Rhenish image archive

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rhenish Image Archive ( RBA ) is one of the largest public art-historical image archives in Germany and, with around 5.4 million analog and digital images, offers an extensive, scientifically developed basis for research and science as well as commercial image users and private users. It is the service provider of the city of Cologne for sophisticated photographic material shots of art and architecture in Cologne.

history

The archive was founded in May 1926 as a department of the Rheinisches Museum in Cologne-Deutz at the suggestion of the then Mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer . From 1953 the provincial administration took over the compensation of the deficit budget. The Rheinische Bildarchiv has been housed in the Cologne City Museum since 1955, and in 1974 it was organizationally affiliated with the City of Cologne's Art and Museum Library . Since 2012, it has been subordinate to the Head of Culture. In January 2013, private access to around 400,000 photos was activated on the Internet .

Since its inception, the RBA has included photographers and a photo media workshop providing photographic services. In the first decades, especially in the 1930s, the RBA photographers also did architectural documentation in Cologne and throughout the Rhineland; A large part of the photo holdings are material recordings of works of art in and for Cologne's museums. To the same extent as the Cologne museums offer art from a wide variety of countries and epochs of international standing, the RBA's picture inventory reflects a section of the international art scene for almost an entire century. In addition, the RBA photographers have been documenting events such as receptions, exhibition openings or visits by high-ranking personalities in the city since the 1960s. In addition, there is a comprehensive inventory of architectural photographs from Cologne and the Rhineland, some of which were created by the company's own photographers, some of which were taken over from other image archives. In addition, the current photo documentation from the city curator's office is gradually being incorporated into the holdings.

On the occasion of its 90th anniversary in 2016, the Rheinische Bildarchiv published a detailed chronicle on its website.

In June 2011 the Council of the City of Cologne decided to house the RBA together with the Historical Archives of the City of Cologne in a new building, the completion of which is currently scheduled for 2020. The official laying of the foundation stone took place on March 17, 2017.

management

The directors of the Rheinisches Bildarchiv:

  • Joseph Boymann (July 23, 1894 - June 11, 1966), from May 1, 1926 to around 1942
  • Joseph Klersch , acting head, 1945 to August 1948
  • Elisabeth Reiff (April 16, 1911 - August 2, 1993), August 1948 to 1976
  • Paul von Naredi-Rainer (born 1950), March 1976 to September 1988
  • Michael Euler-Schmidt (born 1953), representing Naredi-Rainer during the 1985/1986 academic year
  • Roswitha Neu-Kock (born 1946), 1989 to 2007
  • Evelyn Bertram-Neunzig (born 1957), acting head, 2008 to February 2010
  • Johanna Gummlich (born 1969), since February 16, 2010

Duration

Presentation of a gift from photographer Peter H. Fürst to Johanna Gummlich-Wagner, head of the Rheinisches Bildarchiv, in April 2014

In the 90 years of its existence, the inventory has grown to around 5.4 million photos - including numerous photos by well-known Cologne photographers such as:

The historical holdings include glass negatives in the formats 9 × 12 centimeters, 13 × 18 centimeters, 18 × 24 centimeters and 24 × 30 centimeters. The largest glass negatives measure 90 × 70 centimeters. From numerous glass negatives positive prints or microfiches and later microfiche digital copies were made for the microfiche catalog "Marburger Index". Black and white sheet film negatives are available in the formats 9 × 12 centimeters, 13 × 18 centimeters, 18 × 24 centimeters and 24 × 30 centimeters. This stock of negatives was supplemented by around 25,000 color slides in medium and large format from the mid-seventies, which mainly depict material photographs of art and museum collection objects, but also architecture. At the same time, the event documentation was converted to color 35mm film. In 2007 the company switched to digital photography. Since then, this inventory has been growing steadily, with the focus on material photographs of art and collection objects in Cologne's municipal museums.

