The Wirsching Archive is a store house of imagery maintained by the Wirsching Family and is primarily based on images from old films shot by the late German cinematographer Josef Wirsching and maintained in his private photographic collection by his family.

The copyright holder of this immense store of Josef’s work was his only son Wolfgang Peter Wirsching, who has painstakingly maintained this collection for more than 4 decades since the demise of Josef in 1967.

Since 2009, Wolfgang Peter’s sons Josef and Georg Wirsching have been archiving the collection which we would like to offer to you through this site and numerous exhibitions and publications which we will be bringing out in time.

Many film historians and archivists who have had the opportunity to see the archive have confirmed that the material contained in Josef’s personal photographic collection does not exist anywhere else and it is by far “The most extensive and well maintained private photographic collection depicting the birth of Indian Cinema”

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Thanks for viewing our collection of images from the late Josef Wirsching’s  personal collection— We hope you enjoy our site and the work that we are doing to help cherish the glorious heritage of Indian Cinema.

If you have information about any of the images contained in this collection, or if you can help put names to any of the faces and places depicted in any of the images, or even if you have a story to tell regarding any of the images based on any oral histories that may have been passed on to you; please do drop us a line. We would love to include any pertinent information that you could provide to enrich the accuracy of the images so that future researchers and film enthusiasts may get to learn of the great Indian film making heritage contained in this collection and the amazing people who made magic happen on the Indian silver screen decades ago. Get in touch.