archival photo questions

[John Rodgers]

hello after a while, 

   I had taken a break from stock for a while due to the extra work demands brought on by covid, though the regular enough paypal emails were quite pleasant.

 

My question is I have some, what i would consider amazing old world war II negs of secret German V1 and V2 bases, Its been a labour of love to scan and retouch/spot these and they really need to be put out and seen. I went to update the reportage/and archive section and it asks for a website or portfolio ?

 

now I guess i have an instagram account  but I dont really put my photos on a  website, what is Alamy really looking for here?

 

thanks in advance

[geogphotos]

7 minutes ago, John Rodgers said:

hello after a while, 

   I had taken a break from stock for a while due to the extra work demands brought on by covid, though the regular enough paypal emails were quite pleasant.

 

My question is I have some, what i would consider amazing old world war II negs of secret German V1 and V2 bases, Its been a labour of love to scan and retouch/spot these and they really need to be put out and seen. I went to update the reportage/and archive section and it asks for a website or portfolio ?

 

now I guess i have an instagram account  but I dont really put my photos on a  website, what is Alamy really looking for here?

 

thanks in advance

 

 

The first consideration is about copyright. 

 

In terms of hosting them what about Flickr or similar? Or a trial account at one of the image hosting sites - ask Alamy what they suggest. 

 

I have a photo shelter account so was able to use that. 

[John Rodgers]

3 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

The first consideration is about copyright. 

 

In terms of hosting them what about Flickr or similar? Or a trial account at one of the image hosting sites - ask Alamy what they suggest. 

 

I have a photo shelter account so was able to use that. 

thanks, geogphotos, all above board copyright they were purchased from an estate sale. Do Alamy ask for a receipt also? as mentioned, they do need preserving, anyone seen operation crossbow?.

[geogphotos]

20 minutes ago, John Rodgers said:

thanks, geogphotos, all above board copyright they were purchased from an estate sale. Do Alamy ask for a receipt also? as mentioned, they do need preserving, anyone seen operation crossbow?.

 

Not wishing to contradict you but simply owning the originals does not give you copyright. Copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the creator. That might well be the case here but obviously I haven't a clue about the circumstances of your pictures. 

 

I buy old Kodachrome slides from the 1950s and 1960s.  I need to get written copyright transfer to me in order to be able to offer these images for stock. Unfortunately that is not always possible and I have a lot which are 'Orphan Works' - I don't know who the creator is/was, and even if I do I haven't got written proof of copyright ownership.

 

Having said all that there are agencies which do have images on Alamy where they just say 'photographer unknown'.  Mary Evans, the famous agency for historical images, seems to go down that route.

 

I suppose that the likelihood of getting caught out is small, and I'm getting less sure of where I stand personally in terms of ethics. It just seems to be a mess. And as you say some of these old images of historic importance deserve to be publishable. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by geogphotos

[John Rodgers]

no contradict away, all good advice, photos from the mid to late 1940's photographer could have died I suppose, need to do some more digging, not motivated by money so if not Alamy then somewhere other than a stock company, if you are curious , see below. Also these are not the best of them

 

https://john3811.photoshelter.com/gallery/old-archival-photos/G000096jdDfotrPQ

Edited January 25, 2022 by John Rodgers

[spacecadet]

7 minutes ago, John Rodgers said:

no contradict away, all good advice, photos from the mid to late 1940's photographer could have died I suppose, need to do some more digging, not motivated by money so if not Alamy then somewhere other than a stock company, if you are curious , see below. Also these are not the best of them

 

https://www.photoshelter.com/mem/images/#/l/G000096jdDfotrPQ/I0000IDq9xXE32FA/

That's password-protected.

[John Rodgers]

1 minute ago, spacecadet said:

That's password-protected.

that's cause i'm an idiot, i copied my dashboard not the link

 

try now

[John Rodgers]

old archival photos - Images | John Rodgers (photoshelter.com)

[spacecadet]

1 minute ago, John Rodgers said:

that's cause i'm an idiot, i copied my dashboard not the link

 

try now

👍

Ah, taken by the American Army, so I think copyright is not asserted. Even if it were, under US law it would have expired long ago as the term was only 28 years.

I think these would qualify as archival, but you would have to mark them as public domain. If they have already been published they may be able for free elsewhere.

 

 

[John Rodgers]

Just now, spacecadet said:

👍

Ah, taken by the American Army, so I think copyright is not asserted. Even if it were, under US law it would have expired long ago as the term was only 28 years.

I think these would qualify as archival, but you would have to mark them as public domain. If they have already been published they may be able for free elsewhere.

 

 

cheers, I would be surprised if they were in the public domain, were sitting in an attic in a box , rolls were deved and stuck back in metal kodak cannisters with a bunch of other nick knacks,  been untouched for years , so unless there were original prints that were scanned then probably havent seen the light of day for decades

[geogphotos]

13 minutes ago, John Rodgers said:

old archival photos - Images | John Rodgers (photoshelter.com)

 

So that overcomes the problem about how you show them to Alamy! 

[John Rodgers]

thanks again Georgphotos, going down such a rabbit hole with these photos, lots of research to be done,

 

rolls of film can tell a great story from the first to the last photo. 

[spacecadet]

26 minutes ago, John Rodgers said:

cheers, I would be surprised if they were in the public domain, were sitting in an attic in a box , rolls were deved and stuck back in metal kodak cannisters with a bunch of other nick knacks,  been untouched for years , so unless there were original prints that were scanned then probably havent seen the light of day for decades

Probably a soldier's own images then, so what I said wouldn't apply- the copyright term in unpublished images doesn't usually start until they are, or until some other date. In the UK the clock started in 1989 under the new CDPA and ran for 50 years, so they would be in copyright until 2039. There is a chance- a small one but a chance nonetheless- that you will be challenged on copyright.

They are all over Europe- UK, Germany, Austria, Tyrol, France, Italy at least. And Japan I see.. Fascinating.

Edited January 25, 2022 by spacecadet

[spacecadet]

BTW My zoology isn't up to much, but MRT8H5 is a horse, not a castle😉

[geogphotos]

37 minutes ago, John Rodgers said:

thanks again Georgphotos, going down such a rabbit hole with these photos, lots of research to be done,

 

rolls of film can tell a great story from the first to the last photo. 

 

 

Yes, that is why it is sad that so many of these old collections get cherry-picked, broken up and separated from any context.

 

The point you make is one that some academics made about the way Vivian Maier's work was subdivided and essentially treated just as a way of making money.

 

What I mean is that keeping the rolls intact and being able to follow for links between them would show how she worked shot to shot, film to film, how her photography evolved etc. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by geogphotos

[spacecadet]

Just now, geogphotos said:

bale to low ............ shit to shot

geog, I think your predictive text is set to obscene, or you've spilt coffee on the keyboard.

[geogphotos]

6 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

geog, I think your predictive text is set to obscene, or you've spilt coffee on the keyboard.

 

 

I thought that I sh**ted spotted that in time.....

Edited January 25, 2022 by geogphotos