Which pre-war photographer do you like best?

[Runscott]

Conlon - sometimes the obvious isn't a bad choice.

Frances Burke was another great photographer of this period. George Burke's connection to him is an interesting story.

[prewarsports]

Van Oeyen is my favorite, I love the steely tones of his photos and they are usually much earlier. They are the rarest of the ones listed on the poll, but generally not the most expensive. I have owned maybe 20-30 ever and am always on the lookout for them.

Here are a couple of my scans, Donovan and Jones.

Rhys

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by prewarsports

Van Oeyen is my favorite, I love the steely tones of his photos and they are usually much earlier. They are the rarest of the ones listed on the poll, but generally not the most expensive. I have owned maybe 20-30 ever and am always on the lookout for them.

Here are a couple of my scans, Donovan and Jones.

Rhys

I have owned them too.. just not top tier hof's(what i primarily collect). I have not even really seen them(seen 1 matty, cy young and gehrig). I know they are very rare but the images just don't do as much for me as the other photographers. But then again, I like the portraits. There was a fantastic Joe Jackson throwing in Mile High earlier this year that I bid on.
To each their own... hence the thread. These images you posted are really nice Rhys. Thanks for sharing them.

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Conlon - sometimes the obvious isn't a bad choice.

Frances Burke was another great photographer of this period. George Burke's connection to him is an interesting story.

Frances Burke does have some wonderful images.. good call runscott.

[GKreindler]

Francis Burke was a mutant. He has some of the best action shots from the turn of the century that I've ever seen, for sure. Especially when you're talking about those old Cubs and White Sox teams. A number of the images in the Max Stein postcard sets were from his photos, and since his company was based in Chicago, it makes sense that it would have used Francis' work.

Oddly enough, if you don't know much about George Burke, it's really interesting to read that it was through the mistake of Gabby Hartnett and Joe McCarthy that he was even hired to shoot the Cubs. The story goes that in 1929, while they were looking for the contact information of the team photographer, they came across George's last name (which was the only name they could remember), and since his office was located near Wrigley Field, they felt he must have been the guy. So, George Burke, who had no sports experience whatsoever, became the official photographer of the Cubs, while Francis, the man who had been shooting them since the early 1900s, was suddenly unemployed.

In terms of originals, I would imagine that they're a number of them out there (whether that means for sale or in private hands), but I just don't know what that number is. Personally, I've seen a few of his glass negatives for sale, but that was over 15 years ago.

Here are a few examples of his stuff (and 'yes', I would paint the sh*t out of them):









A fellow named David R. Phillips was the owner of Burke's original collection of negatives up until a few years ago. And he may very well still be, as I haven't heard anything of the contrary. Though they're no baseball images on the actual website, some more of Burke's other works depicting life in Chicago from that era can be viewed here:

http://davidrphillipshistoricfineart....com/index.htm

He was the man.

Graig

[Runscott]

Love that Wagner from the CJ.

He also took the famous photo of Babe Ruth pitching as a Red Sox player.

I think he also did a good number of the photos used for the Cracker Jacks - I used to own a gorgeous 8x10 sepia of the Zimmerman image.

Zimmerman, Reulbach, Moran: