Scope and arrangement
The Richard Saunders photographs contain photographic prints, slides, and negatives of America and Africa in the 1940s through the 1980s. The photographs were created during Saunders' career as a photojournalist.
The collection is arranged by project or assignment into four series that cover his freelance projects, assignments with Topic, portfolios, as well as some portraits of Saunders.
The collection details Saunders' documentary work in the United States from the 1940s through 1983, his work for Topic magazine from 1967 through the 1980s, and pictures throughout his life working and on vacation in Bermuda.
The Richard Saunders photographs are arranged in four series:
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1940-1983
Series I contains Saunders' freelance files and includes prints, contact sheets, slides, and negatives from the 1940s through 1983.
Assignments are arranged alphabetically by subject or publication. The primary coverage during this period includes the photographs of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam in New York City and Washington, DC in the 1960s. Another large project from this period includes coverage of James Farmer and his work as the founder and Director of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). The series also holds celebrity portraits Saunders took for the The New York Times in 1964 and 1965, often assigned by Sunday Times editor, Sy Peck.
The Pittsburgh Documentary Project is one folder of prints Saunders' made while working with Roy Stryker to document the deindustrialization of the Lower Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These photographs date from 1955 through 1961, but individual pictures have not been dated. These files contain solely black and white prints, without any negatives, slides, or contact sheets.
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1963-1983
Series II holds assignments from Topic magazine, which comprise the majority of the collection.
Some of the Topic assignments include profiles of individuals such as exiled South African journalist Nat Nakasa, Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty, and James Brown's performance in Lagos, Nigeria in 1971. Saunders also covered the second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC '77) in Lagos, Nigeria in 1977. When American figures visited Africa, such as Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Lillian Carter, Saunders photographed their travels.
There are also some assignments in the series in which Saunders covered African citizens and dignitaries visits to the United States, mostly in Washington, DC and New York City.
When known, the issue of Topic in which the photographs were printed is noted.
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1940-1986
Saunders' Portfolios contain prints from the 1940s through the 1980s, and provides an overview of his career and photographic eye. Several prints have been mounted on board.
An African Portfolio is an overview of Saunders' documentary work in Africa, and was published as a special issue of Topic. A selection of Saunders photographs were selected for the exhibition, Impressions of Africa, which was organized as a traveling exhibition and toured the continent in the 1970s.
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1940-1979
The photographs in series IV primarily depict Saunders working between the late 1960s and 1970s. There are also some images of his photograph equipment.
In addition to professional images of Saunders, some photographs of a young Saunders in the 1940s are present. There are also negatives of Saunders posing on a trip to Bermuda in the 1960s.