Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Bullowa, Arthur M.
| title | The Josef Breitenbach Archive | repository | The University of Arizona, Center for Creative Photography |
| description | The Josef Breitenbach Archive contains the personal papers and photographic materials of the photographer and teacher Josef Breitenbach (1896-1984). The materials in the archive date from 1873-1990 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1933-1983. The archive consists of correspondence files, biographical materials, manuscripts, exhibition materials, teaching files, publications, financial records, audiovisual materials, and photographic materials. Breitenbach was born in Munich, Germany in 1896. He attended schools in Munich and later served in the military during 1916. He eventually joined his father's wine merchant business in 1919. Two school notebooks and early portraits are the extent of the documentation of this early period of Breitenbach's life. It is known that he traveled with the wine business, and early photographs and negatives of Italy and France were probably made by Breitenbach during those trips. When the wine business went bankrupt in 1932, Breitenbach opened a portrait studio and began photographing the City Theater in Munich. Many photographs and negatives of German theater personalities including photographs of Karl Valentin and Albert Basserman exist from this year. Again, little documentation other than photographs and negatives exist from this time. In September 1933, Breitenbach left Munich with his son Hans and settled in Paris. He established a portrait studio and began teaching photography. Documentation of the Paris years, 1933-1941, is rich and varied. Documentation exists as correspondence, exhibition announcements, writings, notebooks, teaching materials, identity cards, rent statements, and photographic materials. Exhibition announcements, correspondence, and tearsheets show that his photographs were exhibited and reproduced in Paris as well as other countries. As a correspondent for the British International News Agency, Breitenbach wrote about and photographed the following important exhibitions in Paris: [Freie] Deutsche Buch, 1936 (Free German Books); The Paris International Exposition, 1937; 5 Ans de Regime Hitler, (Five Years of the Hitler Regime), 1938; the International Surrealism Exhibition, 1938; and [Freie] Deutsche Kunst (Free German Art), 1938. As a member of the German expatriate community in Paris, Breitenbach photographed Helene Weigel and Bertolt Brecht, and the rehearsals for a Brecht play in 1938. He also photographed Max Ernst, Lyonel Feininger, and others. In addition, Breitenbach photographed panels for a planned exhibition for the Freedom Pavilion, New York World's Fair, 1939, The Germany of Yesterday, The Germany of Tomorrow. In 1938 Germany revoked his citizenship. When Germany invaded France during W.W.II, Breitenbach was interned as an enemy alien in various camps. The archive documents with writings, correspondence, identity cards and other materials his time in the work camps, and his efforts to leave France. He successfully emigrated to the United States in 1941. Josef Breitenbach established himself as a photographer and teacher in New York City in 1941. He lived there until his death in 1984. He used the English version of his name, Joseph, extensively after this period. He began to receive commercial assignments from magazines such as Fortune, Harper's Bazaar, and Time. Breitenbach's long career as a teacher began in 1944 with an appointment to Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina. Although Breitenbach was hired by Josef Albers for only that summer, his photographs extensively document the buildings, students, teaching methods of Josef Albers and others at Black Mountain College and were used in subsequent brochures for the college. In 1946 he began teaching at Cooper Union and in 1949 at the New School for Social Research, both in New York City. Correspondence, lecture notes, and audio tapes of his lectures richly document his career as a teacher. During this period, Breitenbach collected photographs to supplement his lectures in photography. In 1979 his photograph collection was sold to the Müncher Stadtmuseum in Munich, Germany. No photographs from his teaching collection exist in his archive. From 1952-53, Josef Breitenbach served as the Chief of Still Photography for the United Nations Reconstruction Agency in Korea. Those years served as Breitenbach's introduction to Korea and Japan. Each year until the 1970s he worked on commercial projects in Asia to finance his travel and personal photographic work. Although his photographs were exhibited and reproduced in periodicals, Women of Asia (1968) was the only monograph published from this large body of work. Josef Breitenbach died in New York City in 1984. |
| extent | 74.5 linear feet |
| formats | Correspondence Research Files Manuscript Exhibition Files Photographs |
| access | by appointment only |
| record source | http://www.creativephotography.org |
| finding aid | Index to selected correspondence online and in repository. |
| acquisition information | The collection was a gift in 1989 from Yaye Togasaki Breitenbach, the artist's widow. |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:29:54 |
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| title | Lisette Model fonds. [186-?]-1988; predominant 1920-1983. | repository | National Gallery of Canada |
| description | The fonds consists of approximately 25,000 negatives taken by Lisette Model; photographic prints, primarily by Lisette Model; personal and professional correspondence; 34 notebooks of lecture notes; legal documents pertaining to Lisette and Evsa Model; notices, clippings, tear sheets, and posters, many of which cite Model or reproduce her photographs; and recorded interviews with and lectures by Model. Biographical Sketch Elise Amelie Félicie (Lisette) Stern was born on November 10, 1901, in Vienna, Austria. In 1903 her family name was changed to Seybert. In 1934, having been introduced to darkroom techniques by her sister Olga, Lisette decided to pursue a career in photography. Her first series of works were taken along the Promenade des Anglais, Nice. A year after her marriage to the Russian-born painter Evsa Model, in 1937, the couple moved to New York City, where they lived for the rest of their lives. Lisette Model was most prolific between 1940 and 1947, resulting in a well-known series of photographs, including Reflections, Running Legs, Lower East Side, Sammy's, and Nick's; most of these works were featured in Harper's Bazaar and U.S. Camera. Beginning in 1940, Model's photographs were actively acquired by major museums and galleries around the world, most notably by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which first purchased her work that year. As well as receiving critical acclaim as a photographer, Model was highly regarded and sought after as a teacher of photography. In conjunction with her teaching at the New School for Social Research in New York City from 1951 to 1983, she also conducted private workshops and was in great demand as a guest lecturer. In 1965 Model received both a Guggenheim fellowship and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the New School for Social Research, New York. The following year she was given La Médaille de la Ville de Paris. On March 30, 1983, Lisette Model died in New York City. |
| extent | 1.59 m of textual records, ca. 27,000 photographs and other material. |
| formats | Clippings Correspondence Sound Recording Photographs Research Files |
| access | Access to Diane Arbus's correspondence requires written permission from the Arbus Estate. |
| record link | http://national.gallery.ca/english/library/biblio/ngc0280.html#a14 |
| record source | http://national.gallery.ca/english/library/biblio/ngc0280.html#a14 |
| finding aid | An item-level finding aid to the negatives is available at the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives; a detailed finding aid to the remainder of the fonds is also available. |
| acquisition information | Donated by Joseph G. Blum, Executor of the Lisette Model Estate, through the American Friends of Canada Committee Inc., 1991. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:55 |
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