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LIGHT Gallery miscellaneous acquisitions collection

 Collection
Identifier: AG 276

Scope and Contents

This collection contains miscellaneous materials documenting LIGHT Gallery, NYC. Each group of materials is described separately.

Dates

  • circa 1972-1980

Creator

Language of Materials

Material in English

Conditions Governing Access

To access materials from this collection, please contact CCP-RefDesk@email.arizona.edu

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission from the copyright owner (which could be the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates or literary executors) prior to any copyright-protected uses of the collection.

The user agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents, the University of Arizona, Center of Creative Photography, including its officers, employees, and agents, from and against all claims made relating to copyright or other intellectual property infringement

Historical Note

The owner and founder of LIGHT Gallery was Tennyson Schad (1930-2001), who held a strong interest in the collection of contemporary photography. Schad first considered photojournalism for the market, but after seeing the works of contemporary photographers like Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan, Schad changed his focus. At the time, the Witkin Gallery was the only other New York gallery devoted solely to photography, which had opened in 1969 and represented 19th and 20th century photography. LIGHT Gallery was different as it was the first gallery to exclusively market, exhibit, and sell contemporary photography, often featuring young up-and-coming artists that no one had heard of. Many influential photographers were represented at LIGHT Gallery including Frederick Sommer, Garry Winogrand, Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, among others.

In 1971, Schad hired Harold Jones as LIGHT Gallery’s first director, and the gallery opened at 1018 Madison Avenue in New York City. Jones had previously been working as a curator at the George Eastman House in Rochester. In 1975, Jones went on to become the first director of the Center for Creative Photography. In 1976, the Gallery moved to 724 Fifth Avenue, which was a much larger space.

Robert Mann was the last director of LIGHT Gallery, from 1983 until its closing in 1987. The vast majority of photography gallerists and directors trained at or worked with LIGHT Gallery including Jones (director, 1971-1975), Peter MacGill (associate director, 1977-1979; director, 1980-1981), Robert Mann (director, 1983-1987), Laurence Miller (associate director, 1974-1980), Victor Schrager (director, 1975-1978) and Charles Traub (director, 1978-1980).

Tennyson Schad was born in 1930 in New York. He attended Williams College and New York University Law School, where he studied law. Schad practiced law for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and later opened his own firm, Norwick, Schad & Goering. During this time, Schad also worked as an editorial counsel for Time Inc., where he met and married photography editor Fern Schad, and his passion for photography was born. Schad kept his other interest in photojournalism, and for over 30 years, worked as outside counsel for Forbes magazine. Schad passed away from cancer on May 26, 2001 in Manhattan.

Extent

.25 Linear Foot

Metadata Rights Declarations

  • License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Abstract

Materials in this collection did not come in with the LIGHT Gallery archive, and are arranged into subgroups based on provenance. There are color slides of an Aaron Siskind opening and photographs by photographer BD Vidibor.

Arrangement

The Collection is arranged into the following series:

  1. Subgroup 1: Slides
  2. Subgroup 2: Photographs by BD Vidibor
  3. Subgroup 3: Photographs, contact sheets, slides, and negatives by Joe Maloney

Custodial History

Materials acquired from miscellaneous sources.

Related Materials

AG 194 LIGHT Gallery Collection

Processing Information

Subgroups one and two processed by Leslie Squyres in 2019.

Title
LIGHT Gallery Miscellaneous Acquisitions circa 1972-1980
Author
Finding aid created by CCP Archives Staff
Date
© 2020
Description rules
Finding Aid Based On Dacs (Describing Archives: A Content Standard)
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid encoded in English

Repository Details

Part of the Center for Creative Photography Archives Repository

Contact:
1030 N. Olive RD
Tucson Arizona 85721 United States