PSA photo authentication - a suggestion

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by drcy

I don't like editorial ink marks (crop marks etc) in the images. I like the image area to be clean. Marks and notes on the white border areas are fine. But that's just my taste, and I know some like editorial marking. To me it's all about the appearance of the image and overall photo, which is judged photo by photo. In once case, editorial marks on the image may be distracting and ugly to me, while in another case it may be minor and not bother me.

As has already been said, notes, marks, crop lines, stamps and tags on the back of a news photo are good. You identify and date photos in part by that info. Charles Conlon's handwritten notes and stamp on back will add to the value of the photo, and, of course, help you identify it as an original Conlon photo. But I like the front images to be clean. Again, that's my personal taste. If a collector finds crop marks and other editorial marks in the image interesting and feels they adds to the photo as a historical artifact that is fine. I'm just saying what I like, not what others should like or not like. As is commonly said, art is in the eye of the beholder.

I agree 100%. To my mind, editorial markings are alterations to a photograph, and I have no qualms with undoing an alteration that someone else (besides the photographer) made if doing so enhances the aesthetics of the piece for me. If I want to see how the editor wanted the photo to look in print, I'll hunt down the printed version of the photo. Otherwise, things like crop marks and faces X'd out on the front of a photo feel like they're putting blinders on me and not letting me see the whole scene.

I also peel price stickers off of the bottom of things I buy at the store, and remove labels from my electronics touting what operating system they use or that they are "Energy Star" compliant, so admittedly, there may be a bit of OCD there...

And I don't remove the crop marks from EVERY photo I handle either, so I may be guilty of some partial hypocrisy as well. There's just some that I don't care to look at the image either way, and don't feel like spending the time to clean it up