From the Collection: Credit—OWEN in Black Star

September 13 – December 9, 2023
From the Collection Wall, The Image Centre
Curator: Valérie Matteau

When studying historical press prints, such as those found in the IMC’s Black Star Collection, the information on the back of a photograph can reveal as much to scholars as the image on the front. In the pre-digital era of photojournalism, before the 1990s, magazines and newspapers required physical prints when making reproductions to illustrate their stories. Black Star’s photographs were in high demand; to guarantee their return and maintain their inventory, the agency’s staff stamped the versos with the company’s name and New York address, alongside the photographer’s credit. 

The prints on view here are all attributed to a photographer named OWEN. The locations and dates when this photographer was supposedly working range widely, from London, England, in 1872; to Normandy, France, in 1944; and Washington, DC, in 1963. So, who is this enigmatic OWEN? The answer reveals a fascinating truth about the agency’s inner economic workings. Rather than a photographer’s name, OWEN was a generic term used by Black Star to assert ownership of the prints—and the fees paid for their reproduction—when the picture’s maker was unknown, or deliberately obscured. 

Photographs labelled OWEN entered Black Star’s library in two significant ways: through distribution agreements with a partnering photo agency, or by handout from various US government departments, who issued prints alongside their official press releases. Black Star sometimes added the name or initials of their staff photographers who acted as couriers—picking up the prints on the agency’s behalf—to the OWEN credit, thus signaling to its file clerks that the courier should be paid a small portion of the reproduction fee. Ultimately, the use of “OWEN” was just one of the ways Black Star maximized the reproduction fees it retained. This false credit must be considered alongside the agency’s practice of sometimes redacting other media company’s stamps, and its occasional concealment of credit for outside photographers. Still clear on the verso of many Black Star prints, “OWEN” reminds us how critical reproduction fees and photographic ownership were to the agency’s core business of print distribution.

From the Collection is a rotating display highlighting works from The Image Centre’s permanent collection.