ECPA (Archives in Paris)

[RFPB]

Hello forum,

I have recently seen in a photo archive used for "God, Honor, Fatherland". It is called the "etablissement cinematographique et photographique des armees" and it supposedly has over 350,000 photographs! Is this place still running in Paris? If so, are there any members in Paris who have been? Thank you!

The website: http://www.ecpad.fr/

Best regards,

[Michael Kenny]

The final resting place of a lorry full of German negatives that went 'missing' in 1945.
Famous for it's eye watering prices for copies!

[RFPB]

Is it that bad? "God, Honor, Fatherland"'s author and RZM Imports must have paid a pretty penny. Are they still running? Is it free to visit and look at the pictures and then pay for the chosen ones?

Thanks for the thelp.

[tim will]

Is there anyone here that dose frequent the ECPA and can get copies for those of us not able to go there? I've always wondered what they have in the way of Waffen SS photos. I know the copies are not free so of course I'd pay.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Tim

[Tom Peters]

I have the same question as Tim. I would first like to know what they have there. Is there any sort of index ?

thanks,

Mad Dog

[C.GILLONO]

Hi
The prints for personal use are now cheaper (around 3 euros IIRC) but the publisihing fees are not.
There is no index or captions and the prints were made at first choosing the 'best' subjects but the albums are much mixed regarding subjects and usually periods - though they separated DAK-WH-WL-WM photographs - available in different albums (usually approx 50 of each series and still slowly growing).
The staff is now much more interested in the German WW2 stuff but there is not enough people and credits are low, the emphasis is working on the contemporary French materiel.
Please note I was said all the negatives are not yet printed.

So the best way is to go there and turn many many pages in the many albums...

[Tom Peters]

Is there any sort of caption for each photo, indicating the subject ?

thanks,

Mad Dog

[C.GILLONO]

Unfortunately, nothing!
There is minimal info on the PK team on the negs themselves, I was told, but that's all...
HTH

[Michael Kenny]

Any 'information' from ECPA would be speculation.
They did not take the photos and they are the truckload of German PK negatives that 'went missing' in 1945 when they were being moved around.

[Tom Peters]

Well, nuts. Without obvious identification, it would be almost impossible to identify who or what was in the picture.

thanks,

Mad Dog

[Hautpoul]

About research at ECPAD it is currently "stone age". There are some comuters but 90% of pictures are not digitized and if you look for something, you have to look on antik index cards, wich have not been uptaded since a very very long time.
Some pictures are also not availaible because the ECPAD has not the rights.
But if you are patient there are some treasure...

Regards,

[Valtoro]

I was told that it exists a list from ECPAD with the identified "Norwegian" photos located in this archive, but none got it..
Anyone heard about this list and even better, got a copy?

[Sam Wren]

An acquaintance of mine went to ECPAD recently to do some research and from what they said the ECPAD public website is basically useless for researching the photo/film holdings of ECPAD (in terms of the captured German photos & films). You have to actually go to the archive itself where you can view the digitized photos & films of the German collection. From what he said "34% of the photographs and 68% of the films have been digitalized so far." In other words, you can view the digitized portion online, but only from the computers of the reading room at ECPAD in Ivry. You can also view the physical albums/reels which will include photos & films that have not been digitized. He is a student which apparently gives him special access, so I do not know to what degree it would be different for any non-academic off the street.

In short, it sounds like ECPAD is a source of many images and films that have not been published but requires a physical trip to France to view unless you can get someone to do it for you. My acquaintance said that you can copy and paste the digitized images and films to a thumb drive for free (personal use) from the computers in the reading room, but if the photos you want are not digitized you will obviously have to pay for print copies to be made.

[Mori]

I've been there. It's easy to access, you just need to show your ID to enter the (military) site. You browse through pictures on one of their computers. There are something like 6 workstations.

The place is quiet and the 4-5 people of the staff are obviously not doing much of their day and happy to help. They do complain about being overworked etc. but that's probably a self-defense habit in times of budget restrictions. It also explains why they are not that helpful over the phone (I had one guy explain to me for half an hour that he could not prepare a quote because he was soooo overworked... When I went there, getting this quote was a 3 minute thing).

You can make a digital copy of the pictures, which is really a great thing, esp. if your idea is to resize / edit them. You can then check (at home) what this editing will do before going any further.

Their prices when it comes to publishing pictures are pretty expensive. Although pictures are in the domain public, they would charge for publishing. I suspect that they have enough staff to check whether a given picture is theirs and then come after the publisher. They imagine themselves as a profit center for the army rather than as public service to make their archives known.