Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucas00
What a strange thing to do.
I got it from Nellie's estate so now I'm even more confused.
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Hey Lucas, I know it seems strange in today’s world but it was actually very common. If a high end print wasn’t needed or if they say…misplaced the negative, didn’t have the original neg altogether or it was damaged… this is how they made more prints.. off dupe Negs. They didn’t have high res scanners. They were not creating these thinking there would be value down the line. The sole purpose was to have the ability to get more prints made.
Scenarios stated above might be why there are some great images where type 1s just don’t exist(just type 3s) for example. Maybe the original neg was destroyed or lost and all they had was 1 print to make a dupe of. After that, the 1 print was lost/thrown away but they didn’t care because they had the dupe neg to print more. Every image has a story.. a mystery until it’s not/figured out(which i love). There are so many possibilities and it all starts with the negative.
Also, Nellie’s family most likely didn’t take these photos. So the provenance isn’t from the photographer stating they are originals. The babe ruth estate had many photos that were not originals. They were maybe gifts etc who knows Whatthe exact history was..It just means they were in the estate. The piece itself is either original or it is not. Facts don’t lie.
Another interesting example/potentially confusing are George burke dupes. He was a wonderful photographer but he made many dupe negatives off of other photographer’s prints and sold them(ie conlon, Horner). Things were loose back then. He also made dupes off his own work if he say lost the original. So.. although provenance is very important, it doesn’t always tell the whole story.
I hope that makes sense and it less confusing.��