Aerial archiving – the value of commercial aerial photographic libraries?

Photographs create a snapshot in time which can never be exactly replicated. Large Commercial Aerial Photography companies will archive every image using a system which allows rapid image retrieval. The images have a value because they can be sourced and replicated for a lower cost than commissioning them to be flown and taken again.

It is also important to remember the images may have a historic value because the client wants to see something from the time the image was taken. This increases the value further. Therefore as the image become more dated its value increases but its demand decreases. It is clear therefore that an Aerial Photographic Library can become a separate entity in its own right to the Photographic Company.

The historic value of an image is especially true for Event Aerial Photography where the event evolves, changes and develops each year. It is therefore very important to look at the changes that have occurred over time and Event Photography makes this easy. This is also true with Survey Photography and these images may be required again many decades after the survey was originally undertaken.

It would therefore appear that aerial photographic libraries do have a strong value and can provide another stream of income for an Aerial Photographic Company.