Assistance with Id'ing Fake Photographs

[slados28]

Anyone want to weigh in? Obviously not a whole lot of "love" for or interest in TR high leader pics here, as evidenced by this and the lack of contributions to the AH private photos thread

So, please ignore the infamous individual depicted Is the paper good though? That's my main concern here...

[Bill T]

Hi Slados,
Im sorry for not replying sooner....I had not seen that there was a new post. My apologies. Like you know, my knowledge is limited when it comes to these types of photos as I'm not very familiar with all of the known AH propaganda images, which can help when trying to determine if its a copy or not.

I dont see any huge red flags other than the finger print you mention. I know it has a chance of happening when printing from a negative, but when I personally see stuff like that it always makes me wonder. With lack of shaprness/spots on the image, there is always a chance of a photo being copied without the negative too. Whether it was done period or not is obviosuly a very difficult thing to judge. If I personally had paid a decent amount of money for it, I would need to make a decision based on how I felt about the fingerprint/etc. Id also do my best to see if this was a known image, or a privately taken snapshot.
Maybe someone with knowledge of AH pics can chime in here....
PM sent

[Lancere]

Hi Guys here is another you can add to the list of FAKE sellers on Ebay . On US Ebay German Photos of WW2 is a seller
photoswwii .here is proof this photo is now on ebay . I have an original of this which I have put copy proof on as it is to be published in a book next year . the copy on Ebay advertised as original has poor definition.
Ebay photo .......

- - Updated - -

Here is ORIGINAL >>>

[Bill T]

Some questions about German photographs/portraits on KODAK paper have arrised lately and in the past...... So I just wanted to try and help give some insight on those. Its not as common to see KODAK photo paper, but they do exist and we can see why.....

Eastman Kodak was a US founded company. However...Kodak paper and cameras were used in Germany, but obviously not as commonly as in the US. But...There was a "Kodak-AG" (German) camera factory in Stuttgart in 1931, which replaced the old factory "August Nagel-werke", which used Dr. Nagel from the old factory as designer in the new Kodak factory. So Kodak products were available to the Germans even early on. We also see "Koda-Chrome" color slides/images from the period used by some German Photographers, with Agaf-color being the common choice for Germans of course. Kodak has also come under heat from the media saying how they collaborated with the Nazis in ww2, saying the company might have used slave workers from camps in there factories! How True? I dont know. A whole other store, but There are many articles out there to research if one wanted.

Here is the most common Kodak marking you will see on Portraits of the period:

[Bill T]

Here is a type of period paper that is not commonly seen. Lined without paper company markings and I have only seen it in Postcard Size. Lines should be going up and down when the postcard is standing upright, as shown.

Here is the obverse as well, for reference.
Paper is UV-Negative

[Bill T]

Okay, here is a comparison of another type of "lined paper" I have studied.

These are my personal opinions.....

The one on the left is Period. (UV Neg) (same as above)
The one on the right is Post-War. Note the arrow next to the dotted line. (UV pos..only in middle when peeled back) (Not fake, just printed at a later date)

I would be interested to hear anyone elses opinions on this, or if they have seen this before. I never stop learning in this hobby, its ridiculous!!

[Bill T]

Just wanted to put out another Sketchy Ebay seller name....

*AwardCollector* - (pretty decent fakes mixed in with some good ones to throw you off)- Tread carefully here!

[Paul D]

Slados i seem to have missed your photo as well for some reason , i don't collect TR Personality photos but wqould of thought there would be more interest in them, i suspect this one will be one where an in hand judgement will tell it's authenticity.

Bill i agree with you assessment the arrow has always been a negative point for me !!

[Walkwolf]

Hello everyone ! This is a really great and informative thread Bill, and by the looks of it,
there is a lot of money to be made in this media - it is disturbing. 10-20 years down
the road, it will become an even greater challenge to tell what's real and what
is not. At least we can be a bit more cautious, knowing what to look for.

Some of these fake pics are easy to spot from the reverse, as the fakers rush to get
their 'product' out and become sloppy. Hopefully many members interested
in period photos will read this thread and take note.


Below is one I purchased from Ebay just yesterday - still with the sellers watermark.
Ebay name: 'suedharzshop_de'. A great shot, but I do not yet know what the
back looks like. Hopefully, both swastikas will not be obscured and it's
a good one.........!

[Bill T]

Paul good to hear you say that,
Over time Ive examined about a handful of those "arrow" ones. I saw one in a German Infanterie/family album, where the majority of the pics were printed post-war by my friends Grandfather's family. Which led me to believe that it could just be post-war paper. I still havent found a paper company to ID the arrow mark yet, but still searching through 1950's paper in particular.


Steve, I agree with you...its only going to get tougher as the years go on and the better fakes out there start to show age wear/etc. Plus the fakers are only going to get better at what they do as new technology comes out. BTW I like your EK photo!