Back in 2006, I was in Barcelona for the 3GSM conference. After part of the team announcing a new product from Nokia, I went to a gathering organised by Real Networks, and then was planning to go to another event. On the way, I quickly, and I mean quickly, took a photograph by balancing my Casio camera on a bollard. (That’s me taking it, thanks to Nick). I took just one, and carried on walking.

I was quite pleased with the final result, and slung it into my Flickr stream. And thought nothing particularly about it.

Until a few months ago, when the Ministry of Sound contacted me about the photo. Could they use it for the cover of a new album? Sure. We agreed terms, I waited a few months… and there it is, in the niftily-produced photo montage above.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been published. Photographs I’ve taken have been used (at least, cleared for use) in the Russian edition of Time magazine; in a few books, some of which haven’t come out yet; in some postcards in Switzerland (oddly); in a video montage used by a comany to flog stuff; and apparently this one has also been used for a San Miguel promotion (the agency promised to send me lots of beer as payment, but I guess they never used it in the end).

What’s interesting is how excited I am about my photograph being produced in a way that the public will see it. And then I reflected that my photographs are everywhere, thanks to the magic of Creative Commons. The thrill is that it’s available in a physical format, rather than just another link from another website somewhere.

Which says a lot about why most people prefer physical CDs, rather than downloads; why bookshops and travel agents still exist on the high street; and why newspapers are still read by a large amount of the population. The internet’s gone some way; but the physical is still just as important sometimes.

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