Why no archival / historical filters?

[John Mitchell]

I continue to scratch my head over this one. Alamy is obviously a major source of archival / historical images, and yet there are no search result filters for these types of images. This must make it difficult for potential clients. Any thoughts on why Alamy doesn't provide filters for archival and historical images? Wouldn't it be a wise thing to do?

 

P.S. I can understand the lack of a "reportage" filter as it might interfere with live news.

[geogphotos]

I am also puzzled by this. 

 

There is also the inbuilt penalty for those of us uploading these images in that the majority of clients are most likely looking for modern images. 

 

So why not have an include/exclude option?

 

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by geogphotos

[Michael Ventura]

Great point John. It would make so much sense to have a filter for archival/historical images.  I think they do make up a good percentage of sales on Alamy.

Edited May 7, 2022 by Michael Ventura

[John Mitchell]

40 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

Great point John. It would so much sense filter for archival/historical images.  I think they do make up a good percentage of sales on Alamy.

 

Yes, I think we'd probably be very surprised at how big that percentage actually is.

[Harry Harrison]

How would you see such a filter working? Would this just be for images uploaded via the Archival route or all images taken before a certain date, and if so what date? Would it include all those 'historical' illustrations and adverts copied out of books & newspapers etc.?

[John Mitchell]

13 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

How would you see such a filter working? Would this just be for images uploaded via the Archival route or all images taken before a certain date, and if so what date? Would it include all those 'historical' illustrations and adverts copied out of books & newspapers etc.?

 

I assume it would be for images uploaded via the archival route. Not sure what you mean by "adverts copied out of books & newspapers etc.?".

[sb photos]

11 hours ago, geogphotos said:

I am also puzzled by this. 

 

There is also the inbuilt penalty for those of us uploading these images in that the majority of clients are most likely looking for modern images. 

 

So why not have an include/exclude option?

 

 

 

Any inbuilt penalty would depend upon the type of archival image contributed. I am sorting through negative files of mainly political and human rights events where the images captured where a snapshot in time, where there are no modern images. For example a protest outside the 1979 Paralympic International Stoke Mandeville Games against the lifetime ban of table tennis player Maggy Jones by ISMG founder Ludwig Guttmann for distributing Anti Apartheid Movement leaflets. Others images show politicians and activists who are no longer with us. 

 

Although having an include/exclude option is sound, I suspect Alamy is still kept busy patching their system to keep it running, so won't have the capability to even consider making changes.

[Harry Harrison]

12 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

Not sure what you mean by "adverts copied out of books & newspapers etc.?"

Alamy is awash with these images, period adverts for products no longer available, or even those that still are but also illustrations of news events copied from newspapers of the time.

 

Anything uploaded via the archival route has that disclaimer "This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage." But, just from this forum I know that many contributors have uploaded scans of slides that are of high quality, retouched to pass Alamy QC, possibly downsized, so that they don't have this disclaimer. These images would potentially be of more use to the buyer but would be excluded by this proposed filter.

[geogphotos]

57 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Alamy is awash with these images, period adverts for products no longer available, or even those that still are but also illustrations of news events copied from newspapers of the time.

 

Anything uploaded via the archival route has that disclaimer "This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage." But, just from this forum I know that many contributors have uploaded scans of slides that are of high quality, retouched to pass Alamy QC, possibly downsized, so that they don't have this disclaimer. These images would potentially be of more use to the buyer but would be excluded by this proposed filter.

 

 

Good point Harry. I can't speak about others but I have very few of these and it would not be too hard to indicate them as Archive if there was such a box in the Optiomnal area.

 

But we have no idea if this is something Alamy has any interest in. 

 

I do add words such as 'archive, vintage, old, historical......' to these images

[geogphotos]

There is also the concern that Archive images would be heaped together with all the crazy spam collections. 

[geogphotos]

With Archive in mind does anybody know what this camera is - is it a cine/movie camera?

 

[Allan Bell]

12 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

With Archive in mind does anybody know what this camera is - is it a cine/movie camera?

 

 

Movie most likely Eumig.

 

Allan

 

[geogphotos]

Just now, Allan Bell said:

 

Movie most likely Eumig.

 

Allan

 

 Thanks Allan.

 

[Allan Bell]

Regarding Archival images I think we all have those going back to when we started submitting to Alamy.

 

Allan

 

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

I do add words such as 'archive, vintage, old, historical......' to these images

That.

But they don't get searched on very often. This year I have one search for "archival [UK]" which happened to return an image of a derelict hotel in Hull, now demolished. Not a very useful search IMO. There's only one other search on "archival" as such in the past year.

Edited May 8, 2022 by spacecadet

[spacecadet]

37 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

Regarding Archival images I think we all have those going back to when we started submitting to Alamy.

ITMA has it, see above, I have one other which became archival due to redevelopment, and it's merely 2016. Otherwise my most recent is 2003.

So one way to acquire an archival collection is just to wait.

Edited May 8, 2022 by spacecadet

[gvallee]

17 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

That.

But they don't get searched on very often. This year I have one search for "archival [UK]" which happened to return an image of a derelict hotel in Hull, now demolished. Not a very useful search IMO. There's only one other search on "archival" as such in the past year.

 

32 pages of results for %archival% over the past year (20 views per page)

[Allan Bell]

21 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

ITMA has it, see above, I have one other which became archival due to redevelopment, and it's merely 2016. Otherwise my most recent is 2003.

So one way to acquire an archival collection is just to wait.

 

I know I have at least one taken on Isle of Wight.

 

ITMA

[wiskerke]

2 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

32 pages of results for %archival% over the past year (20 views per page)

 

Try %archiv% and %historic%.

 

wim

[spacecadet]

6 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I know I have at least one taken on Isle of Wight.

 

ITMA

Well images taken on the IoW are automatically archive because it's still 1955 there.

[Allan Bell]

20 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Well images taken on the IoW are automatically archive because it's still 1955 there.

 

I went one year and there was a structure which I took a photo of. Well a few actually.  A few years later when I went back it had been replaced with a new one. Took a few of that one to so I can do "Before and After".

 

ITMA

[John Mitchell]

11 hours ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

Good point Harry. I can't speak about others but I have very few of these and it would not be too hard to indicate them as Archive if there was such a box in the Optiomnal area.

 

But we have no idea if this is something Alamy has any interest in. 

 

I do add words such as 'archive, vintage, old, historical......' to these images

 

I too include those keywords with historical images, along with general time periods -- e.g. 1800s, 19th century, etc. -- as it seems some researchers use dates to help find images.

 

I notice that Alamy does have an Historical Archive collection, but it contains only 325 images. Why no search box there for more extensive searches?

 

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by John Mitchell

[Allan Bell]

13 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

I too include those keywords with historical images, along with general time periods -- e.g. 1800s, 19th century, etc. -- as it seems some researchers use dates to help find images.

 

I notice that Alamy does have an Historical Archive collection, but it contains only 325 images. Why no search box there for more extensive searches?

 

 

 

Might be something they started and ran out of man/woman hours/money or just not worth continuing.

 

Allan