Photos, period originals, fakes, repros or what ?

[PZIV]

Robert,

This is very helpful. Great work!

Best regards,
Mansal

[Maron]

Photos , Fakes

Hello ,
Very interesting thread.
I recently bought some negatives from a Panzer Soldier ( Offizier 3. Panzer Division).
There are about 2000 negatives with vey interesting material.
But some of the negatives , I think , have been reproduced after 1945.
Maybe the veteran did this?
I am not specialist on this item(photos).
Is it possible to determine a photo as a fake if even the negative is reproduced?
Thank you for your answers.

[Robert Noss]

Hello Maron,

welcome to the Forum.
My first question - why do You think that some negatives had been reproduced ?
It makes no sense for me, if there are about 2000 original negatives, why should someone reproduce the negatives.
The only ones who would do that, are museums and archives. Older negatives are made from Celluloid and the material will suffer over the years, so that some archives reproduce them to preserve the motives for future generations.
Reproducing negatives is much more difficult as reproducing photos.
If an amateur does it with standard photographic equipment, the repro will loose sharpness and brightness.
Professional photographers can use special equipment but that is expensive.
I would like to see some of those repro-negatives.
You can email me directly at
email@photosammler.de

Kind regards
Robert

[Der Freiwillige]

Argenta

Hello to all my friends out there,

there is yet nothing new in my "case", the authorities take their time ( and mine too ).

However, after I have had really a lot of requests after my article about photographic papers and how to detect good from bad, I have put the article back to life again.
It is updated, revisited and I tried to improve my english a bit, hope I was successful.

I corrected the link in the first thread.

And here it is too, you don't have to scroll back:

http://www.kriegsberichter.de/Data/fake01e.htm

The Kriegsberichter domain is another of my domains, but You will only find this article there, nothing else.

Kind regards
Robert

Hi Robert,
When I spotted and visited your imprssive website, my attention was caught by the Argenta photpaper company. I quickly took a dive into my collection of RK-Träger and found one of three Brandi autographed pictures, one of which was printed on Argenta photopaper. I add front an back of this pictures with this reply.
Two of "my Brandi's" bear this famous U-Boat commander full name. Brandi was not an enthousiast signer and his autopgraphs are difficult to find. Even more so with his full name. This one comes from an old album and the comment underneath mentions "stammt von einem offizier, der selbst mit Brandi auf dessen U Boot war"...

I hope you like this one and feel free to get back to me with any comments you may have.

Mit bestem Gruss über die Grenze.

Paul
Der Freiwillige - Flanders

Albrecht Brandi


Rückseite - Argenta

[Von Hoth]

My website is down, cause the german authorities have accused me of showing swastikas and other forbidden symbols in the public. I had to close my complete website.
Sorry, but the article about photographic papers will be not available for some time.
I will try to put it in another place and correct the link when I have done so, but at the very moment I have to wait until the trial is over.
Poor Fatherland.

Kind regards
Robert

you have to go to court over this!!!

my gosh I guess we take our freedom for granted over here. Good luck with the court date.

[Filip]

Great and useful thread! Speaking of foto papers, I want to share my new find, a sealed case of Agfa-Brovira 6.5 cm x 9.5cm. Just wonder if the paper can still be used?
Cheers
Filip

[Filip]

2.

[Filip]

3.

[Si1964]

Robert Hi,
Sorry for my very slow reply, but thank you for adding the link to your site concerning real v fake photos, greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[juoneen]

I wont buy photos anymore except from vets or first hand from family members of US vets of ww2. Those E europeans on e bay have 10 guys selling the same fake stuff all the time.

Ive also been told they are going to make it illegal In england to sell german daggers, and if that flys, they will most likely make collecting illegal and start enforcing the laws for revenues in hard times ahead all over europe someday for the whole ball of wax. But after all , the nazis were not nice people to those they deemed sub human, or enemies, and we forced the issue as part of the surrender, not the germans as a result. Thats why all european 3rd reich collectors will , or may need to move over to the usa possibly someday if the authoritys over there get their way..to be able to keep their freedoms to keep collecting this great stuff. Theres plenty here for all.......come on over...and trade in your euros....you have to just dress up like mexicans, and cross the border thru arizona, and you're in. They wont even stop you. (youll have to pay the coyotes though)

[redline09]

Great and useful thread! Speaking of foto papers, I want to share my new find, a sealed case of Agfa-Brovira 6.5 cm x 9.5cm. Just wonder if the paper can still be used?
Cheers
Filip

i did abit of photography years ago and i was told all photo paper has a shelf life of afew years. so its most probably dead.

but do give it ago, you never know..

[hornetsfan]

There certainly is some great advice on this thread .
I have bought many thousands of good original photos on ebay , a few fantastic albums ( and probably a fair number of fakes ) . Its definately a case of buyer beware . It takes time to build trust with dealers ,but there are at least 10 that i'm 100 % happy with and look in at their latest offerings on a weekly basis .
As mentioned previously on this thread , there are some ebay sellers in certain parts of Europe that incredibly have very good feedback but sell only fakes ...rather than getting into nasty battles with these people , I merely say that they have sold me a poor quality fake , they know it ,I know ...money back please and end of story . I am too much of a coward to leave negative feedback ,because I know from bitter experience what happens .
One thing to look out for in their feedback is none of their photos sell for big money ...because the serious buyers with knowledge avoid them.
jim ( throughtheireyes )

[stray_dog]

I have recently found some small size family photos from the early 50s, some of which are printed on Agfa-Lupex paper. It is the double underlined logo, but no line on top of it... I thought that this is contradictory to the info provided on the really informative site linked at the beginning of the thread, so I 'd like to share the concern.

Could it be just old stock (photos are from 1952-53, so maybe that stock was not that old at the time), exported and used post war? Or is it maybe that production with this logo continued post war, too? Has anyone else observed this?

Regards, Giorgos

[12thPanzer]

Robert,
Although I am new to this forum particularly, I just wanted to say that it is good to see a fellow collector of original photos. Your informational site is very knowledgeable and could be very helpful to the average photo collector. In my other ww2 forum the photo collectors seem to be spending alot of money on photos of SS that I am afraid are fakes......russian fakes at that. There are alot of fakes nowadays especially on ebay and I think its great that you are helping stop that trend. I would love to be able to share my photo collection, but since I am a new member it wont let me post pictures

[12thPanzer]

Another quick pointer I wanted to give was for everyone to watch out for the infamous "russian scribble photos" that are everywhere, particularly on ebay. They have a penciled scribble mark on the reverse and some have the russian writing as well. These photos are being sold as original archive photos and are complete FAKES! Another I have spotted are photos with a purple marking named "Adolf Muller" Leipzig. These a known reproduction photos as well which are very popular. As im sure many already know about both of these, it is always good to help out the novice collectors as well