Bridgeman's Footage Archive Manager reveals her favourite images and clips in the archive
1. What is your role at Bridgeman?
I manage the footage archive here at Bridgeman, which means overseeing existing and incoming footage collections, editing and cataloguing new content coming into the archive, and providing footage research to support Account Managers in our offices around the world.
2. What do you love most about the job?
I feel very lucky to be in a role that encompasses all of my interests: my undergraduate degree is in History and my postgraduate degrees are in Art History and History of Art Photography. I love how archival footage brings history to life and that I am able to sit at my desk and view snapshots of life from a century ago! My role is always stimulating thanks to the variety of content we have in our ever-expanding archive. With every new clip that I catalogue or research request I carry out, I learn a bit more about history — whether it be details from the Russian Revolution or the bootleggers of the American prohibition. 3. What misconceptions do clients most commonly have about the archive?
Bridgeman Images built its reputation for our collection of fine art, so I think clients are often surprised by the huge variety we have in the archive — the library encompasses images of cultural objects, contemporary artworks, and photography, as well as an entire footage archive! Our collection of footage is just as diverse as our image library: social history, artist profiles, vintage animation, the earliest moving images, Egyptology, war footage. My top picks merely scrape the surface of our archive!
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Helen's favourite images and clips in the archive are...
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3. Autobahn
This psychedelic animated short was made by the Halas and Batchelor animation studios in the late 1970s for the German electronic band Kraftwerk. The animator, Roger Mainwood, hadn’t actually heard of the band when he was creating the animation and so constructed his own psychedelic fantasy as opposed to falling into the trap of pandering to the band’s aesthetics. I love that it is over 10 fast-paced minutes of weird and wonderful animation.
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Find out more
Bridgeman Footage comprises historical and contemporary films from around the world. Search exclusive and unseen clips on Art, Culture and History alongside over one million stills for your complete visual package, or alternatively visit our dedicated Youtube page, or Vimeo page.