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Davis (Jack) Photograph Collection
TBC.JDP
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives
Title: Jack Davis Photograph Collection
Creator:
Davis, Jack (1920-2004)
Identifier/Call Number: TBC.JDP
Physical Description:
19.32 linear feet
Date (inclusive): 1950-1989
Abstract: The Jack Davis
Photograph Collection primarily consists of images of individuals, social and business
groups' activities, and significant personal or social events of the predominantly Black
community of Los Angeles, particularly South Los Angeles, from the 1950s to the 1980s. Jack
Davis, born in Texas in 1920, was a Black professional photographer and teacher who owned
Modern Arts Studio of Photography on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. Studio portraits,
churches and social clubs' activities, wedding photography, and the 1969 Watts Summer
Festival are prominently featured. The collection is largely composed of color negatives,
prints, and slides.
Language of Material:
English.
Jack Davis was born in 1920 in Waco, Texas to A.J. Davis, a master plumber, and Willie Ann
Davis, a homemaker and traveler. At 18 years old, with 80 cents burning a hole in his
pocket, he hopped a freight train headed west. He bought his first camera in 1940. In 1941,
he began serving in the U.S. Navy as a mess attendant, a role that only allowed him to cook
and wash clothes which was imposed on him and other servicemen of color due to racial
segregation. He eventually married and settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1940s.
Davis was a Black professional photographer who specialized in portrait and commercial
photography and was known for his "people pictures." He began his study of photography at
Fremont High School. To make ends meet, he shined shoes, washed cars, and hustled photos at
night clubs on Central Avenue. He honed his skills further by attending the Art Center
School of Design. Beginning in 1957, he owned and operated the Modern Arts Studio of
Photography, which was located at 4150 South Vermont Avenue, across from Manual Arts High
School in Vermont Square, Los Angeles.
Davis's work has appeared in
Ebony and
Sepia magazines, and
The Los Angeles
Times,
The Herald Examiner, and
The Los Angeles Sentinel newspapers. He was one of several Black
photographers featured in the documentary,
The Legacy Continues:
Black Photographers.
His photographs have been exhibited at the Studio Museum in
Harlem, California African American Museum, the Black Gallery, and in the traveling exhibit,
"Light Catchers." Davis was an active community member who promoted photography. In 1984 he
joined the Black Photographers of California, a nonprofit and a photography collective that
exhibited at the Black Gallery in Crenshaw and often collaborated on projects and programs.
He was also a member of and a photographer for the People's Independent Church of Christ,
which was located at 1025 E. 18th St. and Paloma Avenue.
Davis also taught photography from 1957 to 1989 for the Los Angeles Unified School District
and local community colleges, and then again at the age of 76 at Inglewood's Morningside
High School. "I tell my students I would like them to become poets with their cameras."
He died in 2004.
The Jack Davis Photograph Collection primarily consists of images of individuals, social
and business groups' activities, and significant personal or social events of the
predominantly Black community of Los Angeles, particularly South Los Angeles, from the 1950s
to the 1980s, with bulk dates from the 1960s and the 1970s. Studio portraits, churches and
social clubs' activities, wedding photography, and the 1969 Watts Summer Festival are
prominently featured. The collection is largely composed of color negatives (predominantly
120mm and 35mm), small prints, and slides. Some negatives, particularly from the 1950s, were
discarded due to severe cracking from deterioration accelerated by previous poor storage
conditions.
The collection is arranged into four series:
Business, Social,
Religious, and Educational Groups
(1951-1989),
Events and
Places
(1952-1988),
People (1955-1989), and
Products, Non-Human Subjects, Working Papers, and Tests
(1950-1978).
Series I,
Business, Social, Religious, and Educational Groups,
consists of images of a variety of groups and organizations, both professional and social,
that include churches, clubs, companies, schools, and bands. Notable groups that were
Davis's frequent clients include the People's Independent Church of Christ, mortuaries such
as Ashley-Grisby and Conner-Johnson, the Boys Club, Manual Arts Adult and High School, and
fraternal organizations such as the Order of the Eastern Star. This series spans the years
from 1951 to 1989. It contains negatives, prints, slides, and ephemera.
Series II,
Events and Places, consists of images from a
variety of social, cultural, political, and professional events, and of images of places,
such as buildings and scenery from Davis's travels. Types of events include awards
ceremonies, banquets, funerals, performances, political rallies, festivals, and weddings.
Significant individuals photographed at events include the following: actors Napoleon
Whiting and Josephine Baker; the musicians Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, Ray Charles,
and Nat King Cole; the civil rights activists Reverend Maurice Dawkins, Martin Luther King,
Jr., and Malcolm X; and the politicians Ralph Leon, Mervyn Dymally, and Robert F. and John
F. Kennedy. The 1969 Watts Summer Festival and Davis's wedding photography are prominently
featured. This series spans the years from 1952 to 1988. It contains negatives, prints,
slides, and ephemera.
Series III,
People, consists of images of individuals,
including families and children, predominantly in the form of studio portraits. Images are
grouped alphabetically by the first initial of the last name, or the first name if no last
name is present. The personal names found in records may sometimes be the client and not the
subject photographed, and the client could be the employer, spouse, parent or another
relation to the subject. Significant individuals photographed in this series include the
actors Napoleon Whiting and Lillian Lehman, the politician Mervyn Dymally, and the activist
Reverend Maurice Dawkins. This series spans the years from 1955 to 1989. It contains
negatives, prints, slides, and ephemera.
Series IV,
Products, Non-Human Subjects, Working Papers, and
Tests,
is the smallest series and it consists of images of products, non-human
subjects such as clothing items, and photographic experimentation. It also consists of
Davis's studio working papers that include correspondence, pricing, and lists of clients.
This series spans the years from 1950 to 1978. It contains negatives, prints, slides,
ephemera, paper records, and realia.
Series and collection folders are arranged alphabetically by title.
Series I: Business, Social, Religious, and Educational Groups, 1951-1989
Series II: Events and Places, 1952-1988
Series III: People, 1955-1989
Series IV: Products, Non-Human Subjects, and Working Papers and Tests, 1950-1978
Of images and history : five African-American photographers in Los Angeles : an oral
history project
This collection is open for research use.
Copyright for unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of
this collection is in the public domain. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected
by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the
written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any
use rests exclusively with the user.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Jack Davis, 1999; Deborah Charles, 2008
For information about citing items in this collection, consult the appropriate style
manual, or see the
Citing Archival Materials guide.
Elizabeth Peattie, 2023
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographs