PRICE GUIDEE -
$5.- $10, for average wirephotos - wire photos with
more desired subject matter, historic significance, or
noted players will sell for more.
Bobby Meacham Jumps
over Brewers' Paul Molitor in game Sunday. AP Photo
NOTES:
A Wire photo, also known as Wirephoto, Laserphoto or
telephoto, was made by major news services, such as the
Associated Press (AP), or United Press International
(UPI). The wire photo process was invented in the 1920s.
The term Wirephoto was coined by the Associate Press (AP)
in the 1930's. Laserphotos, which were the replacement to
wirephotos, was used from the 1970''s through to the
1990s.
The wirephoto is the end result, when the
original News Service Photograph was placed in a wirephoto
machine and sent out via "wire" (transmitted through
telegraph or telephone wires) to one or many Newspapers
for publication. The process was similar to sending and
receiving a fax. The photo printed out in the receiving
wirephoto machine is the wirephoto, not the original Press
Photo that was used.
During the making of the wirephotos, the News service would place the
paper caption strip at the bottom of the source
photograph, and that would be part of the scanned image
sent through the telephone wires. The resulting wirephoto
will have the caption as part of the photographic image.
Another characteristic of the Wirephoto is the editing
marks used to show where to crop the photo. The back will
also have notes written on the back, filing date and the
caption from the publication the wire photo was used in,
as seen in the example below. Because of the added
caption, the wire photos will vary in size, and measure
approximately 7" -8 1/2" by 10"-11".
The Collectors
value for wire photos are lower than the original News
Service
Photograph used to make the Wirephotos. They are 2nd
generation copies, and as such the clarity and quality of
the image is not as good as the original. The Paper used
to processes the wire photos was very thin, that tended to
age poorly, with fading and sepia toning, as seen here
with these photos.
The average Wirephoto sells in
the $5.-$10. price range. The value will vary based on the
subject matter, historic significance, and player(s)
pictured. A good quality wirephoto with highly desired
subject matter will sell at a higher price range.
