Well, here it is. First of all the unretouched photo. The signwriting on the side is the full name of the VEF electrical factory in Riga, Latvia. This was a huge organisation, making a wide range of products. I first came across it when I became interested in old cameras, and bought a Minox subminiature film camera. The earliest examples of these were made by VEF in Riga, though production moved to Germany after WW2.
It has been suggested that the picture is a Photoshop job. At first I was convinced that it was a fake, as there appears to be a spelling mistake in the signwriting. The correct spelling of the full name in Latvian is "Valsts Elektrotehniskā Fabrika", but on the vehicle there is an extra 'c' in “Elektrote
chniska”. But having done a bit more research, I have had to change my opinion on this, as it seems that the factory used this spelling themselves in foreign-language correspondence and documentation. Below, taken from the book "Spycamera – The Minox Story" is a document in German granting a power of attorney to the director of AEG during the German occupation of Latvia. On the letterhead and in the typed text, the name is consistently spelled with the added ‘c’. Below that is the cover of an instruction manual in English, and again the name is spelled as in the puzzle picture.
So I don’t think it can be assumed that the photo is a fake on the basis of the spelling.
I have had no luck in finding a picture of a 1932 Ford which could have been used as the basis for this photo, so as a last resort I tried to see if I could identify where the photo was taken, and I think I have. The colour photo is the back of a building which houses some technology-based companies. It is two buildings along from the main VEF offices. I was in Riga for a few days in 2004, and went along this road in a bus. There was a lot of building work going on, with places being redeveloped as offices and apartments.
I have inset part of the puzzle picture, and looking at the building on the left in the background, although the viewpoint is different it matches with the colour photo. There is a tower on the corner of the building with two vertical oblong windows, then to the left a row of six windows at a lower level, with a prominent ledge underneath. Then there are another two windows on a part that looks a different shade, but which on the colour shot can be seen to be jutting out slightly. Then there is another small "tower" with a raised roofline, two long vertical windows set at a lower level, and a break in the ledge, and then another row of six windows above a ledge. Then to the right is another building with a dark-coloured mansard roof, which can also be seen at the right hand edge of the colour shot.
So whether or not the car is a fake, I am now convinced that the photo (or at least the background) was taken in the VEF factory complex in Riga.
I don’t think the van can be a VEF product, as it is clearly a Ford, but maybe it was used by the factory as a delivery van, or something similar. Fords were made under licence in Latvia, but only after WW2, and were sold under the name Vairog, and I don’t think VEF had any involvement in it.
So, as those annoying TV documentaries on ghosts and the supernatural say, is it real or is it a fake? You decide…
