News Service/Wire Photos

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Posted By: Mike

The term Wire photo was a technology that came into being in about 1935. There was no such thing as a wire photo before that year. As the tech. to wire a photo had not been invented yet. So virtually all photos before that date were news photos. Meaning an actual picture was developed. Copies from the negative could be made, but usually only a few were made. Wire photos was/were a process whereby the photo was sent through/over the wire, and all receiving parties could get a copy. As far as wire photos go, there would never be a wire photo where only one or two exist. By its very nature, the wire photo process was created so that the original could be sent to an unlimited number of parties. Who would then pay the originator of the photo, a prearranged fee for using their photo. A much easier process than taking one photo, and manually making copies and then having to send them to buyers of that photo. This makes news photos generally much rarer than wire photos. But I would say that all three are news photos.