Is Pic-a-Pedia free … why?

Yes, Pic-a-Pedia is free and I hope to keep it that way for as long as absolutely possible.

This is an archive of pictures that were created by the average/everyday person while they lived their lives. These pictures can be from a park just down the road from where we live or from the other side of the world. I deeply believe this collection is a celebration of life that everyone deserves to experience. Please take the time to read the About Us/Mission page it may help you understand where my thoughts are running.

I am not a historian – these images aren’t necessarily portraying momentous events in history and that’s the point. In more cases than not these pictures are just everyday people living their lives. What is more historic than the passage of time?

I am not a curator – I don’t know if this is the best way to do this and I suspect as the archive grows I may need to go through a number of revisions to accommodate the growth and changes in complexity but I do know I had to start somewhere.

I’m not a critic – As you look through the pictures you will see them in the rawest form. I will not apply any filtering, color balancing or editing of any kind. During the scanning process I have done some light cleaning, mostly a gentle wipe to remove the majority of the dirt/dust, but as you’ll see many of these originals have not been treated well and there are numerous scratches and such. You will also see some are blurry or too dark or off center and that’s just fine. Why? Because these people took pictures to remember these experiences in their lives and were not professionals without in-depth photpgraphic knowledge, skill or equipment. An exceptional picture is always great to get but when you come right down to it they didn’t want perfect, they just wanted something to capture and show what mattered .

Ultimately I feel this needs to be done so here we go.

Thank you,

Tom