Photojournalism Collection

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Richmond
Rare Books and Special Collections
Boatwright Library
University of Richmond
28 Westhampton Way
Richmond, VA 23173
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Lynda Kachurek
Phone: (804) 289-8458
Fax: (804) 287-1840
Preferred citation:

[Box Number, Folder Number], MS-81, Photojournalism Collection, Book Arts, Archives, & Rare Books, Boatwright Memorial Library, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia

Summary

Extent:
? Linear Feet 5 boxes.
Abstract:
The collection documents various photographs from World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Era. Although there are many photographers involved in this collection, most notable are Paul Almasy, Leonard Freed, Dmitri Baltermants, and Horst Tappe. The focus of this collection is on what life looked like around the world during this period and the various hardships that were endured during wartime.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Box Number, Folder Number], MS-81, Photojournalism Collection, Book Arts, Archives, & Rare Books, Boatwright Memorial Library, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia

Background

Scope and content:

This collection documents the work of various photographers and photojournalists from 1935-1989. With portraits, photos of landscapes, and documentary photography, social movements are highlighted as a key aspect of life in the 1900s. This collection captures important moments in U.S. history such as World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to U.S. history, there are various graphic materials from Japan and 19th century Italy. The photographers and photojournalists showcased in this collection are Paul Almasy, Dmitri Baltermants, Leonard Freed, Micha Bar-Am, Horst Tappe, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Denise Bellon, Paul Caponingo, Harold Costain, Robert Doisneau, Philippe Halsman, Rene Zuber, Florence Homolka, Gordon Coster, John Bryson, Max Baur, and Gisele Freund.

Biographical / historical:

Paul Almasy was born on 29 May 1906 in Budapest and passed away 23 September 2003 in Jouars-Pontchartrain. He was a famous, Hungarian-born Swiss photographer and journalist, well known for his portrait and documentary photography. He grew up in Budapest in a family of artists and at 17, he left Hungary to pursue a political science degree in Vienna, Munich, and Heidelberg in 1924. Although he originally planned for a diplomatic career, he was drawn to journalism and photography in the 1930s. Particularly famous for his portraits of famous artists and intellectuals such as Pablo Picasso and Albert Camus, Almasy was most recognized for his dedication to capturing people from all walks of life.

Dmitri Baltermants was born on 13 May 1912 in Warsaw and passed away 11 June 1990. He was a prominent Soviet photojournalist who was most famous for his image titled "Grief" which depicts a Nazi massacre of Jewish people in Kerch in 1942. Having graduated from the Moscow State University and apprenticed under Vladimir Musinov, he became an official Kremlin photographer and worked for Izvestia and Ogonyok. Most of Baltermants' work focuses on the Red Army in Russia and Ukraine during World War II.

Leonard Freed was born on 23 October 1929 in Brooklyn, NY and passed away 30 November 2006. He was an American documentary photojournalist and maintained a longtime membership of Magnum Photos. Having attended The New School and studied with Alexey Brodovitch, Freed worked as a traveling freelance photojournalist for many years. Freed completed various publications, books, films, and received the New York State Grant for the Arts in 1978 and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980. His career went to the next level when he traveled the country with Martin Luther King Jr. during the American Civil Rights Movement.

Horst Tappe was born on 13 May 1938 in Germany and passed away 21 August 2005 in Switzerland. Tappe interned at the Hamburg School of Photography, studied at the School of Experimental Photography in Hofheim am Taunus, and studied as the School of Photography in Vevey. He was a German photographer, famous for his portraits of various creative artists, writers, scientists, and philosophers.

Micha Bar-Am, a German-born Israeli photographer, was born in 1930 in Berlin. He is a founding member of Malkia kibbutz, a founding member of the International Center of Photography, a recipient of the Israel Prize for Visual Arts, the author of various publications, and one of Israel's most senior photographers. Bar-Am has worked for Bamahane magazine, Magnum Photos, and The New York Times. His photography has played a crucial role in the shaping of Israel's cultural memory and worldwide image through his documentation of various milestones such as immigration, international affairs, the Six Day War, and many other events of public importance.

Denise Bellon was born 20 September 1902 in Paris, France and passed away on 31 October 1999 in Paris, France. She was a French photographer closely connected to the Surrealist movement and she studied psychology at the University of Paris. She worked with Pierre Boucher, was a photographer at the Alliance-Photo agency, and she was the photographer for the International Exhibitions of Surrealism in 1939, 1947, 1959, and 1965.

Alfred Eisenstaedt was born on 6 December 1898 in Dirschau, West Prussia and passes away on 23 August 1995 in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. He was a very successful German-born American photographer and photojournalist; he received the National Medal of Arts in 1989, The Digital Journalist chose him as the 'Photojournalist of the Century' in 1999, and Eisenstaedt was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in 2020. Most notable for his cover photograph of V-J Day in Times Square, he worked for various publications such as the Associated Press office in Germany, Illustrierte Zeitung, and Life magazine. Eisenstaedt's preferred method for photography was using small 35 mm film cameras like the Leica camera to capture candid photos of people in natural light.

