Scope and arrangement
The Nathaniel Tileston photographs represent Tileston's unusually concentrated career photographing experimental dance and theater performances in New York City and Chicago from the late 1960s through 1982. The collection includes his freelance assignment files, a box of exhibition prints, and some early student work.
The freelance assignment files comprise the bulk of the collection. Images in these files depict dancers and choreographers in live performance or rehearsal, often in Off-Broadway theaters, Soho lofts, gallery spaces, and other alternative performance venues. A small number of portraits of dancers and other cultural figures are also included. Among the many prominent choreographers and dancers featured are: David Gordon, Lucinda Childs, Douglas Dunn, Trisha Brown, William Dunas, Deborah Hay, Sara Rudner, Sylvia Palacios Whitman, Risa Jaroslow, and Meredith Monk. Of particular note is Tileston's extensive coverage of the Chicago production of Hair at the Shubert Theatre in 1969 and 1970, which includes auditions, rehearsals, the first photo call, and subsequent performances. Most assignment files hold a mix of 8 x 10-inch black-and-white photographic prints, contact sheets, slides, transparencies, and negatives. Plentiful handwritten notes about performance events and technical details of the shoot accompany these files. Printed promotional material occasionally appears in assignment files, as well.
Exhibition prints, which are found in Box 19, date from 1976 to 1981 and represent Tileston's favorite selections from his prime working years in New York City. These 11 x 14-inch black-and-white prints are usually labeled and many are matted. Some of these images may have been featured in the "Alternative Gestures: Another Look at Dance Photography" exhibition at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center that ran in the winter of 1978-1979.
The collection also includes some scattered work Tileston likely created as an art student, such as a large file on the Green Bay and Western Railroad shot in 1968. A significant quantity of negatives, dating from 1964-1970, are housed separately from assignment files and are only minimally labeled. These negatives can be found in Boxes 32 to 36 and are arranged roughly chronologically. Some uncut, unsorted, and unlabeled rolls of transparencies comprise most of the scant color work in the collection. These miscellaneous transparencies are found in Boxes 25 to 31.
Arrangement
The Nathaniel Tileston photographs are primarily arranged alphabetically by folder title, which is usually a personal name, title of a performance, or a publication title. A smaller section of miscellaneous prints, minimally labeled negatives and unsorted, unlabeled transparencies follows the alphabetical run.