The Rheinisches Bildarchiv has been producing, collecting, preserving and promoting photographs in a wide variety of formats since it was founded in 1926. It is one of the largest art-historical photo archives in Germany and is unique as local authority institution. The RBA develops analogue and digital presentation strategies and cooperates with Cologne's museums and cultural institutions, many other image archives and the independent scene.
Since 2010, the archive's holdings have increased fivefold. It now comprises around 5.5 million photographic images in many formats from 35mm to the largest glass negative (70x90 centimetres) and materials: glass and film negatives, slides in 35mm and medium format, positive prints and over 800,000 digital images. Currently, around 120 unique photographers' holdings have been identified, such as those of the well-known Cologne photographers August Sander, Karl Hugo Schmölz, August Kreyenkamp and Chargesheimer. The RBA owes the enormous increase in the number of holdings to the approximately 4 million negatives and slides from the analogue KölnMesse image archive with their great significance for the history of photography and culture in Cologne: among them all the photo documentations of Photokina, Art Cologne and the predecessor art fairs as well as all the other sections of the Cologne fairs.
The RBA's own photographers have been taking photographs for the city of Cologne since 1926. The RBA thus produces a considerable part of its archive stock itself. In this way, it differs significantly from archives that merely "record" passively, which are classically covered by archive regulations. The RBA works more like a photo agency and provides a comparable photo distribution service, but has non-profit status and thus a public educational mandate. Since 2012, the main instrument for international photo distribution and image provision has been the image database www.kulturelles-erbe-koeln.de (KEK).
In 2021, the Rheinisches Bildarchiv moved together with the Historical Archive into the new building at the Eifelwall. In 2022/2023, it takes part in the Artist Meets Archive Programme of the Internationale Photoszene for the third time.
Rheinisches Bildarchiv
Eifelwall 5
50674 Cologne
Archives & Collections
Photography has a rich and varied history in the Cologne area. This is evidenced by the numerous photo collections in art museums and photographic archives, ranging from classical picture archives to private and corporate archives. In the Artist Meets Archive programme, the hidden treasures within these institutions are revived.
The collaboration between the archives and participating artists results in exhibition projects that are presented as part of the Photoszene Festival. Here, the archive becomes the site of an artistic debate and focuses on local photographic history as well as casting a global perspective on the medium of photography.