Archive Donation Process

The Bülent Eczacıbaşı Foundation Center for Photographic Studies (BEVFAM) aims to safeguard photographic archives in Türkiye that form part of the visual and cultural heritage and may be at risk. Working in collaboration with individuals, institutions, and the heirs of photographers who are no longer with us, BEVFAM seeks to digitize these archives and integrate them into Türkiye’s intellectual, artistic, and cultural memory. BEVFAM welcomes donations with the purpose of transforming personal and institutional photographic archives into publicly accessible research resources.

Photographic archives that have been stored for long periods in homes, warehouses, or offices may suffer irreversible damage over time due to factors such as high temperatures, humidity, mold, or acidic storage materials. This risk applies to both film materials and darkroom prints (silver-gelatin prints), as their surfaces contain organic substances (animal gelatin). At BEVFAM, materials such as photographic film, film, and documents are preserved under high-level standards and optimal environmental conditions.

Donated archives are digitized at high resolution using professional scanning and reproduction systems, backed up on secure servers, and made accessible to the public and researchers through the BEVFAM Digital Archive. Each photograph is tagged in accordance with international classification standards, enabling users to locate images through keyword searches.

When a new archive donation is proposed, BEVFAM evaluates the nature of the archive together with the donor; digitization and access conditions are determined through a mutual approval process.

To safeguard your photographic archive and make it available to future researchers, you may contact us at: arsiv@bevfam.org