European Pressphoto Agency
Encyclopedia
European Pressphoto Agency B.V. is an international news photo agency.
Images
from all parts of the world
covering news
, politics
, sports, business
, finance
as well as arts
, culture
and entertainment
are provided by a global network of over 400 professional photographers and included in the epa news photo service. The epa picture service is based both on the broad network of epa's staff photographers all over the world and on the daily production of its member agencies, which are all market leaders in their respective countries. All photos are edited and distributed to clients and partners worldwide by the editorial headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
, which is staffed 24 hours daily.
The international picture service of epa is used by diverse media
as well as epa's partners and shareholders worldwide. At present epa’s editorial service offers approximately 1,100 new images
on an average day.
In 2010 the epa service consisted of a split down to the following categories:
Since 2003 the epa picture service developed as follows:
The epa service is being delivered via satellite
delivery, FTP or web access, depending on the customer's needs.
dates back to 1997 and has about three million images on stock. The major part of the archives can be accessed online through the ‘epa webgate’. A personal login
is being provided by epa for its clients, partners and on request.
of France
, ANP
of Holland, ANOP (now Lusa) of Portugal
, ANSA
of Italy
, belga
of Belgium
, dpa
of Germany
and EFE
of Spain
were motivated by what they saw as a lack of alternatives to the Anglo-Saxon picture services offered at the time.
Originally conceived as a vehicle to exchange the pictures of the member agencies’ domestic service; it also included the world service of AFP and other European services and suppliers. It expanded to a more independent entity as Eastern Europe
opened up. The opening of these new markets, along with the war in the former Yugoslavia
, led epa to employ its own photographers in those regions. Despite these developments, epa remained under the auspices of their member/owners whom it exclusively served.
of Austria
in 1986, and Lehtikuva of Finland
in 1987. Pressensbild of Sweden
joined in 1997 followed by Scanfoto (later Scanpix Norway) of Norway
and Nordfoto (later Scanpix Denmark) of Denmark
in 1999. pap of Poland
joined epa in 2001.
In early 2003 after extensive restructuring and the departure of AFP, epa successfully made its service available to the worldwide market. Later in 2003 Lehtikuva, Scanpix Denmark/Norway and Pressensbild (later Scanpix Sweden) decided not to continue as a shareholder
of epa. However, Scanpix Norway, Sweden and Denmark continued cooperation with epa under the name of Scanpix
Scandinavia.
ANA of Greece
(now ANA-MPA
) joined epa as a shareholder in 2004 followed by mti of Hungary
in 2005.
Today epa has eleven shareholders, all being market leaders in their respective countries:
, Reuters
and AFP/Getty Images
.
, an epa photojournalist, was the first journalist to have been killed during the 2010-2011 Tunisian protests and the first journalist to have died during the Arab Spring
uprisings.
Images
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
from all parts of the world
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
covering news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
, politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, sports, business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
, finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
as well as arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
, culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
are provided by a global network of over 400 professional photographers and included in the epa news photo service. The epa picture service is based both on the broad network of epa's staff photographers all over the world and on the daily production of its member agencies, which are all market leaders in their respective countries. All photos are edited and distributed to clients and partners worldwide by the editorial headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, which is staffed 24 hours daily.
The epa service
epa built up a reputation for reliable, independent and unique photo coverage.The international picture service of epa is used by diverse media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
as well as epa's partners and shareholders worldwide. At present epa’s editorial service offers approximately 1,100 new images
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
on an average day.
In 2010 the epa service consisted of a split down to the following categories:
Since 2003 the epa picture service developed as follows:
The epa service is being delivered via satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
delivery, FTP or web access, depending on the customer's needs.
The epa archive
The epa photo archivePhoto archive
Photo archive, short for photographs archive or photographic archive, can refer to*any archive of stock photography*any of various photograph collections, including** Bettmann Archive, owned by Corbis...
dates back to 1997 and has about three million images on stock. The major part of the archives can be accessed online through the ‘epa webgate’. A personal login
Login
Login is the method whereby a user obtains access to a computer system.Login may also refer to:*Magazines:** LOGiN, published by Enterbrain** ;login:, published by USENIX* Login, Carmarthenshire, an hamlet in Carmarthenshire...
is being provided by epa for its clients, partners and on request.
History
epa was founded in 1985 by seven European news agencies. The agencies, AFPAgence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, ANP
ANP
ANP is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:*Adult Nurse Practitioner*Afghan National Police*Acadia National Park*American Nazi Party, an American Neo-Nazi political party....
of Holland, ANOP (now Lusa) of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, ANSA
ANSA
ANSA may refer to:* ANSA, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs , also sometimes abbreviated NSA*Armed non-state actors, a term used in political science*Ansa *Artists for a new South AfricaTechnology:...
of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, belga
Belga
Belga may refer to:* Belga * A Belgian gold currency worth five Belgian francs for international transactions introduced in 1926, a Swedish merchant ship...
of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, dpa
DPA
-Companies and associations:*Danish Pro Audio, the predecessor company of DPA Microphones, a manufacturer of microphones*Dominique Perrault Architecture French architecture agency http://www.perraultarchitecte.com/...
of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and EFE
EFE
EFE is a Spanish news agency created in 1939 by Spain's former minister of the press and propaganda Ramón Serrano Súñer and Manuel Aznar Zubigaray....
of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
were motivated by what they saw as a lack of alternatives to the Anglo-Saxon picture services offered at the time.
