Photographers on Pinterest – The Definitive List

by Klaus Herrmann

●16. February 2012 ●in connect, original ●1068 Comments

You are on Pinterest and you are trying to find fellow photographers to follow and interact with? You are planning to join Pinterest and you don’t know how to start off? Then this is for you.

At the end of this post, you will find a list of photographers who are active on Pinterest. View their boards, re-pin their content, follow them!

You can join the list too. It’s free, it’s easy, and there is no requirement on your skill level. Read on to find out how to join!

You will find my Pinterest profile at http://pinterest.com/farbspiel/.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is the new kid on the block in terms of social sharing sites on the Internet. It provides a clean and simple platform for sharing your favorite content (not only photos) on the Internet in a visually appealing way with board and pins. You can pin anything you like to a set of boards you create and organize, and it will show up as an image icon. Especially for photographers, this is a very nice way to share their work and other stuff they are interested in to show people who they are and what they are about.

Simplicity – Good and Bad!

The simplicity is certainly a strength of the platform, but it is also a weakness. Why? Because the lack of an adequate search mechanism makes it quite hard to find other “pinners” that share the same interests. For example, finding all the photographers on Pinterest quickly is literally impossible. You have to make a long journey through the pins made by others and collect evidence as to who might be a photographer. In terms of following the right people and building a community, this is suboptimal.

Critique

There has been an enormous amount of controversy about the Pinterest Terms of Service (TOS). Many photographers were in great fear that Pinterest might start selling their photos since prior to March 24th 2012 their TOS apparently gave them the right to do so. After an update to the TOS, however, that danger seems to have disappeared. Read more on the controversy and the discussion in my article Will Pinterest sell your images? I don’t think so!

What this List is About

Therefore, I have collected photographers that are active on Pinterest wherever I could and set up this list. You can use it as an index to find out if any specific photographer is on Pinterest, or you can go through (a selection of) the profiles and visit them directly. Note, however, that the list is far from being complete. Thus, if you don’t find a specific photographer on the list, he or she may still be on Pinterest.

The “Best of Pinterest Photographers” Board

Important Note: There are some problems with the board. Pinterest is randomly removing users that I added. I will try to fix that, but you may lose the board due to this. I am contacting Pinterest about this, but there is no solution so far.

In addition to being on the list, you will get the right to pin your best image to the “Best of Pinterest Photographers” board on my profile. That board represents a visual catalogue of all members on the list that people can use to go directly to your profile. With every update, I will add the new members as contributors to the “Best of Pinterest Photographers” board. From that point on, these people have the right to pin things to this board. This is meant for you to pin your best photo there as a visual reference to your profile (see above). Please do not abuse it!

The board is located at http://pinterest.com/farbspiel/best-of-pinterest-photographers/

Do not Spam the Board

Let me reiterate this, because it’s important: Every member shall only pin a single photo to the board! Please do not spam the board with your your photos, and do not pin the same photo multiple times. This would not be polite, and contrary to what you may think, it does not increase your reputation among the other people on the board. I cannot delete any specific photo from the board, but if I see somebody abusing it, I will remove that person and, in effect, all of his /her photos together with the right to post ever again.

It goes without saying that porn, racist, criminal and similar content is unacceptable.

Two Important Notes

The idea of adding all the list members to a single board and letting them contribute is experimental. I did not find any information on the max number that you can add to a board, and I still have to find out how much work it will be to add everybody. But let’s try this. If it works, it should be fun!
It will take some time to add initial set of people to the board. Manually adding everybody is a slow process, and mass adding people in any form may get me into trouble. So, I may have to throttle this a bit. Please be patient!

How to Use the Board

Below, I will explain how you get access to the board. Once you have access, please be fair. You should only pin your single best photo, no more. You can write a little description if you like, but please do not write novels. 3 sentences should be enough. Please don’t use it to write spam.

How to Join the List

There are a few simple steps you need to carry out in order to join the list:

Check if you are already on the list.
Add a comment below indicating your name and your Pinterest profile address (Example: “Klaus Herrmann, http://pinterest.com/farbspiel/“). This is the important information I need to add you. You may add a brief description if you wish, but your name and your address in one line is important.
Wait for an email notification telling you that you have been added to the “Best of Pinterest Photographers” board. From that point on, you are officially on the list, and you may pin things to the board.
Contribute your best shot to the “Best of Pinterest Photographers” board on my profile after you have been added.
Share this post on your social networks (optional). This is not a strict requirement to be added, but it helps spreading the word, giving the list (and therefore you) more exposure. You can simply use the sharing buttons to the left.
Follow me on Pinterest at pinterest.com/farbspiel (optional). This is not mandatory either, but maybe you like my pins. 😉

How the List will be Updated

I will update the list manually in regular intervals. So please understand that joining is not an instant process. It may take a while for your name to actually show up on the list and for you to be able to pin to the board.

The List

Version: 1.10; Last update: 30.11.2012 14:30 CET; People on the list: 1047

Tips: People added in the last update are highlighted. Click any name to go directly to the Pinterest profile of that person. Ctrl-Click to open the profile on a new tab.