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Photography
Harry Adams (1918-1988)
The photographs of Harry Adams were seen for thirty years on the pages of the California Eagle and the Los Angeles Sentinel. Adams also photographed for scores of churches, social organizations, and private clients. Adams was probably one of the best-known people in the community: he and his camera were an omnipresent part of social life from 1955-1988.
*African Americans; Churches; Civil Rights Leaders; Civil Rights; H. Claude Hudson; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Entertainers; L.A. City Council members; L.A. City Mayors; Loren Miller; Los Angeles; Mayor Tom Bradley; Muhammad Ali; NAACP; Protests; Social Organizations and Groups; Watts Riot
Edward Alfano
During the past 30 years, Edward Alfano has pursued a career as a professional photographer and educator. In 1999 he joined a group of LA photographers with an exhibit at the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin. Alfano has exhibited in local venues in Los Angeles, as well as having solo exhibitions in Mexico City, Shanghai and Seoul. As a Professor of Art at California State University, Northridge, he remains dedicated and committed to his teaching, hoping to assist his students in fostering their enthusiasm and passion for the work they create.
*Arboretums; Balboa Park; Beaches; China; Gardens; Getty; Huntington Gardens; Kansas City; London; Mexico; Mt. St. Helens; Nature; Paris; Plants; Suzhou Gardens
Black Photographers of California (1984-2004)
Founded in 1984, the BPC archives consist of over one thousand negatives from the collections of African American photographers, spanning from the 1980s-2000s. Images depict Los Angeles street scenes, community, social and political activities, and public figures. The core of the archives depicts members and leaders of African American community organizations, politicians, and individuals from the entertainment sector in family and public settings. Images of entertainers include Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, June Allyson, Ivan Dixon, and Don Mitchell.
*African Americans; African American community leader; Black Gallery; Bob Moore; James Jeffrey; Joe Flowers; Los Angeles; organizations; political events; politicians; public figures; Roland Charles; social activities; street life
David Blumenkrantz (1957- )
While living in Kenya, David Blumenkrantz worked as a photojournalist and documentarian for various non-governmental organizations, including Inter-Aid International and UNICEF. As a freelancer, he was a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines in Kenya and elsewhere. Blumenkrantz taught photography workshops at the French Cultural Center in Nairobi, and conducted a training course in photography for former rebel soldiers in Eritrea. In 1992, he visited refugee camps in several African nations, compiling a documentary exhibition for the All Africa Conference of Churches. From 1992-1994, he ran an information department for the Undugu Society of Kenya, an organization dedicated to assisting street children and urban slum dwellers in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city.
*Africa; AIDS; Architecture (Los Angeles); Broadway Street (Los Angeles); Chad; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Kenya; Malawi; Politics; Portraits; Poverty; Rwandan genocide; Social and cultural life; Street life; Sudan; Tanzania; Theaters (Los Angeles); Uganda; Zaire
Julián Cardona (1960-2020)
The collection from Photojournalist Julián Cardona consists of over 17,000 images. Cardona’s work is internationally recognized, documenting transnational economic violence in Mexico, the resulting exodus of Mexican communities, and the emergence of the new Americans in the United States. Cardona’s work focuses on immigrants, the violence in the border cities and the economic violence that has engulfed the region. The Bradley Center is working with the Oviatt Library to make these images available online.
*Border security; Border wall; Cicuda Juárez; Crime scenes; Death houses; Disappeared Girls; Executions; Funerals; Human rights; Hurricane Katrina; Immigrants; Journalists; Maquiladoras; Mexico; NAFTA; Nightclubs; Police; Politicians; Protests; Social conditions; Soldiers; Street art; Street life; Valle de Juárez; Victims; Violence; War of Drugs
Herb Carleton (1927-1992)
A native of Los Angeles, Herb Carleton’s work for the Los Angeles Daily News and The Hollywood Citizen News show the faces and places of San Fernando Valley. Carleton photographed many sports and entertainment events, and was the official photographer of Shipstad and Johnson Ice Capades. The Los Angeles Press Club and San Fernando Valley Press Club gave him many awards for his work.
*Celebrities; Entertainment; High School sports; Ice Capades; Los Angeles; Nixon; San Fernando Valley; Sports; V-J Day (Los Angeles); Warren Brothers Studio Fire
Emmon Clarke (1933-2022)
Emmon Clarke volunteered as a photographer for the United Farm Workers Association, led by César Chávez, in early 1966. He documented the union’s activities on the picket line, in meetings, at rallies, and in the labor camps of the San Joaquin Valley. The reality of social struggle is revealed in Clarke’s photographs, and in both the recognizable names and unnamed faces the viewer sees the toil and toll of protest.
