'The Smallest Shop' - edited film/plate image raises a question..

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dancook

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So I saw this image doing the rounds on social media, 'The Smallest Shop' in Soho

I did a reverse image search and found there was another photo on Getty

The images are of the same moment, but the man has been moved to another doorway, the notice sign is removed and some additional people are shown right of frame. Also the processing/exposure is different.

Now I'm not sure why both images exist, why someone would photoshop it all these years later - or I wondered whether it could have been edited many years ago using traditional methods - and both versions found their way into the wild.
 
The lemonade & soda water signs are also transposed ...
 
Interesting find. I too wonder what could have happened to create these two versions.
 
If the original is now out of copyright, maybe it's been used as a source on a PP course.
 
The one on Getty has the attribution of the Hulton Archive and they I surmise have the gravitas to show prime origins.

The one linked above IMO is not similar one but a greatly changed crop of the Getty one. The relative positions of the subjects in the frame do infer modification..................though whether 'at the time of the publication' or a much later PS version is moot until someone can 'prove it'???
 
Box Brownie said:
The one on Getty has the attribution of the Hulton Archive and they I surmise have the gravitas to show prime origins.

The one linked above IMO is not similar one but a greatly changed crop of the Getty one. The relative positions of the subjects in the frame do infer modification..................though whether 'at the time of the publication' or a much later PS version is moot until someone can 'prove it'???
Click to expand...

If the getty one was original, then the person who edited the man out of the doorway - created the interior too.

maybe it was an exercise in PP :)

but there is more detail in the non-getty hosted one, like the pavement.
 
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dancook said:
If the getty one was original, then the person who edited the man out of the doorway - created the interior too.

maybe it was an exercise in PP :)
Click to expand...
Yes perhaps and the rough graininess in the cropped one has been introduced to cover a multitude of PP sins ;)

Edit ~ looking at the one you posted....can I see vertical scan lines? Also, on the Getty one the glazing above the RHS door shows a suggestion of curve arc beeding of the glazing....though faint it is not present in the cropped version.
 
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Maybe someone thought it had mileage for clickbait + ad-revenue and had to change it enough to avoid being sued?

Or maybe does that seem like too much work to display one image..
 
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Box Brownie said:
Well there is a few minutes I won't get back but here is another variant, uncropped with the man in the RHS doorway
www.gettyimages.co.uk

The storekeeper of London's smallest shop appears at a hatch beneath...

The storekeeper of London's smallest shop appears at a hatch beneath the shop window. The store measures only 6 feet in length and 2 feet deep.
www.gettyimages.co.uk www.gettyimages.co.uk
Click to expand...

Aha, two gettyimages - i was looking for it but couldn't find it.

back to being very weird, both products of Hulton? he died in 1988, photoshop wasn't released until 1990 :D

so maybe it was a traditional method edit.. (ah and yes it is a third variant, just noticed cracked pavement in the crop for one)
 
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dancook said:
Aha, two gettyimages - i was looking for it but couldn't find it.

back to being very weird, both products of Hulton? he died in 1988, photoshop wasn't released until 1990 :D

so maybe it was a traditional method edit.. (ah and yes it is a third variant, just noticed cracked pavement in the crop for one)
Click to expand...
The second one I found (above) is Hilton Deutsch, the German collection/archive.

None too sure how the Hilton Collection developed but clearly(?) there were at least 2 resource collections.

So potentially any 'original' variants are all "originals" in their own right???
 
I misunderstood, I thought Hulton was the photographer and Hulton archive were his works - I see now that's wrong and it's bigger than one person.
 
Box Brownie said:
The second one I found (above) is Hilton Deutsch, the German collection/archive.

None too sure how the Hilton Collection developed but clearly(?) there were at least 2 resource collections.

So potentially any 'original' variants are all "originals" in their own right???
Click to expand...

The current Getty image library is an amalgamation of multiple image libraries which have all been bought up over the years. The Hulton Archive was one of those. I did work on it as a brand back in around 1995 when it was still Hulton Getty and before it became just Getty. But the collections were from private collectors, museums and other commercial photo libraries. when I worked on the Hulton Getty account, it was much more 'historical' images in that collection. Like the paper boy holding up the headline about the sinking of the Titanic etc.

Of the two images listed on Getty. One is listed as being part of the Hulton Archive/Stringer collection the other is listed as a Corbis image. It's possible one was bought by another library and edited for use in newsprint back in the day. It could also be that they needed to use it in a crop that would have either cut him in half, or the guy far left. So moved him to include him in the frame. But that's just a guess.

I do have a corporate Getty account so can download the highest possible resolution (unwatermarked) versions of both the image numbers posted above.

I'd say in my (not so professional) opinion the one with the guy in the right hand doorway is the original. The packages and signage in the doorway on the left look genuine to me. The one where he's on the left is a much darker image (probably to hide pre-photoshop editing), the sign right next to the guy in the cellar has been removed and several of the signs in the window are in different places. There's also a weird pattern behind where he was stood in the right hand doorway. And it doesn't look like they had enough of his right arm to put it in properly.

That said, the darker image is listed as 1910 and the lighter image is listed as 1990... but that might just be when it was added to the library.

Unfortunately I can't share them as it would break the licensing agreements, but AFAIK, anyone can download the watermarked versions for use in visuals.
 
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What is weird, is that without the reference numbers posted in the watermarked versions I couldn't find it on Getty. Tried searches for 'smallest shop' and it didn't come up.

Even using other keywords (found once I'd used the reference number) it didn't come up in the results.
 
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I don’t think anyone has mentioned above but the swapped “Lemonade” sign is swapped in the two Getty images.

Of course there could be 2 images of the shop and window displays vary all the time :(.
 
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