The images in this collection were taken by photographer Ron Reis from the 1950s to 1979 and from 2004 to 2014. The earlier body of work contains 289 black-and-white photographs, accompanied by negatives and contact sheets, and consists of documentary images taken by Reis during the 1960s and 1970s, primarily in Connecticut, London, and New York City, with a smaller number from major European cities. The later body of work contains 3,719 laser inkjet prints of black-and-white and color documentary images taken by Reis in the 2000s, with a majority of images dated 2012 to 2013. Most of these images are of New York City street scenes.
An avid amateur street photographer influenced by Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt, and Louis Stettner, Reis focused his camera on street scenes in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East during the 1960s, then in the 2000s. Favorite locations chosen by Reis include London's Hyde Park Speakers' Corner, Portobello flea market, and Trafalgar Square; New York's Bryant Park, Greenwich Village, and Washington Square; and market scenes in Connecticut and Jerusalem. Other images portray anti-Vietnam War protests in Bryant Park, gay pride and ethnic festivals and parades, amusement parks, and other street scenes.
The collection is arranged in three series: Photographs, Negatives, and Manuscript and Print Materials.
The Photographs Series is divided into two chronological subseries: 1954-1979 and 2004-2014. The first subseries contains 289 11x14-inch gelatin silver prints, accompanied by negatives and contact sheets. These black-and-white images were taken by Reis during the 1960s and 1970s, primarily in Connecticut, London, and New York City, with a smaller number from Athens, Barcelona, Como, Dublin, Florence, Jerusalem, London, Rome, and Venice. In general, each 8x10-inch contact sheet is followed by selected prints from the same roll. The prints and contacts are organized chronologically.
The second subseries contains 3,719 inkjet prints, both black-and-white and color, the vast majority measuring 11x17 inches. The prints, taken between 2004 and 2014, consist mostly of New York City street scenes as well as photographs from Reis's trips to Canada, Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina. These photographs are described at the folder level, with folders containing up to 80 prints.
The Manuscript and Print Materials include an early curriculum vita, some correspondence, exhibition fliers, negative sleeves, articles, and photo essays.
The Negatives Series is arranged by year and month, and titles were taken from original notes on the negative envelopes. They overlap with the prints in the collection to some degree, but there are also negatives present for images that are not currently in the collection.
Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Ron (Ronald E.) Reis began taking photographs as a child with an Argus A2. He shot sports photography in junior high school with an Argus C-3 and an Ansco Reflex. He continued photographing sports, acquiring cameras, and developing his darkroom skills throughout high school. When he moved to Philadelphia in 1953 to attend the University of Pennsylvania, Reis turned his 35mm Leica from the sports fields to the streets.
Influenced by the work of Helen Levitt, Louis Stettner, and Cartier-Bresson, Reis became a passionate street photographer, honing his ability to compose and capture photographs on the fly. This decisive quality is reflected in his contacts sheets filled with single exposures. Reis primarily photographed in New York, Connecticut and Europe during the 1960s. The collection captures the look and feel of the 1960s, especially in the cities of New York City and London.
Reis's photographic work has been exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum, Dartmouth College, the A.T. Gallery in New Haven Connecticut, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the E. Leitz Gallery in New York, and the Image Gallery in New York. In addition, several of his prints were exhibited, as the only amateur photographer, in a Christmas show at the Witkin Gallery in New York City as well as in a one-man show at Parents Magazine Gallery in New York City. His work has been published in Camera 35, Leica Magazine, Popular Photography, and U.S. Camera. Permanent collections of his images reside at Duke University's Rubenstein Library, in the Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, Massachusetts), the Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut, and the British Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
Ronald Reis died in New York City in April 2014.
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