From the Archives of a Factory Photographer

[AgX]

The majority of photographs made by plants' own photographers (when they still existed) hardly ever reached a broad public.

Here is the archive of the photo service (photographer with own lab) that existed from 1945 to 1989 of the electronics works WF (Factory for Television Electronics), in East-Berlin.

Over 18,000 photographs survived and are curated by the private association Industriesalon Schöneweide, founded by former employees of that plant.
More than 5000 of them are online:

-) photos of electronic products (4523)
https://berlin.museum-digital.de/index.php?t=listen&gesusa=554&instnr=29&cachesLoaded=true

-) photos of people (depicted in portraits and at production setting) (721)
https://berlin.museum-digital.de/index.php?t=listen&gesusa=611&instnr=29&cachesLoaded=true

The curator underwent the hassle to even find out about depicted persons. (info at opening specific photo)


here the complete archive of that plant:
https://berlin.museum-digital.de/index.php?t=institution&instnr=29&cachesLoaded=true

 

[Tel]

I don't fully understand the reasons, but the Soviets always supported photography and cinema. It was certainly partly because they wanted good propaganda, but I think that it was also just a love of the artistry. Those shots of electronic parts are lovingly composed and quite beautiful in their own way. Apparently, every factory, town and collective farm had a photographer and a movie-making unit. Some of the cine cameras that appeared on Ebay in the early 90s were probably "liberated" from these film production units and many seemed not to have been used at all. The serious Russian filmmakers all switched to Arri cameras as soon as the Wall came down, and it was possible to buy Konvas and Kinor gear over here for a very small amount. It was a great time: cine cameras (35mm not 16) were insanely cheap to buy and Hollywood was still shooting film exclusively so it was possible to buy "short ends" very cheaply too. And there were still some small labs in business who would process cheaply if you didn't have a deadline.

 

[AgX]

One may argue that all plants are the same, but I think they are still a little cosmos, and thus having people-photos from just one factory (well with few dependencies) is especially interesting.

Sometimes seemingly banal photos can tell a lot. For instance a photo of a "hygiene room", a room for women with a facility to wash themselves during menstruation. Never ever heard of such in West-Germany...

 

[bsdunek]

I have always found Industrial Photography interesting. It can be boring at times, but, as an engineer, there's always something to see. As an engineer (now retired), I did photography as a part of my job. Mainly, they found I knew how to do it and so, there I was. At a Ford plane, it was maintenance training films. Used a 16 mm Bell & Howell, and did all the editing. At White Motors, It was photographs for owners and maintaince manuals. At Mechanical Products, it was for trade shows. etc., etc. It was a fun part of the job, and I always enjoyed it.

 

[AgX]

You refer to maintenance training films. You thus filmed people too?

To me the classical plant photographer worked in the studio with products in morning, documented the plant's extension building site at noon and took photos of meetings with officials in the evening. Kind of what this Berlin photographer did too.

 

[AgX]

What I find interesting at the product photos are those vertical, transparent cm-scales. First time I see such.

https://berlin.museum-digital.de/data/berlin/images/202009/e-l-83-wf-foto-1957-85777.jpg



I think this height scale, being such a niche product, was made in that plant just for their photo-studio.
Likely two pieces of acrylic, engraved on a pantograph gravure machine, filled with paint and glued together.

 

[DWThomas]

Fascinating stuff. A small company I worked for in the 1970s did a lot of small custom projects, much engineering, not much production. We had a 4x5 with Polaroid back stashed in a lab and techs would take a shot or two of the internals of some of the stuff before it was shipped. I used to see guys who were fairly clueless about photography go through a whole pack of 4x5 color Polaroid film to get one usable exposure! (I also think they were clueless about what their casual approach cost the company.)

Anyway, I fear I can while away quite a few hours at that site. Thanks.

 

[AgX]

Here a bit more on the buildings of this plant and their use.
https://translate.google.de/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behrensbau_(Berlin)

 

[AgX]

A rarity:

Mentor-based optical-bank LF camera in a microsope set-up. Seemingly custom-made.

https://berlin.museum-digital.de/da...ollegin-christine-luedtke-foto-1964-57934.jpg

 

[Tel]

That looks a lot like my collimator!

 

[jay moussy]

What about this film, and format?

 

[AgX]

The film is made by Agfa Leverkusen.

 

[foc]

What about this film, and format?

It's Agfa Isopan F in 35mm format.
For what I can gather, the films was ASA40/17DIN