Jaromir Stephany papers

Overview

Administrative/Biographical Note

March 23, 1930 Born in Rochester, New York. 1949 Works at the Eastman Kodak Company. 1951 Drafted into the U.S. Army and becomes an army photographer after only twelve weeks of training. He is stationed at Rhein-Main Air Force Base in Germany. 1954 Begins working at the George Eastman House as a gardener 1956 Receives a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). At RIT, Stephany studies photography and photographic illustration with Ralph Hattersly and Minor White. Stephany’s photographs are exhibited for the first time at Rochester Memorial Library and the George Eastman House. Marries Therese Faford. Studies with Ansel Adams at Yosemite. 1957 Stephany’s daughter, Mila, is born. 1959 Stephany’s photogram “flock of birds” is selected for the George Eastman House Tenth Anniversary exhibit, titled Photography at Midcentury. 1960 Letters, Dissonant Passacalia, and Lyrical Web are featured in Sense of Abstraction, an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. Earns Master of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University, where he studies cliché verre with Henry Holmes Smith. 1961 1966 Serves as co-lecturer at RIT and is on staff at the George Eastman House as a curatorial assistant. 1965 Stephany’s son, Douglas, is born. 1966 Stephany begins teaching photographic history and film at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland. 1967 Serves on the founding committee for the Baltimore Film Festival. 1967 1979 Stephany works on Landscapes of Outer Space, a collection of science fiction themed photographs influenced by cliché verre. Stephany creates Psychosis, a collection of photographs that branch away from Landscapes of Outer Space. They include human images and characteristics. 1968 Stephany is appointed Photography Department chair at MICA. 1968 1970 Reviews films for the Maryland State Board of Censors. Creates Graveyard World, a collection of photographs imagining post-industrial Earth. 1970 Introduces a sound system in MICA’s darkroom and encourages musical inspiration while developing images. Stephany uses music to create the “cosmic” quality of Landscapes of Outer Space. 1973 Leaves MICA and begins serving as Associate Professor of Photography at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where he establishes the Photography program. Under his guidance, UMBC’s Special Collections begins developing its Photography Collections. 1974 An exhibit at New York Foto Gallery titled Jaromir Stephany Sequences, featuring Psychosis and Landscapes of Outer Space, Revisited, earns national recognition after a review in the journal Popular Photography. 1975 A selection of Stephany’s work titled Landscapes of Outer Space—Cities of the Future is exhibited at UMBC’s Library Gallery. 1977 1978 Researches and creates The Developing Image, an eight-part television series, and publishes a corresponding book, The Developing Image. 1979 1980 The Equitable Trust Company Photographic Survey of Maryland commissions Stephany to document Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay. This work inspires A Poem of Baltimore and Radiant Bay—photographs featuring the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. 1980s 1990s Works on Messages to the Cosmos, another science fiction themed body of photographs. 1990 Messages to the Cosmos, an exhibit by Stephany, hangs at the Albin O. Kuhn Library at UMBC. 1999 Retires from UMBC but continues to teach a history of photography course and serves on the Council of the Friends of the Library and Gallery at UMBC. 2000s Returns to cliché verre, adding color to older negatives to create Beyond Black. Stephany created Singularity, Quark, and Dark Star with this technique. April 2010 A long-planned retrospective of Stephany’s photographs with an emphasis on cliché verre is exhibited in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery. The title of the show is Music of the Mind: Jaromir Stephany Photographs and Digital Images; an exhibition catalog is published in 2012. April 14, 2010 Dies in Severna Park, Maryland

Scope & Content

The Jaromir Stephany papers consist of 26 boxes of records, ranging in date from 1928 to 2010, with the bulk of the materials from 1951 to 2009. The papers relate to both Stephany’s professional and personal life. The records are divided into seven series: correspondence, subject files, education, personal papers, photographs, and audiovisual material. Series I consists of correspondence both to and from Stephany. Organized chronologically, this includes both personal and professional correspondence from 1951 to 2009. Series II, Subject files, includes records collected by Stephany relating to various subjects. Records include exhibition mailers, newspaper clippings, and periodicals. Other records relate to Stephany’s colleagues, various organizations, exhibits, and educational institutions. Series III includes records relating to education, specifically Stephany’s role as an educator. Records are divided into four sub-series: subject files (III.A); teaching materials (III.B); Developing Images (III.C); and proposals (III.D). The subject files include records that Stephany collected that generally relate to Stephany’s role as a teacher. Teaching materials include slides, lecture notes, and course documents relating to courses that Stephany taught. Records from The Developing Image sub-series include TV scripts and accompanying book chapters. The Developing Image was an educational documentary about the history of photography that Stephany created along with a companion study guide by the same name. Sub-series III.D includes proposals for academic courses and departments written by Stephany. Records relating to Stephany’s exhibitions can be found in Series IV. These records include writings about his exhibitions, and documents that pertain to exhibition planning and organization. Series V includes Stephany’s personal papers. Records in this series include Stephany’s personal writings, family papers, genealogical records, legal documents, and certificates. Documents in this series also relate to Stephany’s work in Signal Corp. Series VI includes personal photographs that are separate from Stephany’s professional work. Photographs are of his family, colleagues, and students. Photographs include images of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, taken by Jaromir Stephany. Series VII includes audio-visual material. This series is divided into three sub-series: CDs (VII.A); Reels (VII.B); and Video Cassettes (VII.C). These recording are of talks given by various photographers. Sub-series VII.A includes digital versions of most of the reels found in sub-series VII.B. Sub-series VII.C includes portions of Stephany’s documentary The Developing Image. Stephany’s photography can be found in the Photography Collections of the Special Collections.

The Jaromir Stephany papers have been divided into seven series: Series I. Correspondence Series II. Subject files Series III. Education Subject files Teaching materials The Developing Image Proposals Series IV. Exhibitions Series V. Personal papers Series VI. Personal photographs Series VII. Audiovisual CDs Reels Videocassettes

Provenance Information

Records were donated by Jaromir Stephany after his retirement from UMBC.

The Jaromir Stephany records were initially processed by Special Collections Technician Robin Martin in 2009 under the supervision of the Special Collections Archivist Lindsey Loeper. Jaromir Stephany provided some early guidance in the sorting of the papers. In Spring 2013, graduate students Dorothy Alexander and Johanna Schein finished processing the papers and wrote the finding aid. This collection was processed to the folder level. Folders were examined for sensitive and confidential items, which were removed. All items removed are noted in the original folders with a document removal form. Audio and visual records as well as oversized or physically compromised materials were transferred to appropriate storage. Stephany’s professional photographs are located in the Photography Collections of Special Collections.

Access & Use

No restrictions.

Reproductions allowed for research purposes. UMBC is the copyright owner; permission to reproduce is required.

Subject Headings

• Cliché-verre
• Stephany, Jaromir, 1930-2010 Archives
• Baltimore County (Md.)
• Photographers United States
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County Curricula
• Photography, Abstract

Series Description & Container List

Expand all | Collapse all

Series I. Correspondence

Series II. Subject files

Series III. Education

Sub-series III.A. Subject files

Sub-series III.B. Teaching materials

Sub-series III.C. The Developing Image

Sub-series III.D. Proposals

Series IV. Exhibitions

Series V. Personal Papers

Series VI. Personal photographs

Series VII. Audiovisual

Sub-series VII.A. CDs

Sub-series VII.B. Reels

Sub-series VII.C. Videocassettes

Oversized Boxes