The ICO image library consists of over 9,000 35mm colour transparencies, most taken by the photographer Sam Abell while working on a project for the National Geographic Society, which took him to Brazil, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Indonesia and Kenya, as well as Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. The resulting images capture every aspect of coffee production and processing, as well as coffee drinking in a variety of locales.
The library may be viewed by appointment and duplicate slides purchased on request at a cost of £10 each, normally available within 5 days of receipt of payment. A higher rate of £100 applies to images requested for use in advertising campaigns. Digital copies of 200 selected slides are available on CD-ROM. The two disks, entitled "Plantation" and "Processing", contain a hundred images and cost £100 per disk (see samples below). The Organization retains the copyright for slides or digital images supplied. Accordingly, although the slides or photos may be used in publications (except for advertising purposes unless specifically agreed) or for presentations the following conditions apply:- The International Coffee Organization must be acknowledged as the source.
- The slides or photos are provided for the use stated at the time of the request and may not be used for other purposes without the permission of the Organization.
- No slide or digital image or reproduction thereof may be resold to third parties.
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In addition a DVD featuring three short documentary films made by the Organization in the 1980s is available from the Information Section at ta cost of £50 per copy.
The Story of Coffee - 8 minutes
The film begins by spotlighting the regions of production and goes on to provide a detailed description of the harvesting, drying, grading and sorting of coffee, and how it is bagged, shipped and roasted, before finally focusing on the tasting process.
A Labour of Love - 17 minutes
Examines the history of coffee, its discovery and popularization, profiling some of the different types of consumer worldwide.
The film highlights coffee’s economic significance as a commodity and goes on to describe in detail the production process.