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Gerdes (Ingeborg) Photographs and Papers
MS.387
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Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Ingeborg Gerdes Photographs and Papers
Identifier/Call Number: MS.387
Physical Description:
169.7 Linear Feet
165 boxes
Physical Description:
226 GB
(6194 digital files)
Date (inclusive): 1960-2021
Date (bulk): 1970-2007
Abstract: This collection contains photographic
works produced by Ingeborg Gerdes as well as professional materials supporting her
photographic work, materials relating to her teaching career, and some correspondence.
Formats include exhibition and work prints, negatives, slides, contact sheets, exhibition
posters and flyers, press clippings, digital photographs, digital scans of photographic
film, and some PDF and Apple pages digital files. Topics include Early Travel, Out West,
Japan 1979, SF in the 1970s, Germany 1990s, and Autobiography.
Language of Material:
English .
Collection open for research. Digital files are available in the UCSC Special Collections
and Archives reading room. Some files may require reformatting before they can be accessed.
Technical limitations may hinder the Library's ability to provide access to some digital
files. Access to digital files on original carriers is prohibited; users must request to
view access copies. Contact Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access to
digital files.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the Ingeborg Gerdes Trust.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
Ingeborg Gerdes photographs and papers. MS 387. Special Collections and Archives,
University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Ingeborg L. Gerdes Trust, 2021; Hartmut Gerdes, 2023.
Photographs of immediate family members were removed from the collection before acquisition
by Gerdes and Owen Gump, manager of the Ingeborg Gerdes Trust.
Ingeborg Gerdes (1938-2020) was a German-American photographer. Born and raised in Germany,
Gerdes immigrated to the United States in 1965, first to Philadelphia, then to San
Francisco, where she received her Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute
(SFAI) in 1970. Gerdes had a particular artistic interest in documenting the American West,
and also photographed her many travels through Europe, Mexico, and Asia. She received two
National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, participated in two photography survey grants,
and exhibited her work in numerous individual and group exhibitions, both in the United
States and abroad. For over two decades, Gerdes taught photography in several California
institutions including UC Santa Cruz.
Ingeborg Gerdes (maiden name: Klein) was born on July 20, 1938 in Merseburg, Germany. She
began her studies in economics at the University of Frankfurt, then Tübingen, then the
University of Heidelberg where she received her degree in 1963. In 1965 her first husband,
Hartmut Gerdes, received a grant to study architecture in Philadelphia and Ingeborg
accompanied him. It was during this time that she took up photography as a hobby and taught
herself the fundamentals of the medium. In 1968, the two relocated to San Francisco and
separated shortly after.
Gerdes earned her MFA in Photography studies at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) in
1970. With fellow student Dennis Hearne, Gerdes oversaw the darkroom at SFAI and taught
darkroom processes to numerous students. Hearne and Gerdes traveled to Europe together in
1972 and again in 1975, where Gerdes began her "Early Travels" series of photographs.
After her time at SFAI, Gerdes began work as an independent photographer, pursuing both
commercial and fine art projects. Her photographs were shown at the 1975 exhibition "Woman
Photographers: A Historical Survey" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art alongside the
work of Imogen Cunningham and Diane Arbus. Gerdes exhibited again at the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art in 1979, and received individual grants from the National Endowment for
the Arts in 1975 and 1977.
Gerdes participated in two photographic survey projects supported by the National Endowment
for the Arts, the first commissioned by the California Historical Society to document Baja
California in 1979-1980, and the second by the Seattle Arts Commission to document Eastern
Washington in 1980. Photographs from the Washington project were acquired by the Smithsonian
Museum of American History, and the California Historical Society received numerous images
from the Baja project.
Gerdes held numerous teaching positions from the 1970s to the 2000s at San Francisco Art
Institute, Stanford University, UC Santa Cruz, and Cabrillo College.
Ingeborg Gerdes passed away on June 20, 2020 at the age of 81 in Emeryville,
California.
This collection contains photographic works produced by Ingeborg Gerdes as well as
professional materials supporting her photographic work, materials relating to her teaching
career, and some correspondence. Formats include exhibition and work prints, negatives,
slides, contact sheets, exhibition posters and flyers, press clippings, digital photographs,
digital scans of photographic film, and some PDF and Apple pages digital files. Topics
include Early Travel, Out West, Japan 1979, SF in the 1970s, Germany 1990s, and
Autobiography.
This collection is arranged into 8 series by format of material, following the original
arrangement by Gerdes:
- Series 1: Exhibition prints
- Series 2: Negatives
- Series 3: Work prints
- Series 4: Slides
- Series 5: Contact sheets
- Series 6: Combined negatives and contact sheets
- Series 7: Papers
- Series 8: Digital files
This collection was processed by Yulia Gilich and Alix Norton in the Center for Archival
Research and Training (CART), 2022. Arrangement and description prior to UC Santa Cruz's
acquisition of the collection in 2021 completed by Owen Gump, manager of the Ingeborg Gerdes
Trust, and Takako Matoba, Gerdes's personal archivist.
Titles are original to the artist. Scope and Contents notes for each item may include
original description by Gerdes, Matoba, or additional description or context from Gump.
Physical description notes at component levels include number of images, dimensions, tone,
type of print, color or black and white, and whether the image is signed by the artist. If a
physical description applies to multiple images, it is listed at the aggregate level for
those images. Numbers of items is denoted by "x" at the beginning of the description, e.g.
2x means 2 items in that component. Common abbreviations include BW = black and white, GSP =
gelatin silver print, RC = resin coated.
Digital materials were processed by Alix Norton in 2022-2023. Digital files were
transferred from one external hard drive in June 2022 via logical copy. Digital photograph
files in RAW format, Adobe Lightroom files, and materials marked as restricted by the Gerdes
Trust on the hard drive were not transferred. Scanned film photographs were not transferred
if they were identified by the Trust as being well represented in the Exhibition Prints
series.
Color slides of photographs taken by Gerdes during filming of the movie
Luminous
Procuress
in 1970 are located at the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley,
California.
Publications about Gerdes and her work were cataloged separately and can be found in UCSC
Library Search.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Landscape photography -- West
(U.S.)
Photography, Artistic
Mexico -- Photographs
San Francisco (Calif.) --
Photographs
Japan -- Photographs
Photography -- Study and teaching
Photographs
Slides (photographs)
Faculty papers