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Found Image Press was founded in San Diego, California in 1996 by Barry Bell, architectural designer, artist, photographer, and collector of weird and beautiful stuff, and his wife Cate Bell, modern dancer, choreographer, and movement educator.
Leaving the designing of dream houses and the choreographing of dances to others, Barry and Cate decided to take some of the weird and beautiful paper Barry had collected and enter the notecard publishing business, something neither of them knew anything about. But being creative and quick learners, they soon realized that the way to go was to print on demand — no inventory, no warehouse, no printing vast quantities overseas. They stayed abreast of changing technologies, and hired talented creative computer geniuses, visual artists, sisters, cousins, and friends of friends, and before too long they had a fabulous team of super people who felt like family.
Over time they added magnets, art prints, postcards, and calendars to the product line-up and started a custom product development program for museums and institutions. They digitized their archive of vintage images, and continue to add to it at breakneck speed.
Now the Found Image Press digital archive contains more than 60,000 vintage images of everything and every place.