Talk:Sawyer's

Question about "Sawyers" as credit on photos

Does anyone know whether western Oregon photos such as the one shown here, with the credit "Sawyers" at lower left, would have any relation to this company? Or is it just a coincidence of name? - Jmabel | Talk 03:08, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

Speaking as the primary author of the Sawyer's article, I don't know the answer to that question and don't have time right now to do any research. However, it seems likely to me that it's the same company, because, as mentioned in the article, then-Portland-based Sawyer's was a photo-finishing company and producer of scenic Oregon postcards for many years. However, I don't believe the appearance of the name in the image indicates that Sawyer's was the author, as is currently stated on the Commons file page. We don't have enough info., but it seems possible that they just had a contract with a state agency to produce prints like this one that included granting them the right to credit themselves in each image, even though (under this hypothetical scenario) they were only the processer and/or printer, and the photographer was a state employer. But I don't know. SJ Morg (talk) 03:45, 26 February 2023 (UTC)

It was posted to Flickr by USFS, who were certainly not the author of the many postcards they were uploading. I agree that Saywers is more likely as a publisher than as an actual photographer (ditto for most of the other credits I've been able to add), but crediting USFS as "author" seems even more wrong (and had led to a bunch of dubious licensing claims, which we now need to sort out). - Jmabel | Talk 06:52, 26 February 2023 (UTC)