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Creator
Morais, Ka, 1942-1981
Call number
Sc MG 493
Physical description
1.25 linear feet (3 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Ka Morais papers, Sc MG 493, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Kenneth Alan (Ka) Morais was an African American photographer and media artist. The Ka Morais papers include family, personal, and professional correspondence.

Biographical/historical information

Kenneth Alan (Ka) Morais, born in 1942 in New York City, was an African American photographer and media artist. He studied commercial and fine arts, photography, and film and television in New York and California. Morais's fine art photography included constructions and photomontages; his documentary work included images of New York City and abroad. He held a variety of short-term jobs doing commercial and public relations photography, had a number of solo and group exhibits primarily in New York and California, and had his work published in various magazines and newspapers. Morais died in 1981 in New York City.

Scope and arrangement

The Ka Morais papers include family, personal, and professional correspondence. Letters from his brother Michael discuss their collaborations, writing and illustrating poems, and other works. Morais's professional papers consist of letters of recommendation, honors and awards, programs and reviews of his exhibits, drawings, and news clippings about him and advertising courses that he taught. There are also a few manuscripts by Morais with illustrations (photographs and drawings). Of interest are original and photocopies of letters and postcards written to him by the photographer Ansel Adams, 1975-1981. Morais's best known photograph is a spoof of Adams's zone system, and Adams's comments on about it are mentioned in one letter (1977).

Also documented is Morais's involvement in the Bahai religion, his period as an English instructor in Japan (Ube Academy of Foreign Languages), his time as a volunteer worker at the United Nations refugee camps in Thailand, 1978-1981, and his medical malpractice suit against the United States government, 1975-1977.

The Ka Morais papers are arranged in two series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Michael Morais, August 1993.

Revision History

Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark. (2022 January 28)

Processing information

Accessioned by Berlena Robinson, June 1994, and Janice Quinter, December 2010.

Separated material

Transferred to the Art and Artifacts Division: artwork.

Transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division: audio and moving image materials. For more information, please contact the division at schomburgaudiovisual@nypl.org or 212-491-2270.

Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: photographs.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor