Published 11/03/2019
What's your role at Bridgeman Images?
Based in the London office, I deal with all kinds of customers' Picture Research requests: from the one off image to a full iconographic research.
What do you love most about your job?
I really enjoy trying to find good solutions to clients’ needs, especially when it requires a creative and proactive approach. That means making an effort to source the right content for specific projects, particularly for advertising or packaging. Fee negotiation is one of the most interesting aspects of my job. Being exposed to both editorial and commercial requests means I get to experience different angles of licensing our portfolio.
What misconceptions do people most commonly have about the archive?
People are sometimes not fully aware that Bridgeman Images is about much more than fine art images. Our relationship with museums and collections also means that we have access to content which isn't on our website.
Giovanni's top picks from our archive
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and the Infant Saint John the Baptist
One of the reasons why I like living in London is that I can look at The Burlington House Cartoon whenever I want. Although I've seen it countless times, I still can’t make up my mind which is my favourite figure in terms of beauty and intensity. It's currently between Saint Anne and John the Baptist, but this might change the next time I see this masterpiece. Perhaps I should give up this futile exercise and simply enjoy contemplating it…
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
I discovered this sculpture during university. Since then, this artwork has always fascinated me for the way it captures the energy within motion. Influenced by Michelangelo and cubism, it probably represents the best achievement of Boccioni’s theories on plastic dynamism. He developed an idea of time as a synthesis and not a mere sequence of consecutive moments. We have many images of its sides. But I prefer this angle of the front, as it helps fully understand the complexity of the composition.
The Last Automat III
I met Max Ferguson in 2007, during an internship at New York Bridgeman office. On that occasion, he gave me a copy of a catalogue on his work Going, Going, Gone: Paintings of a Vanishing New York. I immediately liked his style. Among the images featured in the catalogue in question, The Last Automat III particularly caught my attention.
The vending machine in this image is something suspended between tradition and modernity, between handmade meals and fast food. I find it a very fascinating object. The way the artist emphasises the light on the cake slices creates a sort of 'magical' aura.
Destitute Pea Pickers in Nipoma, California
Depicting rural poverty during the Great Depression, the images commissioned by Farm Security Administration mark a definite turning point in the history of documentary photography. I’ve always loved this now iconic portrait, colloquially known as Migrant Mother. The face of the woman expresses a vast variety of feelings. Anxiety, tiredness, stress… but I like to see some hope in her eyes as well. The fact that the children's faces are left to our imagination adds power to this picture.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Cinema plays a very relevant role in our content, so I had to include an image connected to the seventh art. When I hear the word “cinema”, I immediately think of the amazing western movies by Italian director Sergio Leone. In particular, I really like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Leone is believed to have said about Clint Eastwood that “his face has two expressions, one with the cigar and one without it”. I find this quote very hilarious and I always think about it when watching a movie starring Eastwood. By the way, Clint was a non-smoker and hated the taste of the cigars Leone forced him to smoke on set!
Find out more
Need help with a project? Contact our team of in-house experts to source the cultural and historical footage and stills that you need. Our archive is growing all the time so there's always something new to discover. We also offer research and retouching services.
