Matthew Butson
The Hulton Archive
Described by many as a national treasure, Getty Images' Hulton Archive is home to all manner of pictures, from the iconic to the everyday
Extraordinary is an overused word these days. So much so that it's lost some of its meaning. That said, in an unassuming office block in Woodfield road, west London, there is an archive of photographs that is precisely that: extraordinary. The Hulton Archive is a collection of approximately 70 million images documenting human life throughout the world over the last 153 years. Since 1996 it has been owned by Getty Images and its contents can be licensed for editorial and creative use in almost the same way as any other image from the company's collection.
The story of the Hulton Archive begins back in the days of Picture Post and its publisher Sir Edward Hulton. As his publishing empire went from strength to strength, Sir Edward became more and more interested in collecting photography, adding to Picture Post photographers' images with acquisitions of his own. Over the next 20 years, a great many collections were added to the infant archive, including pictures from the London Stereoscopic company - one of the first photographic companies in the world.
The acquisitions continued until the closure of Picture Post in 1957 when the Hulton Archive (as it was now known) was sold to the BBC, who would look after it for the next 30 years. Having a steady stream of images coming in from the various Picture Post photographers meant that, under Sir Edward, the archive grew steadily and consistently, however the BBC didn't have the same outlook and the collection languished somewhat. Acquiring the picture libraries of the Daily Express and Evening Standard in 1982 plugged some holes, and after this the BBC did manage to add to the collection using its own material. However, in 1988, the Hulton Archive was up for sale again and was acquired by cable television entrepreneur Brian Deutsch.
Over the next eight years, Deutsch doubled the collection's size and rehoused it in new premises in west London. The Hulton Archive also dabbled with digitisation, trying out some of the early picture disc formats such as CDTV and CDi and making use of metadata to enable easy searching of images.
When Getty Images bought the Hulton Archive in 1996 it comprised some 20 million images. Since then the company has taken its responsibility towards this unique collection of photographs very seriously. Today the collection makes money for Getty Images, through licensing deals, but the Hulton Archive also feels like a museum of sorts, housing a kind of national treasure for future generations.
"We aren't a museum, but we are fast turning into one," remarks Matt Butson, vice president of the Hulton Archive. Butson has been working with Getty Images for 22 years now, and his enthusiasm for the Hulton Archive, and what it represents, is overwhelming. "Because of the collectability of photography now, prints that weren't worth anything a few years back are worth silly money now. An original Felice Beato print would have gone for £40-50 a few years back; now you're looking at several hundred pounds. It only takes a book or exhibition and prices go sky high."
This intrinsic value of photography is perhaps why Getty Images takes the welfare of the Hulton Archive so seriously. The organisation's staff comprise researchers and curators, as well as conservators and restoration experts and together they search the archive for those rare gems that have cultural or historical significance.
"Sometimes it's like an archaeological dig - other times it's like a detective story," Butson continues. "We are the only commercial picture library, that I know of, to have a full-time conservator and curator, although the collection is so vast that all my people can do is stem the tide. Recently we worked out that just to re-sleeve the negatives would cost us £30 million and take 300 man hours. It's a massive issue, but that is a good illustration of what we have here. People rave about the Smithsonian and places like that, but we are sitting on something really unique, these pictures are about us: the ordinary people. The days of our lives."
This last point is an interesting one: in Picture Post, photojournalism was all about the everyday. That was what the readers wanted and, in turn, why the archive is so interesting today. Now, given the media's celebrity obsession, it's hard to imagine anyone getting excited about Jade Goody in 30 years time.
Extraordinary and the ordinary
If one story encapsulates what is so special about the Hulton Archive, it is perhaps that of an early potential investor being shown round the archive by Mark Getty who, at the time, was looking for capital. Wanting to amaze him with the breadth and depth of the collection, Butson and his team asked the investor about his past and learned that his father - also an investment banker - had once had a trial for Cardiff City FC in the 1930s. Riffling through the day books of the Picture Post photographers a negative was found and a print was made clearly showing the chap's father in a team photo. The investor agreed this was impressive but he already had this picture at home - a family heirloom. Unfazed, the team returned to the day books and began cross referencing. By the end of the tour they were able to present their hard-to-please visitor with an image that almost brought him to tears: a picture of his mother and father on their wedding day, something he had never seen before in his life.
"He couldn't believe we would have pictures of ‘nobodies' on their wedding day," comments Butson. "But that's what professional photography was all about then: ordinary people doing ordinary things."
Although pictures like this make up the vast majority of the Hulton Archive's content, there is also a tiny minority that can almost be classed as priceless. In the fireproof Vintage room, secured with multiple locks, are gems by Man Ray, Brassai, and Bill Brandt to name but a few - some of which would be worth well over £100,000 to a serious print collector.
So what does the future hold for the Hulton Archive under the stewardship of Getty Images? In simple terms Butson says he wants to continue to educate, inform and entertain using photography, and that his ambitions for the collection go farther than revenue generation. "Obviously we aim to maintain the archive's position as the number one commercial archive in the world, but we are also seeking to establish the Hulton Archive as one of of the world's greatest artistic institutions, alongside the Louvre, MOMA, the Tate or the Guggenheim.
"Photography is, without doubt, the newest fine art, but it also tells the story of mankind, warts and all, from a historical perspective. It's important that we continue to tell that story and preserve our past, using both new technology and traditional techniques," he continues. Importantly, though, access is crucial and we want to ensure that our collection can be enjoyed by people all around the world."
The Hulton Archive is so much more than a collection of pictures. It is a living, breathing entity that, given the love and care that it needs, will continue to evolve and give pleasure to generations to come. As Butson himself says, "the output of today's photographers is our archive of tomorrow." Amen.
