Ringier picture archive
The Ringier Image Archive (RBA) is a security and evaluation project of the Aargau State Archives . It pursues the goal of converting the former Ringier Documentation Image (RDB) from a utility archive into a historical archive .
history
The archive of the Ringier Documentation Image was created in connection with the publishing activities of the Zofingen media company Ringier . With around seven million images from the period between 1935 and 2000, it is the largest publicly owned photographic archive in Switzerland . In addition to the actual Ringier image inventory, which was created in connection with the company's own magazines and newspapers, the RDB houses two further agency collections. One goes back to the sports journalist Arnold Theodor Pfister, who founded the ATP picture service in 1937 as one of the first photo agencies in Switzerland. Simultaneously with the purchase of the ATP archive in 1962, the Ringier publishing house, which had not previously maintained its own picture archive, changed its strategy and began to set up its own picture agency. In 1980 the image archives from the various editorial offices were merged to form the Ringier Documentation Image . The archive of the Omnia Reportages, acquired in 1983, supplemented the young agency archive with photographs from the past two decades.
Takeover of the archive
At the end of the 1990s, analog photography was largely replaced by digital image production in the editorial offices . For this reason, Ringier decided to give up the entire physical archive and found the partner it was looking for in the Aargau State Archives. The Aargau State Archive has now launched a security and evaluation project planned for five years, which in the meantime preserves the analogue image inventory for posterity, makes it available to research and culture as far as possible, and evaluates the possibilities for use and communication. The project is financed by a contribution from the Swisslos Fund .
literature
- Nora Mathys: Assurance and Evaluation. The Ringier picture archive in the Aargau State Archives . In: Rundbrief Fotografie 1 (2010). Pp. 17-18.
Web links
- Project description on the Aargau State Archives website
- Current photo documentation at Ringier (also includes historical recordings)
Coordinates: 47 ° 23 '40.4 " N , 8 ° 3' 4.8" E ; CH1903: 646,257 / two hundred forty-nine thousand four hundred eighty-three