Together with the holdings produced by its own photographers, the Rheinische Bildarchiv looks after important holdings from the Cologne and Xanten cathedral archives (today the Xanten Abbey Museum) and from the Cologne city curator. The holdings of the RBA also grow by taking over holdings from other institutions and photographers. The analog picture archive of KölnMesse GmbH with more than four million negatives and slides was taken over. A negative restorer looks after the RBA's holdings and prepares negatives that need restoration for use. The type of storage strives for optimal conditions for the preservation of the image stocks and at the same time always follows the principle that their accessibility for use must be guaranteed, since the production of hand prints and digital reproductions on behalf of customers is part of the everyday work of the RBA.

Individual stocks

use

One of the photos: Hansaplatz - Museum of Applied Arts and Schnütgen Museum, Hansaplatz on the right (around 1910)

On January 30, 2013, the city of Cologne activated the new scientific image database “Kulturelles Erbe Köln”, which in February 2017 contained around 421,000 photos of around 223,000 objects, exhibitions and events. A thematic focus of the image database is on Cologne's museums and collections. In addition to photographs of works of art and other objects from the collections, there are also pictures of exhibition openings, presentations of the objects and photos of important events in the town's houses. Other focal points are the shots of various photographers and architectural documentation.

The object descriptions were developed in the Cologne museums and collections as well as by the Rheinische Bildarchiv. Users of the image database can use the comment function below the object descriptions to write comments, which the Rheinische Bildarchiv forwards to the relevant collection.

“Cultural Heritage Cologne” is object-centered, the standard search slot with suggestion function and the “extended search” offer numerous entry points for searching. The search function, filter and the headings “Cologne Collections”, “Exhibitions” and “Projects” can be used to access specific sections of the entire database.

In addition, picture research and picture orders can be carried out in Reading Room II of the Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne , which is located in the Museum of Applied Art . In addition to online access to the image database and the image index, the “ Marburger Index ” microfiche catalog is also available in the reading room . There is also the KMB inventory of over 40,000 books on photography.

The Rheinische Bildarchiv offers:

  • New recordings from the municipal collections by order
  • Photo services for your own holdings
  • Image research on request
  • Inspection of the positive archive (over 300,000 black and white prints)

Exhibitions

  • The unknown cathedral, 1978
  • Bank building in Cologne - then and now, January - March 1992, in the Commerzbank main branch in Cologne
  • Sülz in Cologne, April 29 - May 20, 1992, in the Commerzbank, Cologne-Sülz branch
  • Something different - free photographs by photographers from the Rheinisches Bildarchiv in Cologne, January 26th to February 28th 1993, in the Cologne City Museum
  • The Weidenpesch district, 1994, in the Commerzbank Cologne-Weidenpesch
  • August Kreyenkamp, ​​1995/1996, in the Cologne City Museum
  • Cologne 1970/1995. Photographs by Chargesheimer and Wolfgang Vollmer, 1997
  • Cologne a hundred years ago - old photographs in historical technology. Revived by Bernd Rodrian in collaboration with the Rheinisches Bildarchiv, from September 16, 1999
  • Between empathy and objectivity: the photographs of the Cologne cathedral sculptures by Karl Hugo Schmölz. Photos from 1945/47, August 26, 2001 - January 12, 2002, in the Rheinisches Bildarchiv
  • August Kreyenkamp. Italy photographs 1927–1938, until February 19 - May 17, 2002, extended until October 11, 2002, in the Rheinisches Bildarchiv
  • Eifel pictures. Photographs by Heinrich Pieroth (1893–1964), December 3, 2002 - May 30, 2003, in the Rheinisches Bildarchiv
  • Eifel pictures. Photographs by Heinrich Pieroth (1893–1964), September 7th - October 5th, 2004, in the Stadtsparkasse Mayen
  • Treasures of the city: “What is the original?”, September 21 - September 26, 2010, in the Visual Gallery 2010 as part of the Photokina
  • Retrospective Cologne 1945 - 1967- November 28, 2013 to February 28, 2014 An exhibition of the University and City Library of Cologne with the Rheinische Bildarchiv and other archives from Cologne.
  • 90 years of the Rheinisches Bildarchiv. Photographs for Cologne and the world, November 10 to 20, 2016, Kunsthaus Rhenania Cologne History of the Rheinisches Bildarchives
  • Ola Kolehmainen. Cathedral of Light April 13th to June 19th, 2019 as part of the Photoszenefestival project "Artists meets Archive" in the Kaune Contemporary gallery
  • COLOGNE AM RHEIN OR: FROM TIME TO TIME August 4 to December 15, 2019 An exhibition by the COLOGNE CITY MUSEUM in cooperation with the Rheinisches Bildarchiv, photographs by Hugo and Karl-Hugo Schmölz, Michael Albers, Helmut Buchen, Wolfgang Meyer and Marion Mennicken

