A Question for my education

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by baseballart

How is it possible to tell Type 1 from Type 2 (ie the two year difference), other than with a date stamp on the photo? Absent any date stamp, I would think the lack of change of photographic paper during the period would make it virtually impossible to tell a type 1 from a type 2.

What is a photograph printed from the original negative other than "during the period" (more than 2 years after photo was taken, but with no apparent time limit, other than the "period")?


Max

I think 2 years was just an arbitrary number those guys came up with. A lot of it is educated guesswork based on the paper type, style of credit stamp on the back, any identifying marks, etc..

Most press photo's there's not going to be any reason for them to be reprinted again.........or if they are it's so far apart from the original date it's usually easy to tell it's a later print.

In the 1990's Jim Stinson was doing lots of signings with boxers. On occasion and when possible he would also have them sign some press and wire photos. Some were vintage ones he had in his collection while many of them it looked like he ordered them directly from the AP. They were complete with dated tags and were crystal clear as if they had been from the original neg. However it was obvious just looking from the stock of the paper and tag they were produced recently. He was selling the autograph and not the photo (and didn't charge a premium for the photo type) so it wasn't really an issue, just an interesting aside.

Sometimes it's possible everything is missing. Tag, credit stamp, date stamp and you basically have only paper type, size, provenance of collection it came from to tell the period.

The easiest way to tell a Type III is when a caption is printed directly into the front of the photo. Sometimes this is trimmed off but looking at the photo under magnification or even with the naked eye you can see the waves of the wire transmission. You do sometimes get really clean transmissions you need to look at under a loop to tell.

As a whole press photos are fairly easy to categorize.........I think most complications arise from original non-press photos and being able to tell a Type I from a Type II.

Somebody like George Burke who sold prints of his photos over a period of decades I imagine can be hard to quantify unless you have an exact record of his changing of reproduction formats, stamps, etc. from year to year. What's really to say a print from a picture he took in 1933 was reproduced in 1936 and qualified as a Type II instead of a Type I?

Same can be said for many other photographers, sports magazine premium type photos, etc..