About us

Logo Europeana PhotographyEuropeanaPhotography (EUROPEAN Ancient PHOTOgraphic vintaGe repositoRies of DigitAized Pictures of Historic qualitY) is a project governed by a unique consortium (19 representatives from 13 member states), uniting some of the most prestigious photographic collections from archives, public libraries, museums and photo-agencies covering 100 years of photography - from 1839 (with the first images from Fox Talbot and Daguerre) to the beginning of the Second World War (1939).

EuropeanaPhotography is funded within the Competitiveness and Innovation framework programme 2007-2013. It will run for 36 months, from 1 February 2012 to 31 January 2015.

EuropeanaPhotography will prepare, quality-assure and contribute over 430,000 photographic items to Europeana, together representing a selection of masterpieces from the very beginning of photographic history.

EuropeanaPhotography will document historical moments of Europe-in-the-making, showcase landscapes and people, houses and clothes, social and economic changes. This content is organized in thematic groups, according to four categories: places (cities – such as the transformation of Paris by Haussmann and of Barcelona by Gaudi -, landscapes – such as the European countryside in the 1800’s -, etc…); people  (portraits – Queen Victoria, the popes, Garibaldi, Coco Chanel - and daily life); events  (political events– la Commune de Paris -, local and civil wars, royal weddings, etc.) and “trends” or “movements“ (industrial revolution, emancipation, artistic currents, geographic explorations, colonization, etc.).

EuropeanaPhotography will improve Europeana’s profile with respect to content and multilingualism. Europeana currently holds an impressive mass of images usually representing objects such as paintings, sculptures and archaeological artefacts, while photographic images - early ones in particular - are underrepresented. EuropeanaPhotography will fill this gap. 

Furthermore, the project will provide metadata in all partner languages, as well as in Hebrew and Chinese.

Finally, the project tackles the important issue of public-private partnerships, which has not been fully explored yet within the framework of Europeana. The private project partners will demonstrate how return-on-investment can be generated by participating in Europeana, while public institutions will explore the benefits of cooperating with the private sector.