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Finding Aid to the Chauncey Hare Photograph Archive. bulk 1959-1982
BANC PIC 2000.012
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Chauncey Hare photograph archive.
Date (inclusive): bulk 1959-1982
Collection Number: BANC PIC 2000.012
Creator:
Hare, Chauncey, 1934-2019
Extent:
55 boxes and 1 carton (approximately 3020 photographic prints, 23,960 negatives, 4155 35mm slides, 132 audiotapes, 1 print,
1.2 linear feet of textural documentation)
203 digital objects (203 images)
Repository:
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in
English
Physical Location: Many Bancroft Library collections are stored off-site and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Access Information
Collection is open for research, with some materials requiring curatorial permission for access.
COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use
Most audio tapes are restricted due to fragility, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.
For current information on restrictions and the location of materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Restricted items accessible only by permission of the appropriate curator. Inquiries concerning these materials should be
submitted to The Bancroft Library via the Application for Access to Restricted Materials form.
Publication Rights and Conditions of Use
All rights to Chauncey Hare photographs are assigned to the Regents of the University of California for the benefit of The
Bancroft Library.
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.
All of Chauncey Hare’s original photographic prints and original negatives shall remain on the premises of The Bancroft Library
and may not be loaned out for exhibition or publication. Copies of photographs made from Chauncey Hare’s negatives may be
published or exhibited only with the express permission of The Bancroft Library and only when they contain either of the following
text sentences. If more than one of Chauncey Hare’s photographs is presented in the publication or exhibition, the text needs
to be displayed one time prominently, in each publication or exhibition in a way that clearly refers to all of Chauncey Hare’s
photographs.
For landscape photographs (1962 to 1966) the following text must accompany each publication or exhibition presentation of
one or more of Chauncey Hare’s photographs: "These photographs were (or "this photograph was") made by Chauncey Hare in the
evenings and on weekends as a relief from the interpersonal abuse he experienced on his engineering job; the skills he learned
making these pictures he later used to make social documents to protest and warn against the growing domination of working
people by multi-national corporations and their elite owners and managers."
For social situation photographs (1967 to 1985) the following text must accompany each publication or exhibition presentation
of one or more of Chauncey Hare’s photographs: "These photographs were (or 'this photograph was') made by Chauncey Hare to
protest and warn against the growing domination of working people by multi-national corporations and their elite owners and
managers."
[Identification of item], Chauncey Hare Photograph Archive., BANC PIC 2000.012, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
Digital reproductions of selected images are available.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Oakland (Calif.)
Landscapes -- California -- Pictorial works
Interiors -- United States
United Farm Workers of America
Office workers
Laborers
Interiors -- California
Working class -- United States -- Photographs
Landscape photographs
Portraits
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.)
Standard Oil Company
Richmond (Calif.)
Commuters
This collection is arranged into twenty-two series. Series 1-16 are photographic prints arranged roughly in chronological
order by themes identified by the photographer. Series 17 is Miscellaneous Chauncey Hare Photographs. Series 18 is Negatives.
Series 19 is Slides and Slideshows. Series 20 is Interviews, Conversations and Monologues. Series 21 is Documents and Collected
Material. Series 22 is Later Exhibition Prints, which are photographic prints created from original Chauncey Hare negatives,
and printed by another photographer. Digitized images from this collection follow at the end of the listing.
Chauncey Hare Life Chronology (provided by the photographer)
| 1934 | Born Niagara Falls, New York where father worked for Electrochemicals Department of DuPont (Chemical) Company. Lived on 87th Street until 1940. Then moved to a new house on Champlain Avenue, Cayuga Island. |
| 1942 | Moved to Wilmington, Delaware, North Road Lindamere, then three months later to 127 Kimball Avenue, Richland, Washington where father, Ross Hare, was chief engineer at the plutonium separation plant at Hanford during the second world war. Attended Sacajawea grade school. |
| 1945 | Moved to Wilmington, Delaware, 100 North Road Lindamere from Richland, Washington. Attended Mount Pleasant school. |
| 1947 | Moved to Niagara Falls, New York, 621 Vanderbilt Avenue, where father became plant manager of the Niagara Falls DuPont plant until the mid 1950s when he was transferred back to Wilmington and then retired as a controversial figure. |
| 1947-1951 | Attended and graduated from DeVeaux private Episcopalian military school. |
| 1951-1952 | Attended Virginia Military Institute (VMI) freshman ("Rat") year. |
| 1952-1956 | Transferred with full credits from VMI to Columbia University. Attended and graduated from Columbia College in 1955, and Columbia Engineering School in Chemical Engineering in 1956. |
| 1956 | Married Gertrude Lang; traveled via freighter from Montreal to Bordeaux. Spent three months in Austria (visiting Gertrude’s relatives). Started employment Richmond, California with Standard Oil Company of California (now Chevron) September 1956. |
| 1956-1962 | Lived with Gertrude in apartment 1209-B University, Berkeley, CA (apartment still stands as of this writing). 1960 bought a Tokyo Optical Topcon single lens reflex camera. Built a small darkroom in a closet in the apartment. Prior to 1960 used a Kodak Bantam 828 (8 exposure) camera that belonged to my father. Used this camera sparingly during 1956 trip to Europe and early in 1962 when worked at Fort Madison, Iowa on Ammonia plant startup for Chevron in Spring and early Summer of that year. |