*1966; boycotts; César Chávez; Delano; Dolores Huerta; El Teatro CampesinoGrape Strike; Huelgas; labor camps; Luis Valdez; picket lines; protests; San Joaquin Valley; United Farmworkers (UFW)
Roland Charles (1938-2000)
Roland Charles was the founder and executive director of the Black Photographers of California and the Black Gallery. His photographs have been included in numerous national and international exhibitions as well as in a number of books and numerous private collections including the California African American Museum, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The Getty Center for the History of Arts and The Humanities. He was a founding member of the Jazz Photographers Association and of Photo Friends of the Los Angeles Public Library. Roland also documented life in Bob Town, Louisiana over a period of more than thirty years.
*African Americans; Black Gallery; Black Photographers of California; Bob Town, Louisiana; Central Ave.; Dick Gregory; First AME Zion Church; Leimert Park; Los Angeles; Muhammad Ali; Portraits;Rosa Parks; Studio
Richard Cross (1950-1983)
Richard Cross began his career as a photographer after college at the Daily Globe in Worthington, Minnesota. However, he soon found himself working as an agricultural photographer for the Peace Corps in Columbia. In 1979, he was drawn north to document the wars raging in El Salvador and Honduras. There, Cross freelanced for major news outlets including U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek, and the Associated Press and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work in the region. He was killed along with Dial Torgerson, a Los Angeles Times reporter, in a car struck by an explosive on June 21st. Before his death, he co-authored two books, Nicaragua: La Guerra de Liberacion and Ma Ngombe: Guerreros Ganaderos en Palenque.
*Africa; America; Amish; Bogota; Cartagena; Cattle; Central America; Chicago; Children; Classrooms; Columbia; Communities; Cuba; Daily life; El Salvador; Honduras; Jose Napoleon Duarte; Landscape; Maya refugee camp; Michael Boruch; Nicaragua; Palenque de San Basilio; Peace Corps; Rebels; Rural life; San Agustin; San Salvador; Soldiers; Walter Cronkite; War; Weddings
Guy Crowder (1940-2011)
As a photojournalist, Guy Crowder worked for the Metropolitan Gazette, Los Angeles Sentinel, and the Wave where he had the privilege of proximity to the heartbeat of his community. It is his perception and record of these images “ with a straightforward intelligence and clarity- that celebrates that very community.”
*African Americans; Andrew Young; Basketball; Bishop Desmond Tutu; Black Panthers; Boxers; Churches; Civil Rights Leaders; Civil Rights; David Cunnigham; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Entertainers; Gilbert Lindsay; Julian Bond; L.A. City Council members; L.A. City Mayors; Los Angeles; Magic Johnson; Maxine Waters; Mayor Tom Bradley; Michael Jackson; Muhammad Ali; NAACP; Ronald Reagan; Sammy Davis Jr.; Singers; Social Organizations and Groups
Jack Davis (1920-2004)
In both his freelance work and work for the Herald Dispatch, Jack Davis chronicled the African-American community. Davis opened the Modern Arts Photography Studio in Los Angeles in the 1950’s and taught photography at the high school and community college levels. He was active in the community, working to promote photography and take what he called people pictures. Davis’s photos have a flair for capturing character, especially within common surroundings.
*African Americans; Churches; Civil Rights Leaders; Civil Rights; H. Claude Hudson; Communities; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Duke Ellington; Elijah Muhammad; Entertainers; Funerals; Los Angeles; Mahalia Jackson; Malcolm X; Robert Kennedy; Sons of Watts; Studio; Weddings
Bob Douglas (1921-2002)
Douglas began his career in the early 1940’s as nightclub photographer in Detroit, Michigan. He worked for the Pittsburgh Courier LA Edition of that paper. Douglas worked for many newspapers and magazines such as the California Eagle, the Los Angeles Sentinel and for Ebony and Sepia magazines as well as doing free-lance work. But those early experiences in clubs helped to shape his most celebrated photos. Douglas’s portraits of Jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, and Charlie Parker have been in worldwide exhibitions and the PBS documentary, Jazz.
*African Americans; Billie Holiday; Charlie Parker; Detroit; Dizzy Gillespie; entertainers; Jazz; Los Angeles; nightclubs; singers; Thelonious Monk; Tiffany Club; Wrigley Field
Maxie Floyd (1934-2019)
Floyd is an award-winning photographer who began his career over 30 years ago. Self-taught, Floyd’s work has been exhibited at the Black Gallery, UCLA, Duke Ellington’s Centennial Celebration, The Museum of African American Art, William Grant Still Center, Mt. San Antonio, the Queen Mary, and the art venues of the Monterey Jazz Festival. Floyd is a founding member and current vice-president of The Jazz Photographers Association of Southern California. Founding member of the L.A. Track Nuts (a track and field advocate group), Floyd’s philosophy on photography is something he compares to the lone athlete running a race- one race at a time, one photograph at a time.
*African Americans; Celebrities; Entertainers; Monterey Jazz Festival; Singers; Track and Field
Bill Harvey (1916- )
Bill Harvey’s photographs evoke a time and place in the history of not only California, but also of America. Harvey began his career in Los Angeles in 1942 as a publicity and commercial news photographer. He photographed for many clients– from the Academy Awards to the Republican National Convention. He was also active for many years in the National Press Photographers Association and California Press Photographers association. Bill was also interested the history of local photography, and completed an oral history with Ben Oleander, a former Times photographer, for the Center.
