Two hundred thousand

On 27th February 2013, I reached 200,000 views of my photos on Flickr. While it's somewhat arbitrary, reaching that rounded figure felt good. Perhaps there is some 'official' way of counting it, for me it was that the 'All Time' total view count reached 200,000. That included the views of my Photos and Videos (nearly 178,000), Photostream (just over 13,000) and Sets (nearly 9,000). I didn't get to see it flip from 199,999 to 200,000, but caught it at close to midnight on the 27th, when it had reached 200,112, having passed the numeric milestone some time that day.

It was cheering to see the individual photos that had been viewed that day, which brought me past 200,000 views. The photos were quite a cross-section of what I've photographed in the close to six years since my first upload. The most viewed photo (a whole four times) was this one from Occupy Dame Street in February 2012:

It is a photo of a poster that itself was a reproduction of a 1846 Punch Magazine illustration, which appears to represent a destitute, demoralised Irish family during the Famine being offered food by a well-dressed, rotund British gentleman, with the original slogan 'Union Is Strength'. For Occupy, this had been adapted to Ireland's economic woes over 150 years later with the addition of 'plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.' Participating in Occupy Dame Street was something very important to me, and I certainly took many photos of Occupy Dame Street during the five months it existed.

Next up was a photo from February 2010:

This one was taken during a workshop of a piece of hyperbolic crochet that I made for the Irish Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef at the Science Gallery in Dublin. I'm fairly sure that that is my purple piece underneath which we paired temporarily with another crocheter's white piece, before leaving them to be 'basketed' and more artistically arranged by the volunteers for inclusion in the exhibited reef. Crocheting again after close to two decades and participating in the reef which a a great experience, which I wrote about here and in proper depth here. And I certainly took many photos of the complete international and Irish Hyperbolic Crochet Coral reef exhibitions.

Next most viewed on 200,000 day was this street art photo from September 2011:

A photo of one of Mark Jenkin's sculptures from Road Works, the street art exhibition of Dublin Contemporary. The next few most viewed photos (don't get excited, we're talking 2 views each, pretty typical for me) were also from Road Works, which I revisited during daylight hours:

That one is by Maser and is still in situ.

And that one, also still viewable in Temple Bar, is by the very talented and always wonderful Scie. Lovely person too.

And then there was this one, a photo of a poorly graffitied van close to Scie's stag – I liked the contrast at the time most likely.

You can read more about the guided walk of some of the pieces here and see plenty more photos of Road Works here.

Among the many other photos that got a single view that day, was this one from Burning Man in August 2008:

Of course. A giant mechanical hand that picked up cars. In the middle of the desert. Just one element of a very wonderful week spent in Black Rock City, Nevada. You can see plenty of photos of Burning Man here.

There were also photos of the Artbots exhibition in Science Gallery in September 2008:

Some low-brow graffiti from my by now very extensive (and usually much more interesting) graffiti set:

Hello I have a penis. Succinct, informative, classic.

More photos of Burning Man, this time the beautiful temple which was burned on the last night:

Of wire animals on sale in the Maputo market in Mozambique, May 2009:

A photo of a large number of HIV and AIDS ribbons, taken in December 2004 but uploaded in December 2009:

Representing another important dimension of my life.

Then a photo from March 2010:

I wrote more here about this sexist painting of 'boobs' and the multiple responses to it, beginning with this 'you don't have to accept sexism'. And documented the evolving conversation on this wall here.

There were lots of other photos of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef viewed by someone that day, in fact they accounted for quite a lot of the views, and it seemed like someone had gone through looking at most of the set. I like that feeling, imagining someone, rather than a robot, paging through image after image, interested enough to follow the trail, after one photo caught their eye. I think this one included another of my small pieces:

And they stuck with it despite the fact that I recall now, looking back over this set, that very disappointingly many of the photos taken with my Olympus came out blurry, a source of eternal frustration to me with this camera.

There were photos of Glastonbury turning 40 in June 2010:

And many photos of something I have photographed many times, graffiti in the carpark of the Tivoli, on Francis Street in Dublin. The photos viewed that day were mainly from June 2011:

Also fittingly, graffiti by Canvaz at the Kings of Concrete festival:

My inflatable globe during a protest on O'Connell Street, proclaiming Another World Is Possible:

Romantic Ireland From the Streets – a street art exhibition on the Anglo Irish Bank site in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day 2012:

Beach volleyball at the Horseguards for the Olympics in London in August 2012:

And the Festival of Urban Art Sandyford in September 2012:

And plenty more photos and videos from Occupy Dame Street, including this one from its anniversary on 8th October 2012:

All in all a significant milestone in my online photographic history, and one that provided an eclectic but oddly representative account of where my camera has taken me to reach 200,000 views.