posted on April 7, 2004 11:10:21 AM new
I just finished a search for a 19th century photograph of a specific place. As always (this is something I do often) it was a frustrating experience. I have learned to love the seller who gives more than a stark place name with no clue as to what the image is or when (even the century) it was made. If I have time and there are not too many I may check out the name-only items. The ones that really burn me are those with the terms "vintage", "old", and "antique" in the title: "Antique photograph of YourTown" and when you click you find a photocopy or inkjet print. I have identified some of the most prolific copy sellers and filter for them but it is impossible to catch them all. My objection is not to the fact that they are selling copies and as to copyright, I don't even want to go there. I might even buy a copy print if I need it for research and nothing else is available but I hate misleading titles. I now have permanent filters set for the seller who has "Vintage" in the company name so every auction has "vintage" in the title.
I am sure the problem is not just with photographs since I have seen dollar store junk listed as "rare", "antique", and "old". Sometimes I think the seller may not have a clue (Remember the "Vintage Folding Nut Basket" but I am sure almost every seller of copy photographs knows what they are selling.
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“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on April 7, 2004 11:19:40 AM new
I made an emoticon without meaning to! When I submitted the post above I was surprised to see a smily face with a wink after the Nut Basket. It made a lot of sense but I don't even know how to make one. My first thought was that it was some kind of automatic response of the message system to the mention of the "Nut Basket" but I knew that was not right so I looked at the message I typed and saw that I had a double quote " then a close parentheses ) . I am now afraid to put two punctuation marks together. Who know what I might say! -----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on April 7, 2004 11:25:53 AM new
The needs of the seller often conflict with the needs of the buyer. In this case, the sellers are just trying to grab eyeballs for their item. If better title words were suggested to them, they just might use 'em.
posted on April 7, 2004 11:50:25 AM new
I wouldn't hit ebay up for that kind of thing. Try city/county archives/historical societies and pay the premium for a copy. A nice copy.
Peops think they have a scanner and a printer and they are in biz.
Barf.
J
~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~
All the monkeys aren't in the zoo,
Every day you meet quite a few,
So you see it's all up to you.
You can be better than you are,
You could be swingin' on a star
posted on April 7, 2004 03:21:47 PM new
Photo: I recently created an emoticon too without meaning too. I was being pretty fanatic about the right punctuation at the end of something with a parenthesis. Figured out that I should leave an extra space between the two punctuation marks and it worked fine. But isn't it funny?!
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Gardening Rule:
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it was a valuable plant.
posted on April 7, 2004 05:06:37 PM new
I think the accepted definition of Vintage is that it is an item at least 50 years old- at 100 years it becomes antique-I believe that appies to everything but toys which can be considered antique at 50-REad that a while back and have tried to use it as a guide
but I am sure almost every seller of copy photographs knows what they are selling.