Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Is there any practical use for a digital camera in your phone? and one that led us so we could feature them in a gallery on the website each week.

This was, of course, many years before the term "citizen journalist" was in common use; although we hoped that at some stage we would get a newsworthy image, the idea was simply to provide a platform for keen photographers to share their pictures.

On ; to be honest, we had no idea if we'd get any, let alone the ten we felt we'd need to run a gallery later in the week.

It turned out we needn't have worried: we received more than 100 pictures, and ran a selection in a pop-up gallery .

Of course, news pictures soon started to flow, the first being a shot of the Staten Island fire in New York. Pictures of events in the news soon became a regular feature - but it was the 2005 London bombings when readers' pictures led the way. We received many hundreds of images, , photographs that went on to be picked up by the national and international press.

All rights to the pictures remained with the photographers, who were free to negotiate their own deals with other outlets.

Today, as the first decade of digital photography draws to a close, I thought it would be good to show those first ten pictures from our readers once again, and see whether any of the photographers are still out there and indeed still looking at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ site.

So, if you were one of , please do drop me a line via e-mail or leave a comment - it'd be great to hear from you.

One photographer I did manage to track down is whose led to us featuring a longer version of her story on .

I asked her what she'd been up to in the intervening years. She said:

"After spending almost a year and a half in Nairobi, I returned to Washington DC to continue my work in international development. Photography kept calling me back and eventually I left one career for another and I now work full-time for National Geographic Magazine.
"This is a dream come true for me. Every day, I have the opportunity to learn from the world's most elite and talented documentary photographers, photojournalists and artists. Hopefully one day all of this will rub off!"

One of Sherry's pictures is at the top of this article; she told me:

"This is a photo of my neighbour, who is lovingly referred to by all who know him as Uncle Willy. He is a friend, a drummer in the Meridian Hill Sunday drum circle, a Baptist preacher and an expert cobbler! He lives in Washington DC and one only need meet him once to remember him - his laughter can always be heard long before he is seen!"

It's good to hear that Sherry is still taking pictures and now working in the area she loves most; I'm sure we'll stay in touch. .

I thought I'd finish with a thought from Bill Thompson, who wrote in which he said:

"Soon there will be photographs of me, perhaps taken without my knowledge, on websites all over the net...
"What about the snap that shows you asking for directions from a stranger, when that stranger turns out to be a terrorist suspect and you end up being questioned?"

Prophetic indeed - it's hard to believe how much has changed in just seven years.

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