A lot has happened over the course of that year. For example, I was able to talk with Thomas Leuthard on Fotisofa about Unsplash and the reasons why I make my photos available for free. I received an enquiry for postcard motifs, and someone wanted to decorate their Airbnb apartment with my photos from Zurich. I also received a badge for being active in the community, especially on Slack. A few days ago, one of my images was even selected as “Photo of the Day” and appeared in the Unsplash header for 24 hours.
My images have been used for websites, YouTube videos, and even Instagram posts. Many accounts credited me, while others passed them off as their own. So what.
Finally, here are a few numbers after one year on Unsplash:
- 382 uploads
- 96 photos in the “Editorial” home feed
- over 50 images with more than 1000 downloads
- 4 images with more than one million views
- over 50 million views
- almost 150000 downloads
- over 3200 likes
- 1 time Photo of the Day
- 122 followers
The most important number for me is the downloads. That is what shows me that making my images available was the right decision, because someone out there can definitely make use of them.
But the most important thing is this: Unsplash is fun for me. I enjoy giving something back. And above all, I enjoy it much more than Instagram, because no one in the community wants to compete with others, or has to.