Scope and arrangement
The Lepkoff photographs date from 1980 to 1999. The collection is comprised of photographic materials related to dance workshops and performances in New York City and Vermont. This collection represents the late stages of Rebecca Lepkoff's photography practice. Notably, this work offers both an extension of her photography projects of the 1970s exploring the hippie culture in Vermont and reconnects with her early interest in experimental dance in the 1930s. In addition to straightforward photography, there are examples of Lepkoff's experimentation with collage, where she arranged 5x7 prints to create a larger montage of the dancers.
Lepkoff processed the negatives and prints at drug stores or commercial labs, therefore the photographs in the collection are glossy 5x7 prints. Some notes on printing qualities and contrast can be found.
The material related to Movement Research includes promotional flyers, notes, and correspondence.
Some prints are not related to dance and include documentation of Lepkoff's artwork in an exhibition at the New York Public Library in 1996 titled, A History of Women Photographers.
Lepkoff wrote letter to the editors of the dance publication Contact Quarterly in 1996 where she describes the consistency of critics and their initial reservations for pioneering dance to parallel the response to disabled dancers involved in the Movement Research group.