News Service/Wire Photos

[Archive]

Posted By: Aaron Cowan

I've recently gotten interested in photos. Reading the little article in the Smithsonian Baseball book has helped but I need a little more guidance as to what I have recently purchased. I've attached three examples. Simply put, I believe the first to be a wirephoto, the second to be a news service photo, and the third to be a wirephoto. I've come to this conclusion based on the aforementioned information I have. Please let me know if I am right or wrong...Thanks!







Aaron Cowan
http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q102/acowan19/
acowan19@gmail.com

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

The top and bottom aren't wirephotos. The middle one could be a wirephoto, but might not be.

They all are vintage to the dates on the back. Stamped dates reliably date the photo, and brown paper captions are also reliable signs of old age. Three have dates stamps and two additionally have brown paper captions, so there's little doubt about their age. You didn't purchase modern reprints.

[Archive]

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.

[Archive]

Posted By: scgaynor

Since those are all from SFX I can tell you from experience without even seeing the front that they are all probably going to be news service photos. Very few, if any, of the front captioned wire photos in SFX had news service stampings on the back.

Scott

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

I call all photos by a news service to be news service photos (photos by news services), with wirephotos a specific type of news service photo (news service photo made by wirephoto process).

There's a good chance all are originals, as most Pre-WWII news service photos are. Wirephotos are most common Post WWII. If the images are sharp and clear they're originals. Wirephotos usually produce images with less detail, sometimes somewhat muddy or off. If an image is crystal clear with great detail and vintage and relevant stamps, it's classified as an original.

Also, the wirephoto process didn't get into mass use until 1934 (or 35?), which is why I picked the earlier dated ones as not being wirephotos. Wirephotos from before that time exist but are rare and generally of very poor quality.

[Archive]

Posted By: Mike

I know there were a few wire photos before 34, not many, which is why, in my earlier comment I said "Virtually all". And yes the quality was very poor. The reason wire photos do tend to be muddy, is because the content, was sent electronically. News Photos are right out of the camera. Hence they tend to sharp and clear. But newsphotos are not all originals, as mentioned earlier. many were, and are copied, especially for guys like Ruth, who were much in demand. And also many are copied and reproduced for fooling folks on E Bay, saying they are originals, when in fact they are not. To say that all pre war photos are news photos, is like saying there is no difference between a Porsche and a chevy. They're all just cars. Big difference in my humble opinion. News photos tend to be much rarer, clearer, and older. Wires tend to be muddy, and much more common.

[Archive]

Posted By: Aaron Cowan

Thanks for the help and information!

Aaron Cowan
http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q102/acowan19/
acowan19@gmail.com