*Academy Awards; Commercial; Concerts; Los Angeles; Political events; Publicity; USO
Calvin Hicks (1941-2012)
Hicks moved to Los Angeles in 1967 from Mt. Carbon, West Virginia. In 1984, along with Roland Charles, he co-founded the Black Gallery and the group Black Photographers of California. The Calvin Hicks collection consists of over 2,800 images. The collection is made up primarily of fine art photography, nature shots, and public events such as the Central Avenue Jazz Festival. The collection contains substantial documentation of the world-famous Venice Beach, which provides a showcase for eclectic street performers and individuals as well as members of the community, artists and tourists.
*African Americans; Black Gallery; Black Photographers of California; Central Ave.; Los Angeles; Nature; Public events; Studio; Venice Beach
James Jeffrey (1945-2006)
While on assignment in Germany in the Air Force, Jeffrey became fascinated with photography. He formed friendships with European photographers who helped him get his career started and influenced his style. Jeffrey then trained at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. Jeffrey’s work has been exhibited at the Simon Rodia Gallery, the Cunningham Memorial Gallery, and the William Grant Still Community Arts Center and remains part of the permanent collection of the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture.
*Advertising; African Americans; Artist; Commercial; L. A. 1992 Riots; Los Angeles; Studio; Tennessee; Tuskege Airmen; Venice Beach
John Kouns (1929-2019)
Kouns’s images of the United Farm Workers movement and the march from Selma to Birmingham have been seen in many books and films as part of the archives of the American Labor movement at Wayne State University in Detroit. Kouns rarely focused his attention on the leaders rather he was motivated by a sense of a people’s movement and turned to the people for inspiration.
*1966; boycotts; César Chávez; Delano; Dolores Huerta; El Teatro CampesinoGrape Strike; Huelgas; labor camps; Luis Valdez; picket lines; protests; San Joaquin Valley; United Farmworkers (UFW)
Plaza Methodist Church Collection (est 1910)
The Plaza Methodist Church was located to its present site, in the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, in 1916. The Church provided spiritual, economic, and medical services to Mexican, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese immigrants in the poor urban neighborhoods. The Plaza Community Center included the chapel and various social service offices including the first Goodwill Industries in Los Angeles. The Plaza Community Center provided a dental and medical clinic along with social services.
*Bloom Street; Children; Church leaders;Churches; City Hall; El Pueblo de Los Angeles; Fieldworkers; Goodwill Industries; Healthcare; Immigrants; Living conditions; Los Angeles Plaza; Los Angeles; Manners and customs; Methodist; Migrant labor camps; Olvera Street; Plaza Community Center; Religious; Social Work; Street Life
Enrique Romero Olivas (1934-2006)
Romero founded Estudio’s Ensenada in 1978. He photographed family celebrations and worked as a portrait photographer throughout northern Baja California, Mexico. Romero worked diligently to increase his clientele and often traveled to other cities in Baja to photograph families in their home. He offered innovations of style and technique to his clients and the pastels that are included in the exhibition are an example of how he offered his clients something different from other photographers in the region. His wife and son were also active in the business.
*Baja California; Communities; Mexico; Portraits; Studio
September 11th Gallery
Ringo Chiu, Agustine Tabares and Jason Warner
On the morning of September 11, 2001, three freelance photojournalists (one CSUN student, one former CSUN student and one Santa Monica Community College student) were in different places doing different things but the first thought each had was the same: I have to photograph this. By the following afternoon, they were driving the 2,800 miles to NYC. They spent three days photographing the aftermath of the destruction of the World trade Center.
*Destruction; Firefighters; New York; September 11, 2001; World Trade Center
Ada Trillo (1976- )
Ada Trillo is a Philadelphia-based photographer, native to the Juarez-El Paso binational metroplex. In her work, she focuses on borders of inclusion and exclusion as they are experienced through people in forced prostitution; climate and violence-related international migration; and US exclusions, resulting from long-standing borders of race and class. Through the elements of documentary and fine art photography, Trillo’s goal is to bring attention to the impact that these borders have on exploited and marginalized people and amplify their voices. She utilizes photography as a platform to document our times by capturing both our most joyous and painful moments; This art has the power to lay bare our common humanity and dignity.
*Border; Border security; Human rights; Immigrants; Mexico; Central America; Social conditions; Soldiers; Street life; Victims; Violence; War of Drugs
Charles Williams (1908-1986)
As an official photographer for the California Eagle and the Sentinel, Charles Williams took pictures that shaped the stories of the community beginning in the 1930s. In the 1940s, his career was interrupted when Williams chose to relocate with his Japanese wife, Yoshi Kuwahara and their daughter to Chicago rather than have them sent to a relocation camp. After the war, Williams continued his career as a photographer for over forty years. He was beloved in his community, both for his role as the photographer and for the help he provided others. He died in 1986, according to his obituary, in service to a friend.
