I’ve been following street artist, and active Flickr member C215’s work since a stencil of an enigmatic face showed up on my building one morning. A piece inspired by a photo he found on Flickr, according to a story in last Sunday’s UK Metro.

[Jon Cartwright's] rise to fame began in February when he posted on website Flickr a photo he took of himself smoking a cigarette. He then received a message from a Paris-based artist who calls himself C215. ‘This is a great picture of you. I will provide you soon or later a surprise,’ he wrote cryptically.

A person search, and a quick visit to Jon’s archives later, and I was able to find that original photo, “Hard Light”.

And the representation…

Congratulations to C215, and Jon Cartwright.

Photos from stephanemissier, Jon Cartwright, and C215

Photos from daliaspictures, Paper Dolls for Boys, and sakraft1.

Brenda Anderson ponders “How do we get from posting to to delivery?” in the new Flickr Commons Group. View the complete journey.

Photos from the Smithsonian Institution.

We’re back with another installment of 5 Questions. Please welcome Fate who was selected by our previous interviewee, karton kutuda shot zımbırtısı.

1. Fate, we know it’s a tough question, but if you had to pick just one camera to shoot with from now until the end of time, what would that be?

Fate: Yea it’s a tough question indeed, I don’t think I’ll use just one camera, I like to experiment. I would love to try the Lomo and I want to make a pinhole camera myself… once… Anyhow the camera I use now and will always keep using is the Canon A1. Analog rocks, digital sucks!

2. Another (possibly) tough question… Tell us your favourite photos on Flickr, and why you like them. First, a favourite from your photostream?

Fate: I actually adore my black/white pictures but in this picture I like the focus on the back of the truck, the sunlight and the road. Beside all these technical aspects this picture is special to me because of beautiful memories I have in this region.

And from another Flickr member?

Fate: Caglar is good. It just feels good, no comment.

3. What’s one tip that you would share with someone who’s just picking up a camera?

Fate: Put it back if you will make photos of roses, cakes and other stupid stuff.

4. When we interview peeps for employment here at Team Flickr, we always ask: “Kittens, babies, sunsets or flowers? Pick one.”

Fate: Definitely sunset, I love the sun. Sunrise and sunset are the best moments to do photography.

5. Which Flickr member should we ask these 5 questions of next?

Fate: Ask these tough questions to NuruL. H.. She’s chill.

Heather: Fate, thank you. We’ll be back soon with the next installment of 5 Question when we interview NuruL. H..

Photos from Fate, Caglar, and NuruL. H..

Previously, 5 Questions for Kevin Meredith, Steph Goralnick, Olivia Wright, Eric Lafforgue, Maciej Dakowicz, Swiatek Wojtkowiak, Bart Pogoda, Brett Walker, Susan Mac, Minas Papadopoulos, and karton kutuda shot zımbırtısı.

smallflightlessbird recently spent a weekend volunteering the Universidad de Guadalajara’s Sea Turtle Protection Station. While the photographs are wonderful, the video is Cute Overload material:

View more photos and video in smallflightlessbird’s turtle trip set.
Suggested by striatic in Flickr Central.

“The historic 2008 election inspired thousands of people around the world to post their Obama-themed photography and art on the image-sharing site Flickr. Here is the best of the 100,000 images TIME examined.” View the ‘Barack Obama on Flickr’ photo gallery on TIME

Photos from khezy, Jenny Murray, and omphale44.

It’s time again for another day in the life (DILO), the 18th celebrated on Flickr!

DILO? Take as many photos as you like this Sunday (December 21st), and then share your favourite 5 in the group pool. The full details on how to participate are available here.

Photos from reb, Old Shoe Woman, brappy♥, and Janey Kay (featuring DILO’s previous event on September 22, 2008).

Our Flickr Feline Overlords would like to remind you to stay safe over the holidays. If you’re celebrating the season with a Christmas tree, here are a few tips to keep “your tree green and your presents safe”.

Photos from Olivia Lou, You used to be alright, what happened?, aeoleinik, Becky H., and jessinfocus.

In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern boxes; and though they know us, and have been waiting two, ten, or twenty centuries for us,—some of them,—and are eager to give us a sign and unbosom themselves, it is the law of their limbo that they must not speak until spoken to; and as the enchanter has dressed them, like battalions of infantry, in coat and jacket of one cut, by the thousand and ten thousand, your chance of hitting on the right one is to be computed by the arithmetical rule of Permutation and Combination,—not a choice out of three caskets, but out of half a million caskets, all alike.

We’d like to welcome the New York Public Library to The Commons on Flickr today, joining with a curious selection from its collection; opening up 16 “caskets” for us to see!

Apart from all the beautiful photos that the Library is sharing in the Commons today, we’re also trying an experiment: NYPL librarians have already spent a ton of time describing many of these photos, particularly with subject headings that describe the contents of the images. Rather than discarding this information, we’ve added a selection of these tags as a nucleus for everyone else to build from; the hope is that this will provoke rather than stifle activity on the Commons, with librarians and non-librarians collaborating on the description of this material. Time will tell, though, so check back in a few months for some analysis.

This release of around 1,200 photographs include a collection taken of Ellis Island in the early 1900s, by Lewis Hine and others…

Beautiful documentary of a “Changing New York” in the 1930s, photographed by Berenice Abbott for the Federal Art Project (FAP) around 1935…

The contents of an “Album of Photographs of Japan”…

A “landmark in the histories both of photography and of publishing: the first photographic work by a woman - Anna Atkins (1799-1871) - and the first book produced entirely by photographic means”, Cyanotypes of British Algae…

There is a lot more to look through, 16 sets in all, from the Civil War to early modern dance to images of Egypt and Syria that compliment the Brooklyn Museum’s lantern slides beautifully, to a selection of their Farm Security Administration Collection, that also compliments the FSA photographs from The Library of Congress and more! Make sure you’ve finished work before you dive in ;)

And in other Commons news, The Library of Congress has released a report called “For The Common Good: The Library of Congress Flickr Pilot Project” (PDF) about their experience in The Commons and it’s a fascinating read. There’s also a summary version, in addition to the full report.

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed a tag, added a note, or posted a comment. What a thrill to have helped improve the data in the Library’s catalog!

For those who have lots of Flickr friends to keep track of, we’ve made some improvements especially for you.

Today we’re releasing changes to Flickr’s contact list page, that make finding, managing, and generally noodling-around with your contacts an easier and more enjoyable experience. You can now also now search for people within your contacts.

As usual, we welcome bug reports and feedback in the help forum.