Barry Shapiro photograph archive
Finding aid created by Bancroft Library staff using RecordEXPRESS
UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library
2017
University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
510-642-6481
bancref@library.berkeley.edu
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Title: Barry Shapiro photograph archive
Dates: circa 1970-1999
Collection Number: BANC PIC 2016.003
Creator/Collector:
Shapiro, Barry
Extent: approximately 35,000 photographs (negatives, transparencies, slides, andphotographic prints)
Repository:
UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Abstract: Photographic archive of San Francisco Bay Area based freelance commercial photographer Barry Shapiro. Images include photographs
shot for documentary projects, magazine stories, commercial promotional work, and portraiture. Of note are his series on
"handmade houses"; portraits of men dressing in drag in the late 1970s; portraits of African Americans and street scenes in
San Francisco's Hunters Point neighborhood between 1972 and 1982, a series on twins, California skateboarding, and the Long
Beach Pike.
Language of Material: English
Portions of the collection are open for research.
Photographic prints for the series (subject areas or projects) listed in this preliminary guide are available for use, with
the exception of the large format exhibition prints (in B boxes), which require curatorial approval for use.
Some library material is stored off-site and advance notice may be necessary for use.
Consult the library’s catalog for updated details and restrictions.
Barry Shapiro's copyright has been assigned to The Bancroft Library.
In addition to copyright considerations, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California
gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction
of materials protected by copyright 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 owner. Responsibility
for any use rests exclusively with the user.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
Barry Shapiro photograph archive. UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library
Gift of the family of Barry Shapiro: Janet Lipkin, Michelle McKechnie, Noelle Stroyke, Max Shapiro, and Ruby Shapiro, 2015.
Biography/Administrative History
Barry Lee Shapiro (March 22, 1941-October 17, 2009) was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended California State University,
Long Beach (B.A., Education, 1964) and University of Southern California (M.S., 1969), and worked as a teacher and administrator
in a variety of schools, first in Southern California, then in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in special and alternative
education. He served as principal of MacGregor High School in Albany, California, an alternative school serving students who
had difficulties achieving their goals in traditional school settings, and as principal of Albany Adult School. Beginning
in the early 1970s, Shapiro also worked as a professional photographer, with his photographs appearing in several books on
home building and landscape gardening, in addition to his own books, Forbidden Fantasies (1980, with Mike Phillips), which
profiled transvestites in San Francisco, and A Dangerously Curious Eye (2010), which documented the African American community
of Hunter's Point, San Francisco and also featured work from his “Through the Window” series, shot from his car. Shapiro died
of cancer at age 69 in 2009.
Scope and Content of Collection
This preliminary guide (linked below as a "List of Contents" under "Additional Collection Guides") only describes the
photographic prints that have been made available as of October, 2016. These comprise all of the photographic prints for Barry
Shapiro’s highest-interest projects, considered his most historically significant work. Of special note is his Hunters Point
series documenting life in this African American neighborhood of San Francisco throughout the 1970s. Other prints available
record the Long Beach Pike, views taken through Shapiro's car window (chiefly on urban streets), photographs of "handmade
houses", a series of portraits of twins, cross-dressing men for his Forbidden Fantasies project, the Space Shuttle Challenger,
various portraits, and miscellaneous large format or mounted prints. Available prints are house in PIC boxes 1-6 and AX boxes
1-5. Available for use by appointment are LAN boxes 1-9: slides and other transparencies of images made for the handmade houses
series documenting modern craftsman homes of the 1970s, chiefly in California and Oregon, related to book projects with Art
Boericke (Handmade houses, The Craftsman builder, and Handmade homes).
The unarranged and unavailable bulk of the archive consists of negative files and 35mm color slides, as well as miscellaneous
photographic prints not part of the series described in this preliminary list. This material includes a large quantity of
studio portraiture, jobs related to human interest and other stories for popular magazines, voluminous stills shot during
the filming of The Third Walker in Nova Scotia, and additional slides related to some of the photographic print projects described
in this listing. Also among the unprocessed material are representative examples of Shapiro's commercial studio shoots of
various products, and some of his portraiture, nudes and erotica. A large quantity of his commercial work and nudes have not
been included in the archive.
African Americans -- California -- San Francisco
Skateboarding
Female impersonators
Transvestites
Amusement parks -- California -- Long Beach
Video arcades
Dwellings -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs
Self-reliant living -- Photographs
Architecture, Domestic -- 20th century -- Photographs
San Francisco (Calif.)
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)
Long Beach (Calif.)
Hunters Point (San Francisco, Calif.)
Photographs