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Title: Wynn Bullock papers
Dates: 1929-1972,
Bulk Dates: Bulk dates 1940-1972
Collection number: MS 10
Creator:
Bullock, Wynn
Collection Size:
5 document boxes; 3 flats
Repository:
University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library.
Special Collections and Archives
Santa Cruz, California 95064
Abstract: This collection includes some biographical material including a small amount of correspondence, writings, teaching materials,
clippings & printed appearences. Also included is a selection of gelatin silver photographs and a color photograph.
Physical location: Stored in Special Collections & Archives: Advance notice is required for access to the papers.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Wynn Bullock papers. MS 10. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of
California, Santa Cruz.
Wynn Bullock (April 18, 1902-November 16, 1975) was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Pasadena, California. As a boy,
his passions were singing and athletics. After high school graduation he moved to New York to pursue a musical career and
was hired as a chorus member in Irving Berlin's
Music Box Review. During the mid-1920's he traveled to Europe, studying voice and giving concerts in France, Germany, and Italy.
In Paris, he discovered the work of Man Ray and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy. He realized photography as an art form could be a vehicle
through which he could engage with the world. He moved back to Southern California and became a student of photography at
Art Center School.
From 1938 to 1940, Wynn became involved in exploring alternative processes such as solarization and bas relief. After graduation
from Art Center, his experimental work was exhibited in a solo exhibition at the L.A. County Museum. He worked as a commercial
photographer and enlisted in the U.S. Army where he was employed by Lockheed, and Connors-Joyce until the end of the war.
In 1945-1946, Wynn traveled throughout California with his family producing and selling postcard pictures. He worked developing
a way to control the line effect of solarization for which he was awarded two patents. He settled in Monterey where he obtained
a photographic concession at Ford Ord military base until 1959.
A major turning point in Wynn's life as a creative photographer occurred in 1948 when he met Edward Weston. In the mid-1950's,
Edward Steichen chose two of Bullock's photographs to include in the 1955 "Family of Man" exhibition at the Museum of Modern
Art.
During the early 1960's, Wynn produced his "Color Light Abstractions". These photographs represented an in-depth exploration
of light, manifesting a belief that light is, "perhaps the most profound force in the universe."
Throughout his career, Wynn was an active learner, workshop leader, and teacher. His work is found in over 90 major institutions
world-wide, and he is one of five artists whose archives established the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography.
In the mid 1960's until his death, he returned to black and white alternative processes. Wynn noted, "Searching is everything
- going beyond what you know. And the test of the search is really in the things themselves, the things you seek to understand.
What is important is not what you think about them, but how they enlarge you."
[Biography excerpted from
The Bullock-Wilson Trust Photography Archive]
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection includes some biographical material including a small amount of correspondence, writings, teaching materials,
clippings & printed appearences. Also included is a selection of gelatin silver photographs and a color photograph.
The photographs are arranged in chronological order.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Bullock, Wynn
Photography, Artistic