CSUN Cataloging Late Photographer’s Work

Cal State Northridge officials have taken up the task of cataloging several hundred thousand photographs taken by African American photographer Harry Adams in an effort to preserve this pictorial history of Los Angeles.

The university will exhibit Adams’ work at the California Afro-American Museum in March.

At a brunch Saturday, dozens of his friends, family members and former colleagues will view some of the photographs in an attempt to identify the subjects.

“Harry was very meticulous with his photographs and cataloged everything,” said Faye Ainsworth, director of development for the College of Arts, Media and Communications. But, after Adams’ death in 1985, “the collection was a little bit jumbled.”

Adams took photographs between the mid-1950s and the mid-1980s, building a collection that included nearly 500,000 negatives.

His photographs captured everyday life in the city’s African American community. His work also includes images of dignitaries such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, a young Tom Bradley, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and many others.

“It sounds trite,” Ainsworth said, “but Harry always seemed to be at the right place at the right time.”

“He seemed to be able to capture people and frame the image in terms of how it was composed,” she said.

Kent Kirkton, a CSUN photojournalism professor, was responsible for bringing the collection to the college in 1992, Ainsworth said.

Officials hope that those who attend the brunch will be able to put names and dates to the faces and events pictured, Kirkton said.