PROJECT

WHO:
A group of more than twenty Grazia Neri photographers. The authors of hundreds of thousands of pictures stored in the agency’s archives.

WHAT:
The images have all been collected in a single database: Blackarchives. More than 700,000 pictures which can be easily researched and bought for journalistic and editorial use and for advertising . The archive is continually updated and contains portraits of important personalities, and of newsworthy topics. It also consists of a vast collection of historical images and has tens of thousands of geographical shots.

WHY:
To safeguard a very large and unique collection of images and to make up for the editorial and cultural loss generated by the closure of Grazia Neri. But also to put forward reportages and projects regarding important topics by merging information and continually changing multimedia technology.

WHERE:
The servers we use are in the U.S. The desk work is everywhere: in our homes, at a bar, along the streets, in all places where our photographs are chosen.

WHEN:
We officially came into being in October 2009, a month after the closure of Grazia Neri.

HOW:
Blackarchives makes use of a proprietory software, created to satisfy the needs of photographers and photo editors who actively contributed to its creation. Research speed, ease of use and safety were the factors which determined the creation of the platform. A network of very fast and efficient servers and advanced programming have allowed state-of- the-art research and archiving tecniques. These will be continually updated to keep up with the ever-changing requirements of the photo market.