Collector's Catalog of Prominent Photographers

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Posted By: Hankron 

I have decided to try and make a worthwhile listing of famous photographers to be used as a practical reference for collectors. It will cover baseball and all other areas of American photography. Those to be included are photographers who are well known, respected and give a premium in value to a photograph. To make it easier on myself, I will start with celebrity photographers (which includes sports), and for the time being put aside photographers like Steiglitz and Ansel Adams.

While I will try and include biographies, what their stamp or mark looks like and such, the main use will be for collectors to be able to look up and see if a particular photographer is well known. For example, if someone finds a photograph with George Burke's stamp on the back, he can turn to the list and see that Burke was the official photograph for the Cubs and White Sox and his images were used for the Goudeys. For Burke, I will be able to include details on what his stamps look like.

If anyone has any opinions on the matter, or wishes to contribute names or other details, feel free to contact me. The point of this post is to invite input.

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Posted By: scgaynor

Just don't forget Salas, in my opinion, the best sports photographer of the 1950's. Most of his images are of players out of uniform doing normal everyday things, but they are still great.

Scott

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Posted By: George

I have a few Burke 8x10 photos of the Cardinals. Was he also the official photographer of the Cardinals?

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Posted By: Hankron

I don't know Burke's relationship with the Cardinals. He was an independant photographer and likely would work for who offered the dough. Though most of his photos are of Cubs and White Sox, he did other players as well.

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Posted By: scgaynor@scgaynor.com

Burke did many, if not all of the teams, he often "borrowed" other peoples images as well and put his stamp on the back, although some of them are stamped "printed from the original negative by George Burke" on the back.

Scott

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Posted By: runscott

I would find it really useful to have a single guide for all significant "photo markings",containing:

- photographers with i.d. help
- an expanded "press photo" guide like your previous one but with additional news services,etc. listed.

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Posted By: Hankron

Scott, I will try to include identification (including how stamped, if reprinted, etc) as often as I can .... News services and other major photography organizations will be worked on down the road.

A year or so ago I wrote a book on collecting 20th century photography, but never issued it as I didn't think it would sell at all. Having not done much of anything useful since then, I decided I would expand it and perhaps put it online. One of my personal areas of interest has long been vintage movie photographs, but I've never offered much on this area. I even hope to include a guide to dating snapshots.

Other than becoming a better buyer and seller, there's no money in this type of research. It basically keeps me out of trouble. Whenever I do this type of stuff, I end up learning tons myself.