Using commands under the Import menu, you can pull photos from a variety of sources, including remote servers. The latter functionality in digiKam is provided through the KioExportImport Kipi plugin which supports common protocols like FTP, SSH, and SMB.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.digikam.org/news/2013-01-07_import_photos_from_a_remote_server_into_digikam/