Private travel into foreign countries can be requested without conditions […]. Permission will be granted instantly. Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR into the FRG or Berlin (West).
— Günter Schabowski, November 9th, 1989

These were the words – broadcasted live on TV – after which the German reunification took it’s course. People in East Berlin moved to the border crossings and demanded immediate opening. Finally, the border guards gave in and a new era began that culminated in the reunification of Germany.

Photos from fiahless, VivaoPictures, and annette_lozinski.

The Flickr Collection on Getty Images has been growing and growing since it launched back in March – with a princely figure of nearly 60,000 images in the collection so far. It’s no secret that there are billions of amazing photographs on Flickr, so it made perfect sense for us to find an easy way for members to suggest their own photos to be considered for the Flickr Collection on Getty Images.

Starting today you can submit a portfolio of 10 images to the Getty Images Call for Artists group, giving you an opportunity to showcase your best shots directly to the editors at Getty Images. The Getty Images creative team will regularly review the photos in the group pool, looking out for images they feel are marketable based on their industry expertise, and inviting new photographers to join the collection.

So, if you think your photos rock and are interested in being considered for the collection, join the Getty Images Call for Artists group and follow the submission guidelines or check out our updated FAQs.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we’d like to invite you to take part in writing our virtual history book.

We’ve created the Experience History: Berlin 1961-1989 group, to give members the opportunity to share photographic memories of divided Berlin during this period. If you were living or visiting Berlin at that time, this is a wonderful excuse to rediscover your old slides and dust off those photo-filled shoe boxes that are lurking under your bed.

There are already some interesting images and stories emerging in the group and we’re hoping the over the next few weeks it will become a beautiful public repository of photographs and viewpoints for the world to see.

Ready for a time travelling adventure? Just head over and join the Experience History: Berlin 1961-1989 group to start sharing or simply soak up the history.

Photos from LimitedExpress, allhails, and hansziel99.

Since the launch of our API in August 2004, software developers have built and innovated on top of Flickr’s open API. The results continually amaze us because they have enhanced the Flickrverse, enabling our members to do more with their photos. Gorgeous, fun, remarkable and useful things — these labors of love are certainly deserving of more recognition.

We’re happy that starting today, these creations will now have a home on Flickr, within a place we call the App Garden.

If you’re a developer and are looking for information about how to use our APIs and submit your application into the App Garden, head on over to our Developer Blog for more information.

If you’re looking for neat ways to do more with your photos, developers are beginning to seed the App Garden and showcase their applications. We hope you’ll enjoy new ways to browse, view, upload, download, analyze and make stuff (whew!) with your photos as much as we do.

So take a stroll, try some applications, and come back to see how the Garden grows!

If you’re keen to learn more, here are FAQs to get you started. If you noticed bugs or have feedback about the App Garden, mosey on over to the Help Forum.

How’d you upload that?

In addition to Flickr’s official uploadr, there are quite a few other uploading tools created by developers with different options and features. If you ever wondered what other people are using to upload you can now see that on the photo page, for apps that have created a page in the garden.

If you don’t want this to show you can turn it off in your account settings.

Photos from armisteadbooker, Andrew Kufahl, minusbaby, sean dreilinger, and Jamie Basso.

Photos from Boy_Wonder, Shaefer, kharied, Michelle in Ireland, Paul Beeley., and njchow82.

Photos from æ, ~ geisha ~, Tracing Tray, and gilmae.

The London School of Economics and Political Science joins The Commons on Flickr as our 30th partner! Here’s a little about them in their own words,

The London School of Economics and Political Science was founded in 1895; The decision to found the School was made at a breakfast party between four Fabians: Beatrice and Sidney Webb, George Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw on 4 August 1894. Over the last few years we have noticed an increasing interest in our photographic collections relating to the LSE. The photographs, however, are spread across different archive collections and have only been possible to view in hard copy in our reading room. In response to this, the project, LSE: a History of Pictures was set up to digitise at least 1000 images for open access on Flickr, which has been funded by the LSE Annual Fund. – LSE

They begin their Commons journey with 20 sets, spanning the life of the school from the 1890s onward and offering a snapshot of student and academic life in London. A few sets to get you started are….

British Political Posters, c1905-c1910 – Period editorial posters depicting both economic and political concerns of the day.

LSE Founders and Early Days 1895-1920s – Meet the four founders of LSE, Charlotte and George Bernard Shaw, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, from a 1932 trip to Russia.

Formal LSE Staff Portraits – including Karl Popper, Beatrice Webb and H.G. Wells.

Or just check out student life at LSE in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s!

My favourite time of year. What’s better than a dog in a costume? How about two, with one riding the other? Check out the photo bottom right for the result.

Photos from {SNS Photography}, EllenJo, serena.photography, jeffdillonphotography, nutmegknitter, and minicoopergirl06. Check out more fabulousness in the Dogs in Costumes group pool.

The spice must flow.

Photos by matteo_dudek, Matthieu :: giik.net/blog, GavinBell, dachalan, Greg Robbins, turbotoddi and Jungle_Boy.