Bridgeman's Footage Cataloguing & Research Manager (Maternity cover) reveals his favourite images and clips in the archive
1. What is your role at Bridgeman?
I am maternity cover for the Footage Manager, Holly, overseeing existing and incoming footage collections while she is away. I edit and catalogue new content and provide footage research support to our sales teams in the London and international offices. Before Bridgeman, I worked in the British Library Sound and Vision Archive for eight years. I left in 2014. Since, I've been working in various roles in the audio-visual archive sector including English Folk Dance Song Society, the National Jazz Archive, Goldsmiths University. I've also worked in the music industry for Warp and Rough Trade and I run the record label, Public Information.
2. What do you love most about the job?
Research. I have just returned to academia to study for an AHRC funded PhD, researching Independent Film and Video in Yorkshire between 1970-1990. Much like that diverse area of study, here at Bridgeman, no two-research projects are the same. As requests flood in, it is a joy to search through our archival collections and find content that connects to the project; from early 20th Century home movies, to WWII war footage, arts documentaries, and experimental animation the Bridgeman Footage collection is a constantly growing resource to fit many of the most fascinating projects. As an experienced audio-visual archivist it is exciting to see this research manifest itself into something tangible like a documentary; it makes everything we do worthwhile. 3. What misconceptions do clients most commonly have about the archive?
That Footage exists at all. I have colleagues who have worked in footage archives all their lives who have heard of the internationally recognised Bridgeman Images, but didn’t know we had a footage collection. That perception is changing, thankfully, as we continue to add more collections and archive researchers and film-makers realise we can offer a different, bespoke service to suit their project’s needs.
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Alex's favourite images and clips in the archive are...
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A fascinating interview from 1978 with a titan of the avant-garde, during which the smoking, brown-suited Cage philosophises and muses on the very concept of sound - revolutionary ideas that still shock and influence to this day. I particularly like the sequence when Cage and Kroll listen to excerpts from ‘Variations 2’ and the ‘Williams Mix’. Metallic sound crashes. Radio dials are twisted. Musique concrète cut-ups scrape. Tone generators scream. Interviewer Kroll tries to raise a smile. Cage does not move. Important stuff, from inside the mind of a genius. |
I Am A Professional Yorkshireman. This 1970 documentary, then, was bound to appeal. This is part four of the seven part doc, One of Our Own directed by John Edwards and narrated by thespian Anthony Quayle (Lawrence of Arabia, The Guns of Navarone, Ice Cold In Alex).
In this section, we get the handsome Arthington viaduct, the meandering River Wharf, an historic printing press, and scenes from a roaring iron foundry (my favourite sub-genre of industrial footage). Hot off the presses we also receive news of ‘The Death of Gordon’, with Quayle remarking - “Dear me, is that all the news we’ve got to print? Bit depressing ‘int it? Never mind…” Proper Yorkshire, that.
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This 19th century engraving draws a vivid scene from the city of my birth. The market place. The docks. The Theatre Royal. The world revered fishing trade. The River Humber. Poet, Andrew Marvell. Leader of the Abolitionist movement, William Wilberforce… Much of this has gone now, The Blitz and ‘time's winged chariot’ put paid to that, but what remains is a great city of fine architecture, no-nonsense people, high energy and creativity. What was once named the UK’s No.1‘Crap Town’ will celebrate its status as the UK Capital of Culture in 2017, and I can’t wait to show everyone what ‘ull (one drops the ‘H’ in pronunciation) is really all about.
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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.