Photographic collection

The WCC photo archives contain all the images produced by the Visual Arts department and the different photographers who have worked for the WCC since 1948, including John P. Taylor, Peter Williams and Marc Van Appelgehm.

The photographic archives are kept with the paper archives in the Ecumenical Centre library in Geneva. The Archive service maintains, catalogues, preserves and disseminates the collection produced by the WCC.

This collection comprises approximately 350.000 negatives, 50.000 slides and 180.000 prints on a wide variety of subjects: WCC conferences, field trips, social issues, WCC work in the regions, outstanding personalities in the ecumenical movement and in the religious and political world in general, WCC staff, etc.

The database of historical photos (Scope) is being prepared and already contains several thousand photos. This database can be used to consult our paper, photographic and multimedia collections. It can be used to search and order digital copies of images (300 dpi resolution, 25 x 16 cm or 3000 x 2000 pixels approx.) Instructions for the search engine are to be found in the introduction to the Scope page.

Link to the rates for the photos

The Visual Arts department, now known as Photo Oikoumene, still produces photos and audiovisual material of professional quality illustrating the life of the ecumenical movement. A collection of recent photos is available online at www.photooikoumene.org.