Created two years ago by former Saba Press Photo Editor Evan Nisselson, Digital Railroad is an internet based archive system that allows individual photographers to create their own on-line archive, and gives them the image viewing and download technology comparable with major photo agencies.

Having signed up shortly after their launch I now find myself among the 30 agencies and 550 photographers whose archives are stored in an electronic library of Alexandria, protected by monitored security, fire-suppression systems and an uninterruptible power supply. VII, Grazia Neri and EVE Photographers are listed among the agencies, Anthony Suau, Tim Page, and Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert among the photographers. I’m in serious company.

Individual subscription to Digital Railroad (DRR) costs around £27 a month with 20 GB of storage space included. Additional storage can be bought as required.

Raft of new features

In 2004 the heart of the system was aimed at releasing photographers from the grind of multiple edits, burning of DVDs and FedEx shipments. But by 2006 competitors Third Light and PhotoShelter had shown e-commerce and a cross-archive search engine are important tools for the on-line photographer.

In response DRR is promising a raft of new features. Digital Railroad Marketplace is the most significant new feature because their system at present will not market your work for you.

To be fair that was probably not their original intention, but the great documenter of Russia and Eastern Europe, Paris based Anthony Suau sees the clock ticking for DRR and although enjoying the easy upload and ftp syndication of their system is critical of the limited site design, small display image size and poor type options. Get those right and install Marketplace and Anthony might be persuaded to persevere with DRR.

Perseverance is my intention because the company’s sense of community has led them to associate with photo-friendly organisations like the Plus Coalition, Fifty Crows, foto8 and Editorial Photographers (the US inspiration for EPUK). And the DRR support team – perhaps their greatest asset – are efficient, helpful and keen to explain.

Unique and diverse

For Emma Sargent who manages Tim Page’s huge image archive in Australia the ease of uploading via FTP is vitally important. She also finds the DRR interface easy to navigate and loves the keyword searching, image tagging, editing, lightboxes and viewer registration facilities. But like Anthony Suau, Emma is looking forward to Digital Railroad Marketplace which she believes will put all the individual DRR subscribers in the same league as the large image providers.

What DRR seems to have done is attract a unique and diverse array of photographers and photojournalists who have all got niche angles and stories to tell, says Page’s enthusiastic assistant.

One of DRR’s newest subscribers is Tokyo-based Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert who has been uploading like a typhoon during his free trial month. Jeremy had lost sales because he couldn’t access his images whilst on assignment, now with DRR he has an accessible archive from which download permissions can be granted for the times he is too busy taking photographs.

Clunky or flexible ?

Evan Nisselson says DRR are keen to provide a system that picture editors recognise and are comfortable with, but Jeremy’s first experiences with DRR and busy picture editors was that the editors gave up and asked for the images to be emailed directly. The familiarisation issue is something I have encountered, finding monthly magazine art directors and designers savvy with technology happier accessing images via DRR than time-pressed picture editors from former Fleet Street.

But take a look at DRR’s Buyer Directory where you’ll see many big name publishers from Spain’s El Pais to National Geographic now access images via DRR, and you’ll begin to realise how a standardised system familiar to art directors and picture editors across the globe could benefit us all.

Perhaps like many subscribers of Digital Railroad I have found the system – although at times clunky – has added to my on-line presence, and has proved useful when supplying commissioned work to customers who could enjoy the flexibility of being able to download the images they want in the sizes they require at a time that is convenient to them.

I have made only one “cold” sale from my site in two years. But with Digital Railroad Marketplace coming on stream – hopefully very soon – an opportunity to be part of a rich and diverse one-stop picture library, with each individual in control of their own archive may arise. This might just be the community that competes with the big boys.


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