Newton’s rings on period photos

[photo-war]

Hello!
There is a photo of LF NCO who is going to leave Eastern Front and take some rest from combats in his home.

The photo is not in common format – this is 16x9 cm and printed on no name paper like the rest of a group of photos from the entire set, but other photos have no interference. The quality of this relatively big photo is very high - you are able to read any paper that he holds in his hand (and it stays sharp when strongly enlarged).

Note that there is an optic effect known as Newton’s Rings or the interference on his nose. This effect usually appears when you scan something and there is a thin bubble between the object of scanning and scanner’s surface – but in my case this effect is not from a scanner but on photo by itself.

Are there any period photos with the same optic effect in collections? Is this is a firm sign that photo was faked or this sometimes happens with real photos - if it was printed from a glass negative or from a large-area negative? What will be your thoughts on this?

Best regards,
Alexander

[photo-war]

the fragment of photo with his papers.

[randy@treadways]

Aside from the rings.....

#1 - Why would a person have a photo taken of them holding their papers?
Why was the photo taken? Would somebody in the early 1940's pose for a picture in order to prove authenticity 70 years later? Highly unlikely. What other reason might there be for a young soldier to pose for a photo proudly holding up their papers? Was he so proud of his papers that he wanted to show them off for the photographer? What's so special about documents?.... EVERY soldier had them.
It strikes me like the photo of Oswald holding the rifle. Was Oswald so proud of his new rifle that he posed for a picture holding it up, and the other hand holding a newpaper with the date clearly visible? Come on, as a Marine Corp soldier he'd held hundreds of rifles, so why would ownership of this one be so special? Later people said he intentionally staged the photo to prove it was HIM who did the crime he knew he was going to do, and not somebody else. A twisted motivation, to say the least.
Same thing with this photo, but the question still screams out why pose for a photo with documents? What connection was he trying to establish?

#2 - Does anybody have a separate photo (known to be "period") that shows what this soldier really looked like? How do we know the young man in this photo is really the same person whose name is on the documents?

Not saying it's a staged photo, but the fish smell is pretty strong.

[photo-war]

Hello Randy!

Thanks for your thoughts on this photo. The answer why he poses with these papers is obvious: he holds in his hands permission to leave the front line and join his family for a week or two. I guess you agree that this is VERY important event in his life.

This is not a single photo but a part of a group with soldiers of Luftwaffe flak unit in Russia and they are not staged 101%, they are all period taken. There are several photos with front line life scenes along with normal military pictures that cannot be staged unless you have fully equipped Luftwaffe flak regiment with several real 3cm AA guns, search lights, trucks etc.

The question was is there any original printed photo with the effect of interference and is this ok if this present on big format photos?

Best regards,
Alexander

[JAL]

I can not remember that I have seen in period photos?
Is there also the Newton's rings at some of the other photo from the lot?
it surprised me that it has not been discarded reach you consider the size and quality of image?
Could it be that it is photocopied from an original lot?

I hope there are some photo experts here on the forum who can answer it!





I can not see any problem with that he shows his paper.
He is on vacation leave and got his soldbuch and holiday paper from his regiment.
He is happy and shows it to the photographer.

Best, Jack.

[Simon O.]

FP number 23777 in 1942 belonged to, 4. Batterie Reserve-Flak-Abteilung 342

[photo-war]

Is there also the Newton's rings at some of the other photo from the lot?

There are no rings at other photos in this lot. There are several photos even larger than this but there are no rings.

[byterock]

My guess here the rings where caused by a warp in the glass on the enlarger and then projected onto the print, because as you say the negative looks fine.

Not that uncommon for large negatives if you are just hurrying to get prints done.

I would have to agree two-weeks home leave would be a good reason for a photo.