DEVELOP Tube: A Photographic Resource Grows

3 minute read

Available on both YouTube and Vimeo, DEVELOP Tube is a video channel that offers resources for photographers. Each project featured on DEVELOP Tube is carefully curated from the photography-related selections of the two video services, with the goal of reflecting and informing some aspect of the photographic community. Thousands of videos are showcased there, from behind the scenes looks at the editing process to trailers for photography-related films. There’s a discussion with photographer Stephen Shore, who helped popularize color photography, about working with Andy Warhol, as well as a multimedia piece about the U.S. economy. Elsewhere, there’s an interview with war photographer Joao Silva, who was wounded in Afghanistan in 2010, about “the biggest fight of the photographer.”

But DEVELOP Tube is only a small part of a larger project.

DEVELOP’s founder, Erica McDonald, is an American photographer, curator and teacher, whose career has taken her into magazines, newspapers, galleries and schools around the world. But, she says, she had come to recognize that her geographic location and her connections were giving her a leg up on other photographers, those in isolated regions or just beginning their careers. She wanted to change that.

“I see people around the world who maybe don’t have the same foundation or connections or even opportunities or time or whatever it is, to know what’s what, what grants are available or where they could show their work,” she says. “I felt like I could do something to contribute to our community this way.”

That contribution is DEVELOP Photo, a website slated to launch as the next phase of McDonald’s project. Working as a “one-man band” except for back-end web engineering, she has also built the whole thing from scratch. She says DEVELOP Tube is just a teaser for the larger initiative. “Little did I realize it was going to be about two years later and I would’ve been working around the clock,” she says.

The project took on a life of its own and will, in its final iteration, include an online resource library, education workshops, a magazine aspect and more. Even now, the video channels are a rich source of photographic information. A few weeks ago, DEVELOP collaborated with other photography organizations (like Daylight Magazine and Slideluck Potshow) to host a “Women in Multimedia” night in Bologna, Italy, to showcase the work of many multimedia artists from around the world. Some participated as solo artists and some were part of a group multimedia piece. The event was the source of the works in the gallery shown above, and was part of a larger exhibit called Uncommon Intimacy, which was co-curated by McDonald and is on view now through March 15. And McDonald also is working on collaborating to produce a documentary photography workshop, to be held in New York City this coming June.

McDonald isn’t quite sure what the future holds once the full site launches. “I don’t want it to become a commercial endeavor per se, but I’m not sure I want it to become a non-profit,” she says, but the project continues to expand. “Whoever we work with, it should be in the collaborative spirit. It’s a really interesting, vibrant, alive confluence of pieces.”

Erica McDonald is an American photographer based in New York City. Find out more here.

The following images are from a selection of artists who participated in Women in Multimedia Night during Arte Fiera, curated by DEVELOP and Spazio Labo', and hosted on DEVELOP Tube.Develop Tube / Javier Sirvent
DEVELOP Tube on Vimeo
From the dark light of this nothing by Erica McDonald.Erica McDonald
From That's Life by Lauren Hermele.Lauren Hermele
From Seeking Food in Chicagoland by Emily Schiffer. Part of multimedia group piece.Emily Schiffer
From Two Million Homes for Mexico by Livia Corona. Part of multimedia group piece.Livia Corona
From City of Champions by Mary Beth Meehan. Part of multimedia group piece.Mary Beth Meehan
From Family Vacation by Katrin Björk.Katrin Björk
From Summer Island Kids by Winky Lewis. Part of multimedia group piece.Winky Lewis
From Gorelovka by Olya Ivanova. Part of multimedia group piece.Olya Ivanova
From Situations by Anne Huijnen.Anne Huijnen
From Closer - Pain - Crisis - Touch by Elinor Carucci.Elinor Carucci
From Home, Away From Home by Justine Reyes.Justine Reyes
From Corrélations by Aglaé Bory.Aglaé Bory
From Heaven is Under Construction by Mirjam Siefert.Mirjam Siefert
From Welt by Tatjana Schlör.Tatjana Schlör
From Green Hills, PA. by Christina Paige. Part of multimedia group piece.Christina Paige
From Under Gods by Liz Hingley. Part of multimedia group piece.Liz Hingley
From Oil Village by Rena Effendi.Rena Effendi—INSTITUTE
From Russia: Alcohol Abuse by Tatiana Plotnikova.Tatiana Plotnikova
From Down Mexico Way by Kirsten Luce.Kirsten Luce
From Destino by Michelle Frankfurter. Part of multimedia group piece.Michelle Frankfurter
From Paradise Rivers by Carolyn Drake.Carolyn Drake
From GM: The Aftermath by Kim Reierson.Kim Reierson
From The Hidden World of Vivian Maier by Vivian Maier.Vivian Maier—Maloof Collection
From Meet the Stars by Amy Lombard. Part of multimedia group piece.Amy Lombard
From Last Stop: Rockaway Park by Juliana Beasley.Juliana Beasley
From Amen by Jessica Hilltout. Part of multimedia group piece.Jessica Hilltout
From Making Music in Freetown by Glenna Gordon. Part of multimedia group piece.Glenna Gordon
From Built by Ying Ang. Part of multimedia group piece.Ying Ang
From In Hot Water by Hillary Atiyeh. Part of multimedia group piece.Hillary Atiyeh
From Disappearing Ice Age by Andrea Gjestvang. Part of multimedia group piece.Andrea Gjestvang
From The Nenets Herders, Last Nomads of the North by Anna Nemtsova.Anna Nemtsova
From Distant Relations by Lori Grinker. Part of multimedia group piece.Lori Grinker
From Stray Dogs by Mona Simon. Part of multimedia group piece.Mona Simon
From Buffer Zone by Mila Teshaieva.Mila Teshaieva

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com