Rock Photographer Bob Gruen's Birthday Party

Rock & Roll’s leading photographer Bob Gruen celebrated at “R” Bar with dozens of his friends. He enjoyed the company of aged rockers, photographers, publishers, writers, artists, actors, musicians and contemporary personalities. At the event Burns met with Steven Goff, owner of Global PSD who prints the Burns Archive books, as well as Rock & Roll collector and entrepreneur Larry Marion of the Not Fade Away Gallery. Marion presented Burns with an advance copy of his soon to be released book on the Stones, The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive 1964-1966.  The Stones images can be viewed and purchased at the NotFadeAwayGallery.com website. Burns has been associated with Larry and his brother Marty for over 35 years in various photographic exhibitions and publishing ventures. In 2001, Marty presented the exhibition The Collector as Photographer: The Photographs of Stanley B. Burns, MD at a New York Gallery. The party started at 7:30 and the music started after 11:30, but the next day’s work precluded staying late. 

Dr. Burns Meets Joe Beasley at his Gold Medal Dinner

     October 19th Dr. Burns met with Joe Beasley, founder of African Ascension, Georgia Congress persons and other members of various African American organizations at a dinner held in Beasley’s honor at the National Arts Club. Under discussion was displaying Burns’ traveling exhibition Shadow and Substance: African American Photographs from the Burns Archive in a Georgia institution. The show was seen in Indiana in 2009 and Maryland in 2010.

     ‘Ambassador’ Joe Beasley, the distinguished founder and President of African Ascension, was honored for his work in education. African Ascension’s mission is to expand the political, socio-economic integration and cohesion of people of African Ancestry and descent globally. Born in 1936 to Georgia sharecroppers, Beasley became one of the major leaders of Georgia’s black community and then went on to leadership roles in several national organizations. His work to improve the quality of life of people on the African Continent and those of African descent worldwide is facilitated also by the Joe Beasley Foundation, a quality of life improvement organization, focusing on social injustice, economic prosperity and education inequalities. He is a well-known personality on the African Continent as he is advisor and confidant to several African governments.

 

Hale House Event at Artsource International

     Dr. Burns consulted with Joyce Chasan and the members of her organization Art Source International, LLC as well as representatives of Hale House in their program of the de-acquisition of paintings. The art works by African American artists of the last half of the 20th century are being offered by Chasan in her gallery. A combined exhibition of the art works and African American photographs from the Burns Collection was proposed.
    Joyce Towbin Chasan and Thomas F Knapp hosted a reception in honor of The Hale House for the de-acquisition of their unique fine art collection of Harlem Renaissance Art. These works, acquired over the years from local artists, galleries and patrons supported the important social efforts undertaken by Mother Hale and The Hale House to care for children and families in distress.This collection represents historically important and salient examples of the best of the black art experience. Included are pieces by both members of the Harlem Renaissance movement and modern masters influenced by their vision. 

Lecture on the History of the Burns Collection Exhibitions and Publications at Flair Symposium, Harry Ransom Center

Dr. Burns Outside the Harry Ransom Center

Between September 30 and October 2, 2010 The Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin held its Ninth Biennial Flair Symposium, the first devoted to photography. In association with the event the H.R.C. presented its most revered photographic treasures. A landmark exhibition showcasing the Gernsheim Collection and in conjunction presented Roy Flukinger’s spectacular text on the Gernsheims. The seminar consisted of lectures and panels about photographic collecting, exhibition, publication, and comments by noted photographers on producing and teaching photography. Helmut Gernsheim was the seminal collector who was able to acquire the earliest photographs taken by the discoverers of photography and also of the significant innovators who followed them up to the modern era. The Gernsheim Collection bought by the Harry Ransom Center includes the worlds first photograph taken by Niepce in 1827 as well as Daguerre’s first daguerreotypes. Roy Flukinger’s landmark catalog documents not only the Gernsheims’ accomplishments but also presents a detailed history of nineteenth and twentieth century photography.

Thomas F. Staley, Director of the Harry Ransom Center 

Discovering the Language of Photography:
The Gernsheim Collection Exhibition

In the 1950s-70s the Gernsheims along with MOMA’s Beaumont Newhall wrote texts on the history of photography which became road maps for scholars, curators and collectors. But their texts mainly emphasized the British, French and American pioneers with some German innovators. The following scholars continued the trend set by these original pioneers in the study of art photography and innovators. Collecting and discovering the amateur and journeyman photographers remained a fertile field for collecting for Burns and others interested in history, culture and changing nature of life and living through the lens.

Photography's Historiography Panel (Moderated by David Coleman)
J. B. Colson, Alison Nordström, Marta Weiss and Bodo von Dewitz

Dr. Burns was invited to speak at the seminar honoring Helmut Gernsheim as his collection and work is parallel to Gernsheim’s. The Burns’ accomplishments reflects the second critical aspect of photographic history, one that is now just becoming generally appreciated. Like Gernsheim’s, Burns’ collection in its field is without peer. Burns collects and emphasizes photography’s utilitarian use by people, professions and cultures. In dozen’s of subjects and through 43 books Burns has laid down the basics of the use of photography, now popularized by many as ‘vernacular’ photography. Gernsheim spearheaded collecting and writing about innovators and the art of photography. Modern photo historians and collectors following Gernsheim’s precedents are generally interested in this thread of photographic history which represents the innovators of each generation who used cameras and photographic processes in new or creative ways. 

Dr. Burns Speaks about the History of
The Burns Collection and Exhibitions & Publications

The history of photography as Burns points out is two fold, especially in the United States where photography was ubiquitous and was able to be practiced by everyone. Dr. Burns has avoided collecting popular genres such as entertainment and sports photography. In almost all other fields and in dozens of specific subjects Burns’ collection is the pioneer effort and accumulation. In several fields Burns’ texts are similarly the road maps for future collectors, scholars and curators. Some of the generally recognized topics of the Burns Collection are memorial photography, painted tintypes, photographic frames, manipulated photography, medical, forensic, African American, war and Judaic photography.

Displaying a Slide of 'Dissected Head, 1905'

Other images/topics discussed in the lecture:

Exhibit at University of Albany Art Museum
Searching the Criminal Body: Art, Science, Prejudice

More images from the Fleur Cowles Flair Symposium:

Newsweek Special Feature- History Revealed: Rare and Unusual Images from the Burns Archive

Please visit our Newsweek feature where over 25 photographs and stories are on view along with a video interview with Dr.Burns about his collection.  Click HERE to view the story on Newsweek.com



(Click twice on the video above to see full-frame ) 

Burns Archive Photos to be Featured in PBS Series 'God in America'

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

PBS Series God in America airs October 11, 12, & 13, 2010

Produced and Directed by Sarah Colt

God in America examines the potent and complex interaction between religion and democracy, the origins of the American concept of religious liberty, and the controversial evolution of that ideal in the nation's courts and political arena. The series considers the role religious ideas and institutions have played in social reform movements from abolition to civil rights, examining the impact of religious faith on conflicts from the American Revolution to the Cold War, and how guarantees of religious freedom created a competitive American religious marketplace.