RESEARCH PROJECTS

Summer Black Star Publication Research Workshops

How does one analyze a collection of approximately 292,000 prints? How can we forge links between original press prints and their magazine reproductions? How can we understand the editorial choices that made one picture famous — and not another one? How did magazines shape, from these photographs, the visual stories that we share? These are some of the questions that drive the Summer Black Star Publication Research Workshops led by Dr. Thierry Gervais.

(May – June 2012)

• Research related to the placement of Black Star photographs in TIME (1936-1971).
  
• Creation of links between the Black Star-credited photographs published in Life magazine and the originals prints held in the Black Star Collection.
  
• Creations of charts and tables to reveal the content of the RIC databases.

In 2010 and 2011, five students from the Photographic Preservation and Collections Management MA Program at Ryerson University were enrolled in the Workshop for six weeks. They conducted original research about the placement of Black Star photographs in the press.     

(May – June 2011)

• Research related to the placement of Black Star photographs in Look magazine (1937-1971).
• Creation of links between the Black Star-credited photographic essays published in Life magazine and the photographic objects held in the Black Star Collection.
• Identification of photographs in the Black Star Collection that deal with aboriginal and native issues (in consultation with Steve Loft, Trudeau Visiting Fellow at Ryerson University, Scholar in Residence, Ryerson Image Centre).

(May – June 2010)

• Research related to the placement of Black Star photographs in Life magazine (1936-1972).
• Research related to the placement of Civil Rights photographs by Black Star photographer Charles Moore in publications such as Jet, Ebony, the Saturday Evening Post and Look.
• Research related to the placement of Black Star photographs from the Civil Rights Movement in publications such as Jet, Ebony, the Saturday Evening Post and Look.  

The workshops are made possible with the generous support of the Paul J. Ruhnke Memorial Fund.



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Black Star Oral History Project

The Oral History Project is a documentary initiative which reaches out for the personal stories and reminiscences of Black Star photographers and other Black Star associates. This project aims to create a repository of audio and visual documentation which will contribute to understanding of photojournalism in the 20th century. Past interviews include:

• Dennis Brack
• Jim Pickerell
• Larry Levin
• Bob Fitch and Matt Herron
• John Morris

The interviews are made possible with the generous support of the Paul J. Ruhnke Memorial Fund.

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