I’ve been playing around with Photo Art Gallery lately - a new, bootstrapped, startup founded by Andrew Coppin. The site is, as the name suggests, a photo gallery, but then again it’s so much more. I’ll let Coppin explain:

Ph.Art Gallery ( It’s Photographic Art ) has been in development for over four years and is a site dedicated to creating a Gallery, Community and Educational portal for enthusiast photographers. We figured not everyone was invited to Getty and Flickr, FB etc were so crowded that their format and display didnt do Photographers work justice. We give all members their own virtual studio, url, 2GB storage and three Galleries in which they can place their work - Private, Public and Collectors. By creating a hierarchy of Galleries and great metadata input we think we can have the best high end image gallery in the market with cool search too. We have heap of Tutorials, Education, Print Facilities and a thriving community of passionate photographers ! Photographers of all levels can run their business from our site and we actively support and market their work. I guess its like a Co-Op for Photographers to display, share, sell and create and we like to think of it as The Ultimate Photographic Destination.

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I asked Coppin about the Ph.Art team and this is what he had to say:

The primary pre-requisite to join our team is that you MUST have a passion for Photography! As founder and CEO I oversee the big picture marketing and direction of the site. Our General Manager of operations David Dennings has a background in Image retouching and oversees the tech and image side of the site. Team Ph.Art also comprises Olivia ( Marketing Manager ), Lisa ( Office Manager), Paul ( Senior Curator ), Glen & Emma ( Curators and Community ) and Mel who heads up our on-line community activities with help from Annie. Our tech and dev team are based in Melbourne and we keep them busy with fortnightly releases. We all take our imagery and looking after our members very seriously…but have alot of fun along the way. Thats why we’re Ph.Art !

Finally, I also asked Coppin about Ph.Art’s competitors:

There are many sites in the photography arena but none that we consider provide our exact mix of Gallery, Education, Agency, Art, Stock and Community.
Key players in the sector are obviously Getty, Flickr and other stock libraries.
In the photog arena we have Smugmug, DPreview, Deviant Art and people have said we are similar to Red Bubble…minus the poetry and with a complete focus on Photography - no pun intended ! So its a busy area but no one we know of actually gets out and actively seeks buyers for members art and images as we do whilst simultaneously providing a very user friendly and aesthetically pleasing site for keen photographers of all skill levels to display their best images.

I really like the fact that Red Bubble is on of the competitors identified here. First of all it’s great to see 2 Aussie startups competing globally in a similar space. Secondly, it’s great that an Aussie startup can recognise great products and services that have come out of Australia rather than the whole cultural cringe thing making them look past what’s happening locally and focusing on stuff coming out of the US, Asia or Europe.

Moving back onto the site itself, the reality is that I’m not a photography enthusiast so while I’ve had fun playing around with the site I’m not really from the target market. My wife is a designer, however, so I asked her to have a play.

At first it was a little confusing for her - there’s so much you can do. After a while, however, she started to get a feel for the site and what it could offer and it impressed her. There’s certainly a lot there to discover and the use cases are many and varied.

I like the site, I like the fact there is a business model and I like the fact that they’re thinking big. I hate the fact that the short name is Ph.Art - but maybe I’ll get used to it. Even if I don’t, the name won’t stop the fact that Ph.Art Gallry is a kick-ass site which has miles of potential.