literature

  • Paul Naredi-Rainer: The Rheinische Bildarchiv in Cologne, in: Der Archivar 33/1980, 437-438.
  • Paul Naredi-Rainer: Romanesque Churches in Cologne V: Furnishings from the Middle Ages (accompanying text to a slide series by Helmut Buchen, photographer in the Rheinisches Bildarchiv), Cologne 1985
  • Roswitha Neu-Kock: August Kreyenkamp. A Cologne photographer's life in the first half of the century. Cologne 1995.
  • Roswitha Neu-Kock: August Kreyenkamp (1875 - 1950): an all-round photographic talent in Cologne. In: Kölner Museum Bulletin 1995, special issue 1/2, pp. 31–38.
  • Roswitha Neu-Kock: Cathedral views. Photographs of the Cologne Cathedral by Karl Hugo Schmölz. 1939 to 1962. With contributions by cathedral builders Arnold Wolff and Roswitha Neu-Kock. 1997
  • Roswitha Neu-Kock: "1900 - 2000". Ed .: City of Cologne., Cologne, 2000
  • Elke Purpus : "... with the aim of building a large Rhenish picture archive ..." On the history of the Rhenish picture archive in the art and museum library of the city of Cologne. In: Cologne Museum Bulletin. 2005, 2, pp. 26-44.
  • Elke Purpus, with a contribution by Roswitha Neu-Kock: The Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne. The history of the library and the photo archive. Klartext Verl., Essen 2007 (= series of publications by the City of Cologne's Art and Museum Library, 2), pp. 65–118.
  • Elke Purpus: The Rheinische Bildarchiv of the city of Cologne. Service provider for the Cologne museums and department of a documentation facility for art. In: Rundbrief Fotografie, Vol. 16 (2009), No. 1.
  • Johanna Gummlich-Wagner: The Rheinische Bildarchiv der Stadt Köln In: Der Archivar, 03/2013 p. 300-310
  • 90 years of the Rheinisches Bildarchiv. Photographs for Cologne and the world. Archive box. Edited by Johanna Gummlich, with a welcoming address by Susanne Laugwitz-Aulbach, Head of the Department of Culture, and contributions by Michael Albers, Evelyn Bertram-Neunzig, Letha Böhringer, Johanna Gummlich, Susanne Kube, Markus Mischkowski and Petra Scholz. Cologne 2016. ( ISBN 978-3-9818363-0-1 )
  • Ola Kolehmainen. Cathedral of light. Published by the Rheinisches Bildarchiv of the city of Cologne. Text: Johanna Gummlich. Cologne 2019, exhibition documentation: Michael Albers ( ISBN 978-3-946770-51-0 )
  • Rita Wagner with contributions by Michael Albers and Rolf Sachsse: Cologne on the Rhine or Cologne as it was ( ISBN 978-3-96176-090-9 )

Web links

Commons : Rheinisches Bildarchiv  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German National Library
  2. ↑ German National Library
  3. ↑ German National Library
  4. ↑ German National Library
  5. ^ History of the Rheinische Bildarchiv Cologne. In: stadt-koeln.de. Retrieved July 25, 2020 .
  6. ↑ German National Library
  7. ↑ German National Library
  8. ↑ German National Library
  9. ^ Cologne cultural heritage