Stock photo

Stock photo curator

Contact : mba-doc-photo(at)mairie-bordeaux.fr or +33 (0)5.56.10.25.18

 
How many photos are there in the museum?
 
The stock photo department includes more than 13,000 Ektachromes, 45,000 slides, around 5,000 black, white prints (sized 13x18 cm or 18x24 cm) and thousands of hight resolution digital images.
 
Are these photos for sale?
 
Yes, and selling them is, in fact, one of the stock photo department’s main activities.
For each and every external request, we must:
 
-Respond to requests to purchase photographic documents representing the museum’s works.
-Subsequently send the requested photographic documents after receiving payment.
 
Whenever the museum has a need for an image which it does not own, I request it from museums and other cultural establishments, or even private owners. I also process the requests for authorization to reproduce these images in our exhibition catalogs or other media formats (postcards, flyers, posters, press kits, etc.) for our temporary exhibitions.
 
If you want to purchase photographic documents please go to "The Museum's stock photo service"
 
What role does the stock photo service play in the museum?
 
The service forwards the stock photos free of charge to Bordeaux museums or the various educational, communication and preservation services which request them.
 
The service also plays a role in the museum’s earnings. Images of the museum’s works which we lend or sell belong to the museum. As such, it receives royalties for use of the image, subject to a price list applied by all Bordeaux museums.
Whenever another museum or individual wishes to reproduce the picture of one of our works (for an exhibition catalog, a sales catalog or a multimedia format, among others), we provide them the picture along with a preliminary authorization in exchange for a royalty payment.
 
The next step is to receive the specimen copy or copies where the museum’s works have been reproduced. I then calculate the royalties for use of the image. The invoice for royalties is different from the sale of the image itself, since it depends on the final size of the image (full page, cover or a simple thumbnail).
Images must always display credits: ©Musée des Beaux-Arts-Mairie de Bordeaux, cliché (name of the photograph)
 
How are museum works digitized?
 
Museum services in need of images (new acquisitions, inventory checks, exhibition, external requests) request a city photographer to come take a series of shots on the premises with their own equipment. Oftentimes the photo already exists, but only on paper or in black and white, or with a very poor resolution.
 
Digital images are then recorded onto CDs and DVDs and stored in a secure place once the museum photographer has placed them in one of the museum’s common storage spaces for large files.
 
I register the photograph in the photographic database of Bordeaux.

 

Image illustrant la photothèque du musée ©Mairie de Bordeaux, cliché M. Crubilé

Photothèque du musée ©Mairie de Bordeaux, cliché M. Crubilé