Rare Photographs and Optical Devices

Oral history audio and video recordings have been gathered in Getty Research Institute collections in many capacities. They are included in archives, recorded as part of initiatives, and recorded when the occasion presents itself during events. Important moments in the history of photography have been collected and preserved, and audio and/or video recordings are often available digitally.

Beaumont Newhall, the first Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), wrote numerous books, articles, and reviews about photography. His wife, Nancy Newhall, was Acting Curator of Photography at MOMA while Beaumont served in World War II. She edited, wrote, and collaborated on several significant books about photography and was an active environmentalist. The Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Papers include audio and video recordings of photography-related conversations from 1968 through 1984.

August A. Patzig discusses the four generations of Patzigs in the photography business in Europe and the United States circa 1978.

A recording of a 2019 conversation among photographers Herb Randall, Ming Smith, Dawoud Bey, Adger Cowans, and Herb Robinson explores their training and influences including jazz, family albums, and the book Sweet Flypaper of Life. They also discuss Kamoinge principles and emblematic photographs and the expansive impact of artist communities on their work.

California photographers are represented in the Library holdings. The Getty Research Institute (GRI) hosted events and conducted oral histories inspired by the "Modern Art in Los Angeles" theme beginning in 2003. An oral history interview with Larry Bell, Ron Miyashiro, Joe Goode, and Jerry McMillan took place in 2010. The artists speak about their diverse backgrounds, beginnings, and works including their collaboration on the War Babies exhibition at the Huysman Gallery in Los Angeles, May 29 to June 17, 1961. Other highlights from the "Modern Art in Los Angeles" project include:

• 2006 and 2007 interviews of photographer Charles Brittin. 
• A 2006 interview of photographer William Claxton (1927-2008), known for his photographs of jazz musicians. He married fashion model Peggy Moffitt (1939-2024), designer Rudi Gernreich's main model and collaborator, in 1960.
• A 2010 oral history with Harry Drinkwater, a postwar photographer based in Venice Beach.
• Ed Ruscha was interviewed by Morgan Neville and Kristine McKenna for The Cool School (2008), a documentary film about Ferus Gallery and the generation of post-war artists it nurtured. Another video recording of an oral history interview with Ruscha was conducted by Andrew Perchuk and Rani Singh in Ruscha's new studio on Jefferson Boulevard in Los Angeles, in April 2011. Ruscha speaks about his works and influences, such as Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp, and discusses his thoughts towards common objects and Pop Art. Requests for access to Ruscha interviews should be addressed to reference@getty.edu.

Photographer Edmund Teske was interviewed in 1994 by the architectural historian Thomas S. Hines, when Teske talked about his life, his artistic education, and his development as a photographer. He also spoke of his experiences with Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin fellowship, his photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, including Taliesin (East and West), and the Hollyhock house and Studio B in Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles. Circa 2005, actress and singer Jane Lawrence Smith was interviewed by Rani Singh regarding Teske’s Los Angeles. 

A guide to the oral history materials at the Getty Library beyond those related to the history of photography, including links to audio and video recordings, can be found at this link.

Note that some material may be limited to onsite access only: please contact Reference about the possibility of obtaining temporary remote access for study purposes at (310) 440-7390 or submit a Reference Request Form.