Paul John Jerome Caponingo was born on 7 December 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts and passed away on 10 November 2024 in Cushing, Maine. Caponingo was an American photographer, writer, and pianist, most famous for his landscape and still life photographs such as Running White Deer. He attended Boston University College of Music in 1950 and California School of Fine Arts, and he received various awards such as the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966 and 1975, the Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship in 2001, and three grants from the NEA. Caponingo's work is held in nine permanent collections around the United States.

Harold Haliday Costain was born in 1897 and passed away in 1994. He was a famous photographer who studied at the Arts Students League in New York and served in the Navy on the U.S.S. Leviathan. Costain's specialty was color photography and printing and he specialized in advertising, architectural, and narrative forms of photography. Having received various awards from annual conventions like the Photographers Association of America, the International Exposition Salon, the Preston Scientific Society Salon, and he received three Pictorial Photographs of America trophies from 1933-1935.

Robert Doisneau was born on 14 April 1912 in Gentilly, France and passed away on 1 April 1994 in Montrouge, France. He was a French photographer who studied at Ecole Estienne in 1929 and received many awards including the Kodak Prize in 1947, the Niepce Prize in 1965, and the Balzac Prize in 1986. Doisneau's photography consisted of amusing juxtapositions, mingling of social classes, and eccentrics in contemporary Paris environments. He produced many publications and exhibitions throughout his career.

Philippe Halsman was born in May of 1906 in Riga and passed away on 25 June 1979 in New York City. Halsman was an American portrait photographer who was renowned as one of the best because of his images that were sharp and closely cropped. In September 1928, he was accused of his father's murder, sentenced to four years in prison based on circumstantial evidence but only spent two there, pardoned by the President of Austria, Wilhelm Miklas, and later, his letters from prison were published as a book in 1930 titled Briefe aus der Halt an eine Freundin. Halsman photographed many famous individuals like Albert Einstein and Constance Ford as part of his portrait photographs.

Rene Zuber was a published author, photographer, and film maker born in 1902 in France and passed away in 1979. Zuber's photography captured various parts of Paris and French civilians during the Liberation of Paris. He discovered a mode of photography called New Objectivity while he was studying at the Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Trade in Leipzig, Germany. Some of his most notable accomplishments was the founding of the Studio Zuber in 1932, his co-founding of Alliance Photo Agency, starting an advertising photography agency in Paris in 1929, and his founding of Les Films du Compas.

Florence Homolka was a successful American photographer born in 1911 and passed away in 1962. She was known for her portraits of numerous celebrities and intellectuals including Judy Garland and Charles Chaplin. Homolka, originally Florence Meyer, was constantly surrounded by prominent cultural figures and improved her career with the help of hid husband, Oscar Homolka.

Gordon Coster was an American photographer born in 1906 and passed in 1988. Coster was known for his multi-faceted and resourceful approach to his work; often, Coster would cross between various genres and such as photography documenting labor strife and photography innovative advertising. He is most well-known for his extensive projects dedicated to American life in the Midwest during World War II, the Tennessee Valley Authority Dam Project, and many more. Coster rose in fame as he worked for various publications such as Time, Fortune, Holiday, Ladies Home Journal, and Scientific American.

John Bryson was a photojournalist born in 1923 in Brownwood, Texas and passed away in 2005 in Brookings, Oregon. He served in the Army Air Force during World War II then enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. He worked for Life magazine as a correspondent, bureau chief, and picture editor before freelancing for Life, Look, Holiday, and various other publications. Bryson is most known for his years photographing Hollywood celebrities including individuals like Frank Sinatra and even capturing Ernest Hemmingway in 1959.

Max Baur was a self-taught German photographer born in 1898 in Gunzburg, Germany and passed away in 1988. Baur called himself a "lichtbildner" or light picture maker instead of a photographer because he worked in a large format and was very detail oriented. He was well-known for his landscape photography but also his industrial and architectural photographs. Baur opened his first photo studio in 1928 and was admitted to the Society of German Photographers in 1934.

Gisele Freund was born 19 December 1908 in Berlin, Germany and passed away 31 March 2000 in Paris, France. She was a German-born French photographer and photojournalist who studied at University of Freiburg and University of Frankfurt Sorbonne. She is well-known for her portraits, documentary photography, various exhibitions, and many books. Freund used the Leica Camera with 35 mm rolls and used Kodachrome and Agfacolor positive film for color portraits. She received many honors including being named a Officier des Arts et Lettres in 1982 and Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1983, and she came the president of the French Union of Photographers in 1977.

Acquisition information:
Donation acquired from Isser Elishis.
Arrangement:

The content of this collection is arranged in boxes by size and each folder is arranged by photographer or related historical content.