Can I Allow Anyone to Upload Photos to My Flickr Account?

Flickr accounts do not have an official function for allowing other users to contribute images to your photostream. The opening line of the Community Guidelines reads "Flickr accounts are intended for members to share original photos and video that they themselves have created." It is technically possible to allow a number of trusted friends to upload photos by passing on your Flickr username and password, but this gives those users access to your Yahoo! account and email at the same time (or, in other cases, your Google or Facebook login information), and is a significant security risk.

Every Flickr user is assigned an 'upload by email' address that can be found by clicking the "Settings" link on the drop-down menu that appears when hovering the mouse cursor over your avatar at the top of any Flickr page. Select "Emails & Notifications" and an email account ending in "photos.flickr.com" will be displayed. Sending emails containing photo or video attachments to this address will lead to those images and videos being directly uploaded to your photostream. Giving this address to others will enable them to do the same; however, this runs the risk of unsuitable or unwanted photos being uploaded to your account, and additionally violates the Flickr Community Guidelines. This address is only visible to a Flickr user, and can't be accessed by others unless you choose to share it.

The Group feature available in Flickr is a more suitable way of collecting photographs from a collection of friends in one place. Groups can be made public or private, and set to be invitation-only or available for anyone to join. Hover the mouse cursor over the "Groups" link at the top of any Flickr page and choose "Create a Group" from the drop-down menu that appears. Click the "Create" button under the type of group you'd like to set up and then fill out the title and description fields. Once the group is created you can invite other Flickr users, or friends who haven't yet started a Flickr account, to contribute to its photostream.

There are several different ways to upload images to your own Flickr photostream -- using the Web-based uploader, using the Upload By Email address, or using one of Flickr's mobile apps for iOS and Android. One option for uploading pictures from your friends and family to your own photostream is to have them send them to you via email and then upload them yourself -- this has the benefit of enabling you to screen the pictures before they appear on Flickr.