Show your vintage press photos

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

Joann there is a variety of names to describe these types of photos, and there isn't always a set in stone rule which term you can use. You could call yours a news service photo (photo by a news service like Bain, AP, UPI). Press photo, which you could also use if you wish, has a duel meaning in the hobby. It can mean a photo related to the press (news service, newspaper, magazine), but is often also used to specifically mean a photo a movie studio, television studio or music label sent to the press to promote an album, movie or show. You can also simply call it as you see it and say it's an original photo from George Grantham Bain (as is stamped on back). Amongst Pre-War baseball photo collectors, the NYC photographer George Grantham Bain and his Bain News Service, are well known. You can pick any of those terms.

When I wrote a photography book and had a need to label the entire genre of photos, I called them "Press and Publishing Photos." The means photos made by, for or otherwise used by the press and publishing. Publishing can include newspapers, magazines, books, ad in magazines, etc. The press includes newspapers, magazines, televsion, etc. Within the large umbrella of 'press and publishing photos' are more specific and often self-explanitory areas: news service photos (photos by AP, UPI, etc), magazine photos (photos shot for Vogue or Sports Illustrated), movie studio press photos (photo of Greta Garbo sent by MGM to magazines), newspaper photos (photo shot be or otherwised used by a newspaper). As many newspapers, magazines and movie studios hired famous photographers, from George Hurrell to to Charles Conlon, many of the photos are first generation originals by famous people and can fetch high prices. Many of these photos will have both the stamp of the photographer and the organization he or she worked for. The Hurrell photo or Greta Garbo will often have both Hurrell's stamp and the MGM stamp-- meaning Hurrell shot the photo for the MGM movie studio. Charles Conlon's photos typically have both his name and the name of the newspaper he photographed for. As with Conlon, many of these originals are also signed on back by the photographer.

Below is an example of the stamp on an original magazine photograph by a famous photographer. It includes the stamp of Conde Nast (publisher of Vogue and Harper's Bazzar), the photographer ("Horst") and the date. The stamping helps show this is a photo shot for a magazine publisher (thus, a magazine photo) in 1942 by the German photographer Horst P. Horst. As the deceased Horst is world famous, and was director of Vogue's Paris photography studio, this photo will attract attention if offered for sale.




And the below stamp lists Charles Conlon, the New York Evening Telegraph newspaper and has Conlon's pencil signature.