Wirsching Collection

The archive from the Wirsching Collection spans Josef Wirsching’s career at different production houses such as Emelka Film (1923-1934), Bombay Talkies (1934-54), AMA Ltd. (1954-1958), and Kamal Pictures (1958-1967). It largely contains images shot by Josef Wirsching himself and those taken by his assistants. The Collection is primarily split up into cinematic (glamour shots, lobby cards, sets, and production) and non-cinematic related imagery (family or personal images). From the 1930s onwards, Wirsching mostly used his Leica still film camera and on occasion, any of the still film cameras owned by the studios. The film being used was the same brand that was being used as film stock for the filming of the movies he worked on, normally Kodak and Agfa.

The original prints in the archive comprise many silver gelatin prints, handprinted by Josef Wirsching on mostly Agfa Brovia Matt and Glossy papers. These were made in a temporary darkroom in his home. A majority of the prints are loose, yet quite a few have been pasted in albums that were created by Josef and Charlotte Wirsching during their lifetime. The prints used in recent exhibitions are pigment prints from the original negative scans. The original prints (positives) or the negatives have been digitally scanned at high resolution, the scanned images digitally remastered, and then a digital print taken on Canson Infinity Platine Fibrerag paper.