The Press Photo History Project
  • Photo Research/Copyright tracing
  • Photo Agency Directory
  • Supporting the PPHP
  • PPHP Team
  • About & Contact

FOUND: Searching for Sports photographer Owen Barnes freelance 1970’s 80’s

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

August 5 2022: Sad news. The PPHP received this message from Owen’s wife Ellen: “It is with a heavy heart I must inform you that my husband Ray Wellingson passed…

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July 21, 2022

Press Photographer Frank Martin has died – worked at Bernsen’s International Press Service – BIPS & The Guardian

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

I was in touch with Press Photographer Frank Martin a few years back – he had found the Press Photo History project and my call for information on the press…

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April 13, 2022

Central Press: Iwan Morgan remembers the staff – 1955

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

The PPHP received an email from Ex-Central Press staffer Ian Morgan, here’s what he remembers of the staff when he arrived at the agency in 1955. – here’s our original…

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April 9, 2022

Copyright and agency history: British Illustrations Ltd

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

Mentioned in our Photo Agency Directory the British Illustrations agency does not feature in many requests  – we are assuming it closed early 1900’s. Photo detail: Photo detail: Above verso from…

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March 30, 2022

Can you locate Planet News photographer’s image in publication?

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

Can you re-united Planet News photographer’s image in publication? This in from the library team at Kent based photo library Topfoto : Hi Will: Here’s  a good story that just…

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January 26, 2022

For Sale: Robert Capa beach landing images in print – Picture Post 1944

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

Capa beach landing images in print – Picture Post 1944 For sale – funds go to the Press Photo History Project Picture Post magazine containing an article about invasion –…

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January 13, 2022

Newspaper and Magazine search service

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

Newspaper and Magazine search service for publishers and companies Here at the Press Photo History Project our photo search service* now stretches to be to specific finds for newspaper groups…

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January 12, 2022

Tracing ‘unfindable’ photo collections

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

Are you looking to clear a copyright on a photograph and all you have to go on is the agency stamp on the back of a print? ….and a Google…

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January 6, 2022

New PPHP service: We find pictures published in the press

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

We find photographs from the press: Cars, Boats, Horses, Houses, People and Events. If you are searching for a photographic print of an important historical event or own a famous…

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January 3, 2022

Obituary: Elizabeth Selby co-founder of Rex Features

By Will CarletonWill Carleton

Read the full obit on our main industry news site PhotoArchiveNews.com: Obituary: Elizabeth Selby – “old age isn’t for sissies” Elizabeth Selby, who co-founded Rex Features, one of Fleet Street’s…

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December 18, 2021
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Support The PPHP

Image requests

We provide a copyright search service connecting image license requests with image owners through our network of contacts at newspaper archives and commercial photo libraries.

The Project

We are mapping the lives and whereabouts of press photo agencies and newspaper photographers based in and around Fleet Street and the UK from 1904 - 1995, with a long term plan to map all press photo agencies throughout the world.

Why is it important?

At the turn of the 20th century, there was vast growth in press agencies and photographers due to the massive thirst for images in newspapers. Many are still in existence but others have been sold, absorbed or simply disappeared, effectively leaving gaps in the history of this industry… many agency offices were bombed during the WWII London Blitz resulting negative and print files being water damage from the hoses quenching the fires …most archives were in the building basements.

The Memories

The Press Photo History Project is building a ‘family tree’, which is helping to find the original owners of content. Eventually this would also provide an educational resource centred on the history of press photography. Starting with the Mapping of Fleet Street, this aims to include an index to photo agencies working in and around the ‘street’ and photographers memories of working lives.

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Useful Resources

British Photographic History

Photo Archive News

The Press Photo History Project is a PhotoArchiveNews.com site

© 2023 The Press Photo History Project.

  • Photo Research/Copyright tracing
  • Photo Agency Directory
  • Supporting the PPHP
  • PPHP Team
  • About & Contact