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Lynn G. Fayman archive
2013.002  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography/Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms
  • Additional collection guides

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Lynn G. Fayman archive
    Dates: 1938-2011 (bulk 1949-1969)
    Collection Number: 2013.002
    Creator/Collector: Fayman, Lynn G., 1904-1968
    Extent: 2 boxes (1 linear foot); 4 clamshell boxes; one flat box.
    Online items available
    Repository: Museum of Photographic Arts
    San Diego, California 92101
    Abstract: Lynn G. Fayman (1904-1968) was a photographer in San Diego, California. The collection consists of his personal papers, including lecture notes, biographical material, and correspondence; slides, negatives and transparencies; photographs; and film.
    Language of Material: English

    Access

    Stored on-site at the Museum of Photographic Arts. Open for research by appointment only. Contact the Edmund L. and Nancy K. Dubois Library for information.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright (c) Museum of Photographic Arts. All rights reserved.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item]. Lynn G. Fayman archive. Collection Number: 2013.002. Museum of Photographic Arts

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of Danah Fayman, 2013.

    Biography/Administrative History

    Lynn G. Fayman was born in 1904 in Kansas City, Missouri and trained as a landscape architect at Kansas State College. Fayman’s interest in photography began in 1928 while he was abroad studying landscape design in Europe. In 1943, Fayman enrolled in a photography course at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, where he studied under Edward Kaminski. Immediately upon completion of the course, he relocated to San Diego, California, and worked as a photographer for Ryan Aeronautical Company. Fayman was a founding member of the San Diego artists’ collective Allied Craftsmen, and an active participant in the local La Jolla art community, where he established a photography studio. He was initially interested in color photography, experimenting with light, color filters, transparencies, and everyday objects to create abstract color slides. In 1949, Fayman began utilizing the newly available Kodak Flexichrome Process, a multi-step method of making full color prints or transparencies from black-and-white negatives through the hand application of colored dyes. His Flexichrome prints were widely exhibited throughout the 1950s. An amateur filmmaker, he exhibited his abstract film Color in Motion (No. II): The Red Spot at the Cannes Film Festival in 1954, and was further recognized in 1955 by the Photographic Society of America’s Motion Picture Division. Fayman lectured extensively on themes of abstract art appreciation, the history of photography, and creative photography, employing color slide presentations featuring his series of original abstracts. From 1962 to 1964, he collaborated with Helen Palmer and Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) on three children’s books with photographic illustrations. In 1964, Fayman began studying black and white photography more extensively, creating his notable “Three Leaves” series. He served for 24 consecutive years on the Board of Trustees at the La Jolla Art Center (now the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego) and was recognized as a Fellow of the Photographic Society of America in 1959. He died in 1968.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection consists of 2 boxes of personal papers, 999 slides, thousands of negatives and transparencies, photographic prints, and original films. Of particular interest are Fayman’s lecture notes; correspondence with Helen Palmer and Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss), with whom he collaborated on photographic book illustrations in the 1960s; and the slide collection, organized by series and fully cataloged and digitized. The collection also contains color transparencies from Fayman’s 1956 trip to Europe, where he photographed some celebrities (including Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, and Gene Kelly) in addition to the architecture of Dusseldorf and Monaco. The collection is arranged in 4 series: Series I. Papers (1938-2011). Series II. Photographs (circa 1920-1974). Series III. Slides, negatives, and transparencies (circa 1949-1968). Series IV. Film (circa 1951-1955).

    Indexing Terms

    Photography, Artistic
    Fayman, Lynn G., 1904-1968—Archives
    Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
    Color slides
    Photographic prints
    Artists' films
    Photographers—United States—Archival resources

    Additional collection guides