UNESCO's rich collection of silver-based photographs bears witness to the Organisation's many uses of still images. Covering 50 years of activity, from 1947 to the early 2000s, these negatives, prints and slides were mainly used for illustrative purposes in the Courier and were taken by both UNESCO staff and photographers from all around the world.
Please note that some of the captions provided with the images are the original captions: as such, there may be inaccuracies or names that are no longer in use.
In 1950, two years after the fire that destroyed the main hall of the pagoda and in prevention of future natural disasters, the Kyoto UNESCO Co-operative Association decided to produce a photographic record of the temple of Koryuji, one of the world's oldest wooden temple. They then took 184 photographs of all the temple's treasures, the majority of them having never been revealed to the public, and made 10 sets of them which they send to the Emperor of Japan, many prestigious cultural institutions such as the Louvre and the British Museum, as well as one to the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Negatives were made out of those prints, thus creating the countertypes presented here, around two years later.
In 1952, thanks to the Gift Coupons system by UNESCO, the Social Education Center in Parel, Bombay, received audiovisual materials including radio sets and filmstrips.