This category contains over a 100 black and white photographs. The images selected are early 20th century portraits with mat backing board, mainly studio portraits and a single sandwich mount. Part of the selection is 10 greeting cards received by photographers during a period of collaboration. A single anonymous interior and exterior from the United States and a few landscapes from Portugal are also included. More substantial is the category with black & white press prints from the 1980s and 1990s.
Photographers, curators, publishers and corporations are continuously confronted with questions related to copyright issues. The photographer, maker of the picture, is relying on his/her authorship and copyright. The person portrayed can refer to the right of portrayal and the publisher appeals to his right of citation.
A press photo circulating in the global art world is a document of cultural historical evidence. Not the image itself so much but the value of the information on the backside of a reproduction print is underestimated in history writing on photography.
Twenty years ago professional photographers, freelance based and pioneering cultural entrepreneurs, printed themselves press prints on PE-paper (polyethylene) or RC (resin-coated) paper and rarely made gelatine-silver reproduction prints. Name, provided with copyright symbol, year and title of work/series used to be handwritten on the backside of the photograph. In some cases an address and telephone number is mentioned, even selling price and medium. A single press print is signed or carries an imprint with the name of the photographer. The edition of press prints has always been arbitrary, standard size of a print was18x24cm or smaller.
Labour intensive work it was, in order to promote ones oeuvre. Later on cultural institutions ordered press prints at professional labs. On stamps and information in typeset on stickers is noted explicitly that the photograph is copy written, free of copyright for the duration of the exhibition, to be used for reproduction only and is not for sale. Followed by a cry in the dark: 'please return after use'.
Captions are handwritten on the backside or printed on paper and stapled onto the press print. Sometimes corrections refer to reuse of one and the same picture. Odd numbers refer to archival systems, dimensions or serial numbers.
In the 1980s and 1990s, during festivals and manifestations for photography, tables with trays full of photographs of participating photographers were displayed for the press: take your pick. The photographers, galleries and institutions concerned hold the copyrights of the press prints selected from ccCollectionIPhoR.