Established earlier this year by former Getty Images' vice president Anthony Harris, London-based Cultura launched its initial royalty-free 5,000-image collection today during the Picture Archive Council of America's international conference in Las Vegas. Cultura represents the work of 17 premiere European photographers, including Britt Erlanson and Tim Macpherson. The brand is available worldwide through distributors such as Getty Images, Corbis, Jupiterimages, Veer, Masterfile and Photolibrary.

Cultura intends to offer an authentically European image library, capturing the region's rich cultural diversity with elegance, simplicity, originality and emotion. Harris says the new production is shot in locations ranging from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe and Scandinavia. The goal is to avoid overexposed spots.

Similar to the principals of photographer collectives like Magnum, Cultura hopes to offer its photographers a collaborative way of working. "Our photographers understand that in a changing landscape, the key to success is to work together, to share resources and experience and to deliver outstanding products for our distributors and their customers," said Harris.

Award-winning MacPherson says such collaboration is the big attraction the new agency. "It creates a level of photographer interaction that wouldn't normally be possible... Photographers traditionally operate as individuals, but at Cultura we are building a unique community within the industry."