickr? What are the rights and permissions on these? Can I reproduce these pictures?
A: Although the Library of Congress does not grant or deny permission to use photos, the Library knows of no copyright restrictions on the publication, distribution, or re-use of these photos. Privacy rights may apply. For further information see the rights, see the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection color photographs rights information and the George Grantham Bain Collection rights information.

posted by misanthropicsarah at 8:40 AM on June 29, 2008

Find existing books in your subject area and note the source of photos used in them.

Your two descriptive terms ("urban sprawl" "smart growth") are not necessarily the best terms to use in searches. You need to brainstorm as many terms as possible that might return relevant results.

Big city public libraries are a source of historical photos.

Here are some sources for photos of Los Angeles

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lamapped/
http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/lat/
posted by conrad53 at 10:09 AM on June 29, 2008

You could call the developers of anything you consider "smart growth" (ie, if some master planned developments would qualify). They're happy to share their promotional material.
posted by salvia at 1:37 PM on June 29, 2008

Assuming you have a little bit of time, why not take a few photos yourself? It seems like Minneapolis should be ripe for picture possibilities which could illustrate both aspects of your search. While you can find historic photos as suggested above, most of those probably will not illustrate more modern concepts. All you need is a digital camera and transportation.
posted by JJ86 at 7:21 AM on June 30, 2008

1. Look at the CD accompanying Visualizing Density, by Julie Campoli and Alex S. MacLean, published by the Lincoln Land Institute.

2. Contect the folks at CNU and/or post the query to one of their listservs if you're a member.
posted by carmicha at 10:20 AM on June 30, 2008