The majority of the images in the collection originated from his work for Look magazine during the 1960s. His major projects include images from Rendville, Ohio, a coal mining town and one of the first racially integrated towns in Appalachia; the Vietnam War; New York's Lower East Side; Oregon logging and the timber industry; and important individuals and events of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, including photographs of Martin Luther King, Jr. and activities of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. There may be racially mixed persons appearing in the Rendville and Lower East Side series. Other smaller projects include images of California, New Mexico, the Andrea Doria, and other subjects.
There are also supporting materials that include Karales' curriculum vitae; essays on photography and teaching; publicity for exhibits and other events; correspondence with publishers; digitized images from the Vietnam War on a CD; and clippings, magazine layouts, and other materials related to Karales' published work. An audiocassette contains remarks on Karales' life and works by Sam Stephenson at the opening of an exhibit of Karales' work at Duke University.
Formats in the collection include contact sheets; proof prints and finished prints ranging from 8 1/2 x 14 to 16 x 20 inches; original negatives (closed to research use); and over 1100 color slides. Unless otherwise noted, the photographic items are arranged in the following sequence in each series: contact sheets, prints (from smallest to largest), slides, negatives, and finally, duplicates. There are also digital jpeg files for selected images in certain series (Vietnam, Rendville).
James H. Karales was born in Canton, Ohio in 1930. In 1955, Karales graduated from Ohio University with BFA in photography. Upon graduation, he worked with W. Eugene Smith. Karales learned printing skills under Smith, while pursuing his own projects in Rendville and the Pacific Northwest. In 1960, he joined the staff at Look magazine, where he worked until it ceased publication in 1971, and where he took some of his most iconic pictures, documenting the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march, the Vietnam War, and the Lower East Side. Karales receieved numerous awards, such as the Overseas Press Club Award and the Picture of the Year. His photographs are housed in many collections, including the International Center of Photography, the High Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. He passed away in April 2002.
Originally processed and described by Rebecca Arnold, John Attaway III, Marlyse H. MacDonald, Paula Jeannet, and Daniel Ruccia, March-June 2007.
Additions processed and encoded by Willeke Sandler, February 2012.
Reprocessed and encoded by Joanne Fairhurst, Paula Jeannet, May-June 2013.
Accession(s) described in this finding aid: 2004-0037, 2006-0048, 2006-0051, 2006-0129, 2006-0130, 2007-0172, 2008-0301, 2009-0274, 2011-1035, and 2012-0023.
Most contact sheets and prints bear identifying codes for each image, which may include Karales' alpha-numberic job number, film roll number, and frame (image) number, in that order.
Whenever possible, Rubenstein staff have included these numbers with individual prints and negatives and within the collection's inventory to aid in matching and discovery of related items. In addition, staff have noted where film rolls are located within folders.
There are a few images that have no identifying numbers and could not otherwise be identified from contact sheets or negatives. Such captions appear in brackets.
In Copyright