Like just about everything else in the world, the digital revolution has fundamentally changed the way photographers operate. Only the most ardent traditionalists use film anymore and editing is done on laptops instead of darkrooms. Images are shared in new ways, on new platforms, and, in the rare instances where images are printed, it's almost always done via the web.
Unless you're incredibly grumpy, most of these changes have been welcome. After all, there's nothing stopping photographers from shooting black and white film and developing it in their closet. We've rounded up five NYC tech companies helping to reinvent photography.
Shutterstock is the old man of New York’s photo-tech boom, and today the company operates one of the premier online marketplaces for buying and selling commercial digital images (as well as video and music). If you have photos you want to license and sell to companies, this is where you list them. If you're a brand that needs an image of just about anything, chances are you can find it here — for a price. Shutterstock has been so successful that today they call the Empire State Building home, and that home comes with a stunning patio.
Founded: 2003
So you have your masterpiece of a photo and now have no idea what to do with it? Upload it to Level Frames and they’ll print it, put it in a museum quality frame and ship it to your door so that you can show it off. If you don't quite have a masterpiece, the company also offers a service that runs your meh photos through an artistic filter to make them look like they were painted by a half-drunk post-impressionist. Who knew that an artificially intelligent Van Gogh was so easy to program? It's time to turn that photo of your dog into something classy.
Founded: 2014
Tweed Wolf solves a very real problem: what do you do with the thousands of digital photos you’ve collected but never look at? Simply upload them to the company's platform and Tweed Wolf's professional designers and curators will dig through and select the best ones and compile them to tell a story. They’ll then take those and arrange them into a hardcover photo album that you can share.
Founded: 2015
Placewire runs a platform that allows people to share news and information about their neighborhood by sharing photos. Think of it kind of like Instagram, only with photos sorted by neighborhood and overlaid with text. Of course, as you might expect, the feed usually turns into a photo-heavy bitch fest, but that's part of the fun. The service is in its infancy, but there is no shortage of grumpy users who are angry about things like the type of bricks a developer used for a new building or the lack of wash-and-fold places in the West Village. The trials and tribulations of a charmed life, captured forever by the lens of an iPhone.
Founded: 2016
Clarifai isn’t exactly a photography company, but their technology is already changing the industry. Clarifai allows computers to see using artificial intelligence. Using their technology, computers can scan and index huge image catalogs in seconds. The photography-sharing website 500px.com already uses the service to automatically tag images that users upload, making it easier to sort through the millions of photos hosted on the site. Soon, the computers will decide what’s a good photo and what isn’t.
Founded: 2013
Images via companies featured
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