Photographic negatives, 1975-1983

Series

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This series comprises the vast number of original photographic negatives created during Bern Schwartz's portrait sessions, of which there were over 800 during the five years that he spent making portraits. The majority of the photographic negatives are unpublished. As well as negatives of the portraits for which Schwartz is well known and celebrated, there are also negatives of sessions with family and close friends, and negatives of posthumous exhibitions in-situ.

The materials sometimes indicate a gap where an original negative has been removed from the strip because the image and its accompanying copyright is now held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The photographic negatives comprise the following formats:

negative frames in strips of 35mm, 120 film and medium format copy frames
enlarging negatives selected by Bern and Ronny Schwartz, which have been separated from strips
colour transparencies
marked-up photo editing slips

Dates

Creation: 1975-1983

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

Arrangement of the materials reflects their original order, as received from The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation. The primary series of negatives are in ascending order by portrait session number, and this order is roughly chronological. The negatives have been repackaged where necessary for preservation purposes.

Occassionally there is an overlap where the same session number occures in both the primary and the secondary series of negatives.

Photographic negatives are divided into three sub-series:

(MSS. Schwartz photogr. G. 1-41) primary series negatives
(MSS. Schwartz photogr. G. 42-28) secondary series negatives
(MSS. Schwartz photogr. G. 29-55) black and white copy negatives

Related Materials

A small number of additional negatives can be found in series MSS. Schwartz N.

The black and white copy negatives in this series were used to create the prints found at MSS. Schwartz N. 27-49.