Glasgow, Scotland – At 2:42 p.m. on Oct. 11, Dean Collins heard a thunderous explosion as he worked in his 30th-floor Manhattan apartment.
Collins looked out his window and saw that a small plane had crashed into a building right in front of him – the accident that killed New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor. Instinctively, he pulled out his digital camera.
Collins, a software-company consultant, said he remembered reading about Scoopt, a year-old agency in Scotland that brokers photos for “citizen journalists.” Within minutes, he had e-mailed his digital shots to Scoopt.
Hours later, his picture of a smoking Manhattan high-rise was in three British newspapers, including a front-page splash in the Times of London. He earned $650 for his work.
The rapid rise of digital technology, which enables ordinary people almost anywhere to record images and post them quickly on the Internet, is changing the way the world witnesses history, not to mention the dependable misbehavior of celebrities. Events that once were recorded only by human memory may now endure in full, pixelated detail, available in seconds around the globe.
The trend is driven by the proliferation of camera-equipped cellphones, introduced in 2000. Worldwide sales topped 460 million this year and are expected to reach 1 billion by 2010.
With the proliferation of images, prosecutors are increasingly relying on photos as evidence in cases against accused muggers, terrorists and other criminals. Insurance companies balance cellphone photos against recollection as they assess auto accidents.
And the presence of cellphone cameras in handbags and coat pockets means that for the famous, private space is shrinking fast. Scoopt also has sold cellphone photos of Michelle Rodriguez, star of the television show “Lost,” drinking and partying wildly at a bar in New York and shots of Paris Hilton dancing on a table in Las Vegas.
Forty-three years ago, one person with a home movie camera captured the only detailed images of the assassination of President John Kennedy. If today’s technology had existed then, dozens or even hundreds of people with cellphones and digital cameras probably would have recorded the shooting from every possible angle.
“We might actually know if there was somebody on the grassy knoll,” said Dan Gillmor, a California-based journalist and author.
Newspapers and TV networks urge readers and viewers to send in pictures of newsworthy events to supplement the work of its professional photographers. And Internet sites help distribute them widely. Sites such as YouTube and Flickr, where anyone can post their photos and video for public consumption, are wildly popular.
Kyle MacRae, 43, a former journalist and author of a dozen books on technology, started Scoopt with his wife, Jill, after the July 2005 transit bombings in London. Many of the most memorable images from the subway tunnels were made by commuters with camera phones.
In 15 months, Scoopt has registered almost 12,000 people in 97 countries. U.S.-based Cell Journalist and Spy Media and several other agencies that deal exclusively in celebrity photos are providing similar services.
