About Us

Behind the Scenes

Inside The Getty Images Archive collection of photography glass plates and negatives

The Journey of our Prints

Our Darkroom

Original Vintage Negative of ‘Backgammon By The Pool’, by Slim Aarons, 1959

Our photography darkroom was first set up in 1988 at the Getty Images Archive in London. Today our talented darkroom uses traditional photographic techniques, to create beautiful Fibre and Resin prints. Hand printed from original vintage negatives, these classic Fibre and Resin prints have character and elegance. A print craft that produces the greatest detail, definition and tonal range for black and white photography.

Colour Printing

Digitally printed from original transparencies

Printed using original transparencies from the world renowned Slim Aarons archive.

Our modern digital print lab at the Archive is used for creating stunning colour photography prints. We digitise original vintage colour film and transparencies, using drum scanning processes, to make the highest quality digital files for print. Using the C-Type printing technique, images are digitally exposed and created using colour inks, then traditionally darkroom processed. Perfect for colour, C-Type prints have crisp detail, continuous tone and vibrancy.

Journey of a Print in our Darkroom...

Original 1930s vintage glass plate from the Archive
Inside the Darkroom, enlarger and easel

Hand printed from original negatives

Our photographs are developed from original negatives in our London Archive darkroom. Our in-house darkroom team have been working together for over 25 years. Creative and professional, they are experts in photography. Turning negatives into enlarged prints, bringing the original vision of the photographer to life.

Drawing with light

Glass plate inside the enlarger lamp
Picture projected onto the easel, in darkroom red light

With our extensive knowledge of the archive collection, we hand pick each negative for print. We can enlarge images up by several sizes and create custom crops. Our darkroom enlarger is equipped to handle vintage negative types, across 100-year-old glass plates, 6×6 negatives and 35mm film.

We use the best papers to complement the unique image giving the perfect finish and tone to the print. Our archive negatives produce greatly detailed prints. We work by hand to bring out the original image, highlighting key details and creating harmony in the print, which makes each exposure unique.

Greatest detail, definition, & tonal range

Exposed and developed print in process
Final handmade print in our Darkroom

Speciality work is added by hand. We emboss stamp each print with our exclusive Getty Images Archive hallmark and Limited Editions are uniquely numbered. Each print is issued with an official Certificate of Authenticity and caption label. All prints are hand packed by the team, in our bespoke Getty Images Gallery packaging.

We source our materials from ethical sustainable sources, ensuring all darkroom chemicals are recycled or disposed of responsibly. Since we work to the highest standards of print production, our prints will last for many decades.

Traditional process with character & elegance

Hand emboss stamping of print.
Getty Images Archive exclusive hallmark
Our bespoke packaging, certificate of authenticity and caption label