Howdy Flickr friends, creatives, collaborators, and cube-enthusiasts around the globe! My name is David Talley and I’ve created a monthly collaboration based around a central theme. It’s called Concept Collaboration and our goal is to change the way the industry creates within community, making it easier for new and seasoned photographers alike to join forces and create beautiful work. It’s not about competition, it’s about community.

As of today, 1,364 photos have been put in Flickr group alone! I love seeing every submission. Although each photo has an entirely different take on the concepts we release, each one is indicative of so much talent and community, it’s crazy.

April’s collaboration, “The Cube,” was intangible, but it challenged the community to think about what we should create. Through the different perspectives offered by “The Cube,” we can see a desire to understand, respect, and empathize with one another. It’s a beautiful thing when we can stop to appreciate those around us.

While looking through some of the images for “The Cube,” consider how your perspective is influenced by those around you, and what we can all do as a collective to understand, respect, and enjoy life together on this beautiful sphere we call our home.

Here are some of our favorite images from awesome Collaborators and Flickr members from last month:

One of my favorite facets of Concept Collaboration is choosing the most promising photographer of the month to win an camera bag from our incredible sponsors at Vanguard, a company supporting photographers around the world with top-of-the-line, innovative camera gear. Although the number was small for this month’s submission, we had some awesome collaborations, and many many more to our Flickr group. After checking them all out, we are happy to choose Mike Alegado as our most Creative Collaborator of the month!

Mike’s image highlights the cataclysmic nature of two worlds colliding, and the pressure in the decision to choose between them. Describing his inspiration, he said: “Stuck between two forces, trying to support the weight from both of them so one does not clash with the other to prevent destruction.”

I love that Mike chose to highlight the darkness of this situation, because it’s an emotion we can all relate to and learn from. Great job, Mike! We love watching your 365 project and as it evolves. Give it a look.

Meeting up is a huge part of the Concept Collaboration movement, and challenges the idea that art must be done alone and apart from others. We believe in a ripple-effect of friendships, business partnerships, and new ideas growing forth. And after just three meetups, we are realizing this ideal.

Our concept for May is “The Grand Adventure.” Read more about it here, then get some friends together and GET SHOOTING!

If you’re in Minneapolis and would like to join us for our Collaboration event on Saturday, May 16th, please sign up here.

Behind-the-scenes #selfie, from our Los Angeles meetup!

We leave you with a couple photos from collaborators at the Los Angeles Meetup