Come andhandle thesheets beforeanything else.

1. 01

   What you want to understand

   Not a list of pictures. Tell us the question, in as much detail as you like, and the photographer tells you what is actually there. A shot list is a commission to confirm something you already believe.

2. 02

   Where, and when it has to be delivered

   The place, and the date the pictures are needed. Five weeks is the minimum on any assignment, so a date inside six weeks is the one thing we cannot solve, however the budget looks.

3. 03

   What you can spend

   The figure is €14,000, and half that for museums, small titles, students and non-commercial shows — on identical terms, and nobody is asked to prove anything. If the rate is the only obstacle, write and say so.

The questions we are asked most often — why five weeks, what the figure covers, what happens when an assignment comes back empty — are answered in full here.

Address

THE PLATE, Paris, France. The archive is in the basement; the door on the street is the picture desk.

Commissions

commissions@example.com — answered within two working days, by a person, including when the answer is no.

Archive research

commissions@example.com, marked "archive" — the archivist answers with a folder rather than a search page, and it is free either way.

Photographers

One or two are taken on each year. Send thirty frames from one place rather than a portfolio, and say how long you have lived there.

Objections

If you are in a photograph of ours and object to it, write to the office and mark it for the panel. The photographer who made it does not sit on it.

Picture desk

Monday to Friday, 9h to 18h. Closed the first two weeks of August, when nobody is shooting.

The archive

Tuesday to Thursday, by appointment, and you may handle the sheets with the archivist in the room.

Print viewing

Second Thursday of the month, 17h to 20h. Twelve prints from one project, and whoever shot it is usually there.

Visits

By arrangement, except in the week an assignment is being edited.