Amateur Photographer Magazine

Photos: Film reveals strange Getty requests (update)

Monday 1st December 2008

Chris Cheesman

Some of the strangest requests for photographs ever received by staff at Getty Images Hulton Archive are revealed in a prize-winning video.

Filmmaker Laurie Hill won £5,000 with a short film he made using photographs plucked from Hulton Getty's vast archive of still and moving images.

The 6min50secs film, entitled 'Photograph of Jesus', is an animated 'documentary-fantasy', based on 'strange requests for impossible images' that Getty receives on an everyday basis.

Such odd requests include a photograph of a Dodo, a picture of Adolf Hitler at the '1948' Olympics and an image of Jack the Ripper.

The Short & Sweet Film Challenge gave entrants three months to produce a film, with at least 50% of the images drawn from the Hulton Getty collection.

The Hulton Getty Archive contains around 60million images and around 30,000 hours of footage.

The archive's vice-president Matt Butson does the voiceover for the film.

The prize was awarded at a presentation event held in central London, hosted by Matt Butson.

To watch the winning film visit http:www.youtube.com/hultonarchive

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