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The Bridgeman Art Library has acquired the Fotomas archive
The Fotomas Archive, also known as the John Freeman archive, consists of approximately 250,000 wholly-owned black and white prints, glass plates and negatives, built up over some eighty years. The photographer John Freeman amassed this vast collection of photos and illustrations which include photos from his father’s career as a photographer, followed by his own. The collection features many leading figures in the arts including; Tolstoy, Keats and Lewis Carroll, as well as royalty, revolutionaries like Karl Marx and significant explorers, philosophers and scientists. Topics include scenes from Medieval daily life, the Great Plague of London and the Industrial Revolution across diverse categories such as architecture, maps, posters and topography, as well as some eye-opening photography of Victorian slums and Native American costumes.“John Freeman has created an amazing collection of images that detail the fascinating minutiae of how an individual in a Western society viewed the rest of the world. It is collections such as this that provide insight into individual perspectives of contemporary life.” Stated Harriet Bridgeman, Founder of The Bridgeman Art Library.
The Bridgeman Art Library has become one of the world’s most comprehensive sources of cultural and historical art images and serves clients in every sector from greeting card publishers to advertising companies. The company anticipates the Fotomas collection will be of particular interest to book publishers, especially if they are writing on a specialist topic and need something unique. To date the company has digitized approximately 3,845 images from the Fotomas Archive which are all available online for Rights-Managed (RM) licensing. In addition the company plans to digitize additional treasures from the collection on a regular basis.
When asked about what’s next for the The Bridgeman Art Library Annabel O'Connor-Fenton offered the following explanation. “We are planning to advance technologically, improving the functionality of our website and in the process of launching an online newsletter – The Bridgeman Buzz. We have also launched an Art on Demand bespoke print service and Bridgeman Education, working with schools and universities. Another area that we have become involved in is as the main sponsor of the Artist’s Collecting Society, which has been set up as an alternative to DACS, and now represents over 160 artists including Lucien Freud and Anthony Caro.”
Web: www.bridgemanart.com To view images from this collection you need to enter the codes $xjf (black/white prints) and $xcf (colour transparencies) followed by a keyword.
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