Getty may take your best shot

Do you long to take pictures that would end up in the photography galleries of the J. Paul Getty Museum? Dream on. But if you’ll settle for a Getty exhibition in cyberspace, there’s hope.

In conjunction with the museum’s current show -- “Close to Home: An American Album,” an exploration of the artistic and social value of humble snapshots -- the museum has invited amateur photographers to submit their work for possible inclusion in a display of family pictures on the Web. Photographs selected for online posting will celebrate “a vital instrument of social memory,” produced by “one of the most democratic of all art forms,” as a news release puts it.

Each image must be submitted online with a one- or two-sentence explanation of what makes the picture special to the person who took it. Submissions will be accepted through Jan. 16, the last day of “Close to Home.” For directions on how to participate in the project, visit the special exhibition site on www.getty.edu.