Getty Images in deal to distribute Flickr photos

Getty Images and Yahoo! on Wednesday announced a deal which the digital media company will distribute pictures shared at Yahoo!'s Flickr website.

Getty is handling commercial licensing of a Flickr Collection of "inspirational and unexpected" photographs selected by image service editors, Getty said.

"We are impressed with the talent from the Flickr community, and are proud to once again lead our industry in this exciting new direction," said Getty chief executive and co-founder Jonathan Klein.

The collection features conceptual imagery, such as unique perspectives of everyday scenes and artistic portraits, taken by users of the photo-sharing website, according to Getty.

The Flickr collection is expected to grow by thousands of pictures monthly and will be available to Getty customers in royalty-free and paid licensing models.

"This collection reflects the unique perspective Flickr offers as the 'eyes of the world' and is testament to our community of photographers, who have shared their authentic visions with the world," said website general manager Kakul Srivastava.

"Providing our members with a way to bring their imagery to Getty Images' worldwide customer base through this partnership has been an important step for us and we look forward to seeing the collection evolve over time."

Getty said it will invite selected Flickr users to add their photographs to the collection.

"The Flickr Collection is determined by the lives of those who contribute to it," said Getty vice president of creative imagery Andy Saunders.

"The collection changes the definition of 'stock' photography by making it even easier for our customers to find and license imagery that is unexpected, genuinely original, and created by an untapped imagery resource -- people everywhere."

Agence France-Presse has content sharing agreements with Getty under which the US firm distributes digital photographs provided by AFP.

(c) 2009 AFP