| 1962 | With Gertrude, bought house at 287 Kenyon Avenue Kensington, North Berkeley, California. Turned entire lower level or basement into a darkroom. Bought first view camera, a Burke and James 5 x 7 view, by mail order from Burke and James in Chicago. Designed and had built by cabinetmaker a horizontal enlarger without the help of Adolph Gasser, who refused assistance. Began photographing landscapes with view camera and printing using the horizontal enlarger. Had never used an enlarger prior to the self-designed horizontal model. |
| 1965 | Hills of California show of landscape photographs at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art working with John Humphrey. |
| 1966 | Utah and the Four Corners show of landscape photographs at the M.H. DeYoung museum in San Francisco. Made these photographs during two vacation trips (vacations from Chevron of two to three weeks) to the Four Corners. |
| 1967 | Bought an M-2 Leica and a Plaubel Makina 6 x 9 cameras. Used these cameras in Mississippi for about four months during an Ammonia plant startup for Chevron in summer of that year. |
| 1968 | Photographed Orville W. England (person on cover of book Interior America) in his home March 23, 1968. This was the beginning of what was to be the Interior America series. Some of these photos were sent to John Szarkowski who gave these words, "you are on to something" that was the beginning of his support for me to receive Guggenheim fellowships. Applied in October for a Guggenheim Fellowship. |
| 1969 | April advised of winning the Fellowship for photographing California interior environments. August 1 began the Fellowship to photograph interiors in California. |
| 1970 | Show of Interior America photographs at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. |
| 1971 | Received second Guggenheim Fellowship. This one for photographing Ohio Valley Interior environments. |
| 1972 | First National Endowment Fellowship for photography of BART riders, businesses, state and county fairs, and home environments. |
| 1975 | Second National Endowment Fellowship for photography of people in carousel room at Playland, BART riders, and home and business environments. |
| 1977 | Received third Guggenheim Fellowship. This one for photographing business environments, Chevron, Social Security Administration and Silicon Valley companies. |
| 1977 | One-person show at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Publication of Interior America by Aperture. Left employment at Standard Oil Company of California (Chevron). |
| 1980 | Began employment at the US Environmental Protection Agency three days per week as an environmental engineer. |
| 1981 | Third National Endowment Fellowship for photographing business environments. |
| 1983-1986 | Attended Pepperdine Business school external degree program in organizational development. Received a Masters degree in Organization Development in 1986. |
| 1984 | Book This Was Corporate America published by the Boston Institute for Contemporary Arts. |
| 1985 | Stopped making photographs (for reasons explained in transcribed interviews). |
| 1987 | Fired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for "undermining the authority of the agency" because of attempts to bring collaboration to the workplace as learned at Pepperdine. US EPA retracted the termination if I would consent to resign when accepting a small payment from them. This was accepted and I resigned. |
| 1987 | Earned a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology from Sierra University’s external degree program. Began counseling people on work abuse issues. Masters thesis was the initial conceptualization of a book on counseling working people on work abuse issues. |
| 1989 | Married Judith Wyatt. |
| 1990 | With Judith Wyatt began research and writing of the book, Work Abuse: How to Recognize and Survive It. |
| 1992 | Passed examinations for a Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling license from State of California. |
| 1997 | Published with Judith Wyatt the book, Work Abuse: How to Recognize and Survive It. Chapter 5 of this book gives a vignette of "Charles" which is Hare’s actual experience as a collaborative group leader at Chevron ("Vyrol Company" in the vignette). Continued counseling working people who had been scapegoated or otherwise work-abused. |
| 2000 | Donated all photographs, prints and negatives, to The Bancroft Library. |
| 2019 | Chauncey Hare died on May 12, 2019. |
Scope and Content of Collection
The Chauncey Hare photograph archive comprises photographic documentation of ordinary people in their homes and in the work
environment, as well as urban and rural landscapes in California and various areas in the United States. Areas of concentration
are the San Francisco Bay area in California; the Rust Belt area of the U.S. including Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia;
the southern states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana; and the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado.
Almost all of the collection is black and white photographic prints and film negatives.
The bulk of Hare's early photographs are landscapes. His middle work is chiefly of home interiors with and without people.
His later projects, which are in the form of photographs, slideshows and interviews, document people in the work environment,
and riding on public transportation (BART). The archive includes Hare's work undertaken with support from three Guggenheim
fellowships and three National Endowment fellowships between 1969 and 1981.
Of note for the historical documentation they provide are scenes in downtown Oakland (including the Housewives Market and
the Doggie Diner); African American street life in Oakland and Richmond, California; a disability rights demonstration in
San Francisco for accessible buses (35mm negatives, 1977-1978); United Farm Workers offices; people in single-room-occupancy
hotels; and run down or abandoned buildings both urban and rural (from ghost towns in California, to warehouses in Richmond,
Virginia). Many of these subjects are only available as film negatives.
The great majority of material in the archive dates from 1959-1982, the years Hare was actively making photographs. A collected
image dates as early as 1911, and Hare's student yearbooks date to the 1950s. Some documentary material and later prints from
Hare's negatives were made as late as 2010.
Chauncey Hare "refused to donate his work permanently to any art museum for the same reason that he had never sold a print.
As a matter of personal values, Chauncey protested use of his photos other than for historical research purposes. No photograph
was to be sold as a collectable art object to any individual or museum. He did not let his photographs be exhibited as art
outside the context of the lives of the people they portrayed." (Written by Judy Wyatt, quoted from page 9 in Chauncey Hare's
book, Protest Photographs.)