Flickr Creative Showcase: Vision Quest

When Seattle-based Darien Chin began posting his personal photographs on Flickr four years ago, he had no idea what it would lead to. "When I first started on Flickr, it was only to share work that I had done and to learn more about photography," recalls Chin, 30. "I hadn't shot anything professionally. I just loved photography and making images."

Chin soon discovered the power of Flickr's social-networking reach. By prolifically updating his Flickr photostream, he developed a fan base on the globally popular photo-sharing site - and commercial interest in his work soon followed. "People started writing me through Flickr with job offers and image-licensing requests," says Chin. "When you gain a presence and more people pay attention to your work, they tend to think of you when some opportunity comes up that they think fits your style. They try to put you in touch with the right people to make things happen."

That's exactly how Chin ended up having his work used in a campaign for cellular-phone giant T-Mobile, created by Seattle ad agency Publicis in the West. "I heard about Darien's work through a mutual friend on Flickr," says Lauren Burks, formerly a recruiter for the agency who regularly scouted the site for talent. "[Creative director] Lindsay Daniels and I agreed that his work would be perfect for the T-Mobile 3G Sidekick LX campaign, because we were looking for someone capturing break dancing in a fun and innovative way." The client ended up buying yearlong unlimited rights to Chin's break-dancing self-portrait, "Footloose" (seen on the next page). The image, which is actually a composite of two shots, appeared on a Seattle-area billboard, and nationally on Web-based flash ads and even Xbox Live Wallpapers. "He's all over the campaign," says Burks.