.PICTURES Domain Extension

Why choose a .PICTURES domain?

Careful with the assumption: “pictures” does not mean “photographs”. The word covers images generally — a drawing, a painting, an illustration — and it carries one sense above all others: in cinema, a picture is a film. “Motion Pictures” has named the industry for a century, and hundreds of production companies are called “something Pictures”. That sense is what separates this suffix from the other three in the same group.

The production company

Features, documentaries, commercials, series. “Name + Pictures” has been the trade’s formula since the 1920s.

Illustration

Drawing, painting, comics, editorial illustration. The word covers the handmade image, which “photo” excludes by definition.

The picture library

Licensing, collections, commissioned work. A catalogue mixing photography and illustration: the word takes in both.

The portfolio

A selection of work, shown in a chosen order. Clients look at ten images and decide: get the first three right.

The useful distinction

.photo for the shop sign, .photography for the discipline, .photos for the delivery. This one for the image at large, and for film.

What it actually changes

• It covers more than photography. Drawing, painting, cinema: that is what separates it from .photo, .photos and .photography.
• It is cinema’s own word. “Motion Pictures” made the term an industry convention, and the formula still reads instantly.
• No registration restrictions. No guild or association membership to show the registrar.
• It works as an email address too. production@harding.pictures strikes the register this world expects.