Originally conceived as a vehicle to exchange the pictures of the member agencies’ domestic service; it also included the world service of AFP and other European services and suppliers. It expanded to a more independent entity as Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
opened up. The opening of these new markets, along with the war in the former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, led epa to employ its own photographers in those regions. Despite these developments, epa remained under the auspices of their member/owners whom it exclusively served.
epa shareholders and epa going global
By 1995 epa had ten members with the additions of KEYSTONE later in 1985, APAAPA
- Associations :* Aborigines Progressive Association, an Australian organization* All Peoples' Association , a British voluntary organization* Allied Pilots Association, the certified collective bargaining agent for American Airlines pilots...
of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
in 1986, and Lehtikuva of Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
in 1987. Pressensbild of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
joined in 1997 followed by Scanfoto (later Scanpix Norway) of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Nordfoto (later Scanpix Denmark) of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
in 1999. pap of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
joined epa in 2001.
In early 2003 after extensive restructuring and the departure of AFP, epa successfully made its service available to the worldwide market. Later in 2003 Lehtikuva, Scanpix Denmark/Norway and Pressensbild (later Scanpix Sweden) decided not to continue as a shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
of epa. However, Scanpix Norway, Sweden and Denmark continued cooperation with epa under the name of Scanpix
Scanpix
Scanpix Scandinavia is a stock photography agency. It is the leading distributor of photographic services in Scandinavia, and has branches in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia. Scanpix provides daily news services to subscribing newspapers. Its other customers includes magazines, advertising...
Scandinavia.
ANA of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
(now ANA-MPA
ANA-MPA
The Athens-Macedonian News Agency is a Greece-based news service. It is a public entity anonymous company. It was founded in 2008 as the Athens News Agency - Macedonian Press Agency S.A. , under a presidential decree which merged the Athens News Agency and the Macedonian Press Agency .The...
) joined epa as a shareholder in 2004 followed by mti of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
in 2005.
Today epa has eleven shareholders, all being market leaders in their respective countries:
- Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPAANA-MPAThe Athens-Macedonian News Agency is a Greece-based news service. It is a public entity anonymous company. It was founded in 2008 as the Athens News Agency - Macedonian Press Agency S.A. , under a presidential decree which merged the Athens News Agency and the Macedonian Press Agency .The...
) in Greece - Algemeen Nederlands PersbureauAlgemeen Nederlands PersbureauThe Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau is the largest news agency in the Netherlands. ANP was founded on December 11, 1934 by the association of Dutch newspapers NDP...
(ANP) in the Netherlands - Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) in Italy
- Austria Presse Agentur (APA) in Austria
- belgaBelga (news agency)Belga is a Belgian news agency. Belga was founded in 1920 as "Agence télégraphique belge de presse" by Pierre-Marie Olivier and Maurice Travailleur. Seat : 8B Frédéric Pelletier Street, 1030 Schaerbeek - External link :*...
in Belgium - Deutsche Presse-AgenturDeutsche Presse-AgenturDeutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH is a news agency founded in 1949 in Germany. Based in Hamburg, it has grown to be a major worldwide operation serving print media, radio, television, online, mobile phones, and national news agencies. News is available in German, English, Spanish, and Arabic.The DPA...
(dpa) in Germany - Agencia EFEEFEEFE is a Spanish news agency created in 1939 by Spain's former minister of the press and propaganda Ramón Serrano Súñer and Manuel Aznar Zubigaray....
in Spain - KEYSTONE in SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
- Lusa – Agência de Notícias de Portugal in Portugal
- Magyar Távirati IrodaMagyar Távirati IrodaMTI is a Hungarian news agency. One of the oldest news agencies in the world, it was founded in 1880.MTI is owned by MTI Rt., founded by the Parliament. The members of the Owners’ Advisory Body are elected by the National Assembly of Hungary on four-year terms. It's a marketleader, and is...
(mti) in Hungary - Polska Agencja Prasowa (pap) in Poland
Competition
As one of the leading global news photo agencies epa's competitors are Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
and AFP/Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images, Inc. is a stock photo agency, based in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is a supplier of stock images for business and consumers with an archive of 80 million still images and illustrations and more than 50,000 hours of stock film footage...
.
Photojournalists
Lucas DolegaLucas Dolega
Lucas Dolega, whose birth name was Loucas von Zabiensky-Mebrouk and who was also called Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, was a French/German photojournalist who was reportedly killed by Tunisian police while he was photographing a protest in Tunis...
, an epa photojournalist, was the first journalist to have been killed during the 2010-2011 Tunisian protests and the first journalist to have died during the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
uprisings.
External links
- epa european pressphoto agency (official website)
- epa webgate (image archive)
- Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPA)
- Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP)
- Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA)
- Austria Presse Agentur (APA)
- belga
- Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)
- Agencia EFE
- KEYSTONE
- Lusa
- Magyar Távirati Iroda (mti)
- Polska Agencja Prasowa (pap)