FotoBridge | Digitizing Photos Blog

Celebrating several high-profile client wins from fields as diverse as Fine Arts and Photography, Hollywood Motion Pictures, the Literary World and Pop Music.

Legions of Anne Frasier fans can now get a rare glimpse of a few real world images that may have figured in her soon to be published memoir, The Orchard. The prolific, awarding-winning author of thriller and romance novels recently gathered up hundreds of decades-old color slides and sent to FotoBridge to be digitally preserved forever. A few sample gems have been posted on her popular blog, MONKEY WITH A PEN, as a preview for devotees.

"Color me impressed.  FotoBridge exceeded my expectations in all areas—from communication throughout the process to the quality of the final images.  I highly recommend FotoBridge for digital conversion needs!" - Anne Frasier, author, June 23, 2010.

Anne's contemporary romance novels were written under the Theresa Weir pseudonym. In 1999, she was awarded a Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Romantic Suspense for Cool Shade. From 1988 through 1999, she penned 13 top-selling romance novels. During this period, Frasier's editors would often ask her to loose the "blood and bodies" from her plots. It was then she transitioned fully to thrillers beginning with Hush in 2002. Since then, her novels were published under her name and included Sleep Tight (2003), Play Dead (2004), Before I Wake (2005), Pale Immortal (2006), Garden of Darkness (2007).

To say NJ businessman Henry Vaccaro has a story to tell could be the understatement of the year. In fact, he's got several stories that would knock your socks off. The saga of how he came to own a trove of Jackson Family memorabilia is the stuff of Hollywood movies, novels and a soon-to-be-released publication. It began more than 30 years ago when Jackson’s father Joe contacted him about a real estate deal at the Jersey shore and still continues to today.

In the 1980s, Mr. Vaccaro met Tito Jackson when making guitars for him as part-owner of Kramer Guitars. The guitar company achieved world-wide success for it’s innovative guitar designs and stable of high profile players like Eddie Van Halen and Richie Sambora. But despite it’s early success, in 1992 the company filed for bankruptcy. A company owned by the Jackson family agreed to purchase the guitar company from Henry Vaccaro, but soon defaulted on the payments. Thus began the decades-long series of legal battles that ultimately resulted in the legal transfer of priceless Michael Jackson and Jackson Family items to Henry Vaccaro. The collection is reported to include over 60 unreleased master tapes, costumes, letters, documents and gold records. It also includes thousands of never before publically seen photographs captured on Kodachrome slide film. The photos include professionally shot Jackson 5 concert performances and other images spanning years of Jackson family history.

Understandably, safeguarding this one-of-a-kind photo collection had been a top priority for Mr. Vaccaro from day one. Michael Jackson’s tragic and untimely death in June 2009 created a burning imperative to commission the professional digital archiving, preservation and backup of the entire photographic collection. Henry Vaccaro and a group of expert advisors chose FotoBridge for this important undertaking.

“We were delighted to be selected for this high-profile project”, said Julie Morris, President of FotoBridge. “The collection includes extraordinary images, many never seen, not only of Michael Jackson, but the entire Jackson family. It contains an important visual heritage of one of the most remarkable musical celebrity families of modern times. The commercial value of the collection was likely incalculable at the time we initiated the effort. Clearly, our strict absolute-privacy practices, facility security and advanced media handling process earned the confidence of Mr. Vaccaro’s team.” added Ms. Morris.

During the first quarter of 2010, FotoBridge surpassed 5,000 customers!

"We are delighted to have reached this noteworthy milestone and are thankful to our clients for having entrusted us to digitally preserve their most valuable memories, visual heritage/content and collectible images", said Julie Morris, president of FotoBridge. In just over two years, the company has digitally archived millions of  photographs from prints, transparencies, slides and negative film. The FotoBridge formula appeals to consumers, institutions and businesses with large, highly-valued traditional photographic collections. "While acquiring 5,000 customers is exciting, we are even more pleased with the levels of customer loyalty, satisfaction and referrals garnered to-date", added Ms. Morris.

Who Uses FotoBridge?

Individuals and organizations with large, traditional photographic collections to be digitally preserved, shared and re-purposed for a variety of uses.  Clearly, baby-boomers, retirees, scrapbookers, crafters and families make up a large part of the FotoBridge community. Similarly, professional photographers, artists, media agencies and collectors also make up a significant portion of the client base. FotoBridge also serves a diverse group of institutions and businesses including universities, private schools, hospitals, creative firms, publishers, musical groups, art galleries, photo journalists, designers, retailers, federal/state/local government entities, and non-profits.

Archie Rand is widely recognized as the world's most prominent painter of Jewish themes. As a painter, muralist, designer, and graphic artist his paintings have been featured for years, around the globe at the most respected and prestigious  galleries, shows and museums. These include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Art Institute of Chicago and The Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Mr. Rand studied at the Art Students League of New York under Larry Poons, who declared him to be the heir apparent of the 1960s art world. He then received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute.  His first exhibition was in 1966 followed by at least 80 solo exhibitions and inclusion in 200 group exhibitions. He is a Laureate of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, which awarded him the Achievement Medal for Contributions to the Visual Arts, joining him to the ranks of such talents as Itzhak Perlman, Philip Roth, Arthur Miller, and Elie Wiesel. He has been appointed as a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and has received numerous other honors. Artforum has called Archie Rand “the most accomplished artist of his generation.”

Over the many years of his long career, Archie Rand photographically archived his collection of important painting and murals. "My inventory of transparencies was stored in binders that were shelved on bookcases, covering two adjacent walls. The entire archive needed to be digitally transferred so that the studio could update its organizational and communication capacities", said Mr Rand.

"Late to make the move to a pixelated reality, I conceded that slides are no longer the currency of image exchange -  I could no longer put off the inevitable." After researching secure ways to digitally convert his valued collection of thousands of 35mm Slides, Archie Rand choose FotoBridge for this important undertaking.

"The service at Fotobridge was terrific. Friendly, professional, and prompt - their offerings are priced competitively and they produced high quality results. Web-ready and print quality images were generated from each original and the index proofs offer a hard copy tally of each project.  Cross-filing data is now easily accommodated and immediate visual referencing and transmitting can be done at the keyboard.  Conveniently stored on discs, I can now slip selected histories of my production into my coat pocket.  I've put books on the bookcases." - Archie Rand, April 29, 2010.

Philadelphia University is celebrating 125 years of innovation in higher eduction this year.  And never has it's ambition to lead been more apparent then today. The university has  rapidly positioned itself to demonstrate the contemporary model for professional education well into the 21st century.  President Dr. Stephen Spinelli, armed with a new vision and strategic plan, is leading a top-notch team and student community into a promising future for the institution.

The year-long celebration makes it an exciting time to visit the beautiful, park-like campus in the city of brotherly love. It's also a significant milestone that demands reflection and tribute to the school's richly diverse heritage. As part of this significant commemoration, the university has been eagerly reclaiming and preparing a vast treasure of important archives and extraordinary content dating back to the 1880s.

As part of these efforts, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations engaged FotoBridge to digitally convert and unlock fovever over 17,000 pages containing more than 70,000 images from yearbooks dating back to 1927. The project included preparing legacy yearbooks for digital capture, creating full-resolution, reusable JPEG images, fully searchable pdfs and optimized, searchable digital yearbook portfolios. The effort also included off-site backup and recovery services for digital content.