Maxie Floyd Photograph Collection, 1931-2019

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Summary

Creators:
Floyd, Maxie Lee, Jr. (1934-2019)
Abstract:
The Maxie Floyd Photograph Collection consists of visual documentation of jazz and festivals, track and field, Los Angeles street visuals and houses, Black photography and art, personal travels and interests, social activities, and Floyd's professional career. The majority of images were created in California. Maxie Floyd was a self-taught Black photographer who pursued photography both recreationally and professionally to capture his many interests and to partner with other members in the Black Photographers of California and the Jazz Photographers Association. His work has been exhibited at several venues and art spaces in California as well as featured in publications. Materials include prints, negatives, slides, transparencies, clippings, ephemera, Super 8 film, and videocassettes. Dates range from the 1930s to the 2010s, with bulk dates spanning the 1970s to the 2000s.
Extent:
35.62 linear feet and 6.25 Gigabytes
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual, or see the Citing Archival Materialsguide.

Background

Scope and content:

The Maxie Floyd Photograph Collection consists of visual documentation of jazz and festivals, track and field, Los Angeles street visuals and houses, Black photography and art, personal travels and interests, social activities, and Floyd's professional career in the alcohol distribution industry and the California Lottery. The majority of images were created in California. The collection's strengths are images of jazz festival performances, commercial and artistic visuals (especially murals) on buildings and other structures as well as residential architecture in Los Angeles, and personal travels. The Monterey Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival, Mt. SAC Relays, and Black Gallery are prominently featured. The collection lacks original description (such as people's names and dates) for most images, especially prints and negatives.

Maxie Floyd was a self-taught Black photographer who pursued photography recreationally and professionally to capture his many interests and to partner with several other photographers involved in the Black Photographers of California and Jazz Photographers Association. His work has been exhibited at several venues and art spaces in California as well as featured in publications. Materials include prints, negatives, slides, transparencies, clippings, ephemera, Super 8 film, and videocassettes. A majority of prints and clippings were originally stored in albums, and have been transferred to folders. Dates present on materials, especially slides, may not be actual dates of creation, since some slide frames were likely reused. Dates range from the 1930s to the 2010s, with bulk dates spanning the 1970s to the 2000s. The collection is arranged into five series: Architecture, Los Angeles, and Travels (1958-2019), Black Photographers of California and Art (1984-2012), Jazz and Festivals (1963-2015), Personal and Professional (1931-2019), and Track and Field and Other Sports (1958-2012).

Series I, Architecture, Los Angeles, and Travel, includes prints, slides, negatives, and Super 8 film. It documents Floyd's personal travels, predominantly within California and internationally; architecture, mostly houses, in the Victorian and Craftsman styles; and Los Angeles, especially murals, buildings, and ads on walls found within or near the city.

Series II, Black Photographers of California and Art, includes prints, negatives, ephemera, and clippings. Subjects include the Black Photographers of California (BPC) and other Black photographers not associated with the collective, Black Gallery exhibits and programming, other exhibits and exhibit spaces mostly in Los Angeles, and art. Beginning in 1984, the BPC was a non-profit educational institution and a photography collective dedicated to promoting, presenting, and preserving the photography of established and emerging photographers of color. The Black Gallery is where the BPC held most of their activities, since the gallery's directors were BPC members. The gallery opened in 1984 and closed around 2001. Its address was 107 Santa Barbara Plaza in the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Series III, Jazz and Festivals, includes prints, negatives, transparencies, slides, programs, event ephemera, clippings, press releases, assignment records, and a videocassette. Jazz festivals prominently featured include the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival. It documents members and gatherings of the Jazz Photographers Association, which Floyd co-founded, as well as jazz photography exhibits Floyd participated in. Significant jazz musicians photographed at events or in performance include Gerald Wilson, Lionel Hampton, Nancy Wilson, and Patrice Rushen.

Series IV, Personal and Professional, includes prints, negatives, slides, clippings, and ephemera. Personal materials focus on Floyd's personal life, such as family, partners, friends, and social groups, and documentation of his primary and secondary education as well as his time in service for the United States Army. Professional materials focus on Floyd's non-photography career. Floyd worked in the alcohol distribution industry and was associated with Hucksters International, Milford Company, and Associated Brewers Company. It also includes his last job pre-retirement with the California State Lottery.

Series V, Track and Field and Other Sports, includes prints, negatives, slides, clippings, and a videocassette. It documents men's and women's track and field events at the high school, college, and professional levels, as well as other sports such as men's and women's basketball and men's football. The annual Mt. SAC Relays held at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California are prominently featured. It also contains images of members and gatherings of the L.A. Track Nuts, a track and field advocacy group Floyd co-founded. Significant athletes documented include Carl Lewis and Florence Griffith Joyner.

Series and folders are arranged alphabetically.

Biographical / historical:

Maxie Lee Floyd, Jr. was born on January 12, 1934, in Temple, Texas to Bernice D. Floyd and Maxie L. Floyd. His family relocated to Los Angeles, where he attended 36th St. Elementary, Foshay Junior High, and Francis Polytechnic High School. During that time, he developed a strong interest in football and track and field. After finishing high school, he attended Los Angeles City College and the University of Southern California. He was Vice President of an interracial group of young men called the Sparksmen. Floyd served in the United States Army as military police in Fort Lewis, Washington. He was a salesman for the National Distribution Company, Milford Company, and the American Tobacco Company. He was president of Hucksters International, an association of liquor salesmen. Later in life, he worked at California State Lottery.

Floyd was a self-taught Black photographer whose photography career spanned over four decades. Floyd's work has been exhibited at the Black Gallery, California State University Northridge, UCLA, Duke Ellington's Centennial Celebration, California African American Museum, Museum of African American Art, William Grant Still Center, Mt. San Antonio College, the Queen Mary, Los Angeles Jazz Society, and the art venues of the Monterey Jazz Festival. Floyd's philosophy on photography was something he compared to the lone athlete running a race—one race at a time, one photograph at a time, with some improvisation. He photographed, among others, international jazz luminaries Bo Diddley, Chuck Mangione, Flora Purim, Nancy Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Michel Petrucianni, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Miles Davis, Gerald Wilson, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, Lionel Hampton, and Chick Corea.

Floyd was a founding member and vice-president of the Jazz Photographers Association of Southern California. He received the Los Angeles Jazz Society Annual Tribute Award for his photographic work. Alongside his friend and fellow photographer Roland Charles, he was assistant director of the Black Gallery and member of the Black Photographers of California. He was also a founding member of the L.A. Track Nuts, a track and field advocacy group. He married Gina Davis (Jeanna Limyou), who was previously married to baseball player Willie Davis. Floyd died in 2019.

Acquisition information:
Maxie Floyd, 2017; Gina D. Floyd, 2019
Processing information:

Elizabeth Peattie, 2024

Arrangement:

Series I: Architecture, Los Angeles, and Travels, 1958-2019

Series II: Black Photographers of California and Art, 1984-2012

Series III: Jazz and Festivals, 1963-2015

Series IV: Personal and Professional, 1931-2019

Series V: Track and Field and Other Sports, 1958-2012

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use.

Terms of access:

Copyright for unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection has been transferred to California State University, Northridge. Copyright status for other materials is unknown. 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.

Preferred citation:

For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual, or see the Citing Archival Materialsguide.

Location of this collection:
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330, US
Contact:
(818) 677-4594
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