DimeLabs — Mar 19, 1992 · The Sporting News Collection

Front · Original Richard B. Gentile B&W press print

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Back · Three layers of provenance

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Typed subject label

"MICHAEL JORDAN · CHICAGO BULLS · MAR. 19, 1992" — typed on an adhesive label and affixed to the back. Exact date, exact subject, exact team. Filed by the publication the day it was used.

Photographer credit stamp

"PHOTO BY: RICHARD B. GENTILE · POST OFFICE BOX 200 · CLARKSVILLE, MD 21029 · PLEASE CREDIT: R.B. GENTILE" — the photographer's personal archive stamp with his home address and credit requirement.

Sporting News holographic sticker

"Sporting News Collection · Authentic" — a holographic authentication sticker confirming this print originated from The Sporting News archive, America's oldest sports publication, founded 1886.

Three layers of provenance on a single print

Most Type 1 photographs carry one form of provenance — a wire service stamp, a photographer's address label, or a library circulation mark. This print carries three independent layers, each confirming a different aspect of the chain of custody from the moment the shutter was pressed to the PSA vault it sits in today.

First: the typed subject label — "MICHAEL JORDAN · CHICAGO BULLS · MAR. 19, 1992" — applied by someone at The Sporting News the day this print was filed. Second: Richard B. Gentile's personal stamp with his Post Office Box address in Clarksville, Maryland — a working sports photographer crediting his own work. Third: the holographic Sporting News Collection authentication sticker — the publication's own seal confirming this came from their archive.

Three layers. The subject label. The photographer's stamp. The Sporting News holographic sticker. Each one placed at a different point in this photograph's life — by different hands, for different reasons. Together they form one of the most thoroughly documented back histories in the DimeLabs collection.

— DimeLabs · March 19, 1992 Type 1 · PSA Cert #84377037

March 19, 1992 places this photograph in the heart of Jordan's second championship season. The Bulls would win their second consecutive title that June. The arena behind Jordan in this photograph is packed — compare it with the empty-seats rookie photograph also in the DimeLabs collection, taken just eight years earlier. The same player. The same sport. A completely different world.