Popperfoto is one of the largest and oldest image archives in Europe, owned by Paul Popper Ltd. It is licensed and marketed through Getty Images.

1971 simple photograph of Italian footballer Gianni Rivera, an example of a member of the Popperfoto collection which has fallen into the public domain.

History

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Popperfoto was founded in 1934 by the photojournalist Paul Popper [de], who came from the Czech Republic and emigrated from Berlin to London. The archive contains more than 12 million monochrome photographs and more than 750,000 color photos spanning 150 years. The content of the collection ranges from documentation of historical events to photographs of personalities from politics, sports and entertainment to collections of various topics. Some of the most important images in the collection include the original negatives from Herbert Ponting's photographic record of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott's 1910–1912 Antarctic voyage, as well as color photographs of the front lines in various areas of World War II.[1][2][3]

Paul Popper Limited is the rightsholder of the Popperfoto collection. Photographer Robert Thomas is the current director of the business, based in Moulton Park, Northampton, England.[4]

Popperfoto is an Image Partner with Getty Images

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In 2006, Popperfoto became an Image Partner with the media licensor Getty Images. Subsequently Getty Images has exclusively marketed the collection since 2007, however Popperfoto is still privately owned.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Patrick, Coyne, ed. (1993). "Popper". Communication Arts. 35 (5): 168 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b Greenwood, H (2006). "Getty images is expanding on its archival collection". The British Journal of Photography. 154 (7654–7665): 56 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "Archive Of Popperfoto Images From The Terra Nova Expedition". Maggs Bros Ltd. Archived from the original on 2022-12-19. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  4. ^ "PAUL POPPER LIMITED". Companies House. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
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