Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2016
In 2011, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc purchased a fashion photography archive with over 750,000 images from runway photographer Niall McInerney, with the aim of digitizing it for the educational market. The archive spans the period from the late 1970s through to 2000, before the rise of digital photography. It includes many rare images – backstage and street style as well as runway. Bloomsbury recently completed the three-and-a-half-year digitization project, and is in the process of indexing the images for digital deployment as part of Bloomsbury Fashion Central, which will also include the Berg Fashion Library and Fairchild Books content. This article looks at the drivers behind the purchase of the archive, the challenges it presented and the logic of partnerships with other possible content providers.
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