Vintage Art Reprints: retro movie posters from Europe, old photos and offset prints

About the business

Born in France, Sylvie Bruges started a career of taking photos for centerfolds in Paris, then assisting celebrity photographer, German-born Tana Kaleya. Working with models, actors and film directors, Sylvie met Sudy Dostal, an American who had attended film school in Paris, and was then on an assignment in London, writing her first theatrical feature film screenplay. Sudy invited Sylvie to visit her in Los Angeles. The rest, as they say, is history. Ultimately, Sudy proposed a new business venture that involved art. As a film student in Paris, Sudy lived on rue de Babylone, where there was a shop selling movie posters. Sudy had a B. A. in Art from Scripps College but knew nothing about poster art. She was astonished by the beauty, variety and story-telling of this new world. She started collecting originals she found in the local flea market. After meeting Sylvie, she proposed the idea of buying and selling original movie posters. Living in California, Sylvie and Sudy traveled back and forth to Paris, collecting posters and learning more and more about them. The two would bring home multiple movie posters at a time, selling some and saving some. These beautiful posters became more and more coveted and more and more difficult to find. Suddenly, these original movie posters were worth a lot of money. When they realized all good things must end, they wondered if they could reproduce the posters that were coming and going from their original business.

Sylvie and Sudy learned how to clear and register copyrights, make transparencies and digital files, then prints of museum quality reproductions. Retro-Reproductions was born! (dba Vintage Art Reprints) Their first sales were through friends, then word of mouth. Eventually they learned how the art world works through conventions that take place across the country and how work sells through galleries, art shows, the internet, etc. They learned how to crate and send their images to shows from New York, to Chicago to Atlanta to San Francisco, all from their base in Los Angeles. They set up booths around the country and made their first contacts for licensing and selling their works of art. Having sold thousands of reproductions initially in catalogs then through internet sales, Sudy and Sylvie were among the first to build a business based on the art of the poster. They have since licensed collections that include black and white, vintage photographs.

Since their business has changed dramatically, they are now offering some extraordinary posters from their original collection.

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• Art Prints, Home Decor, Posters
• Carmel, CA, United States
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