Finding Aid for Photographic prints of dancers and dance companies, 1944-1961

• Descriptive Summary
• Biographical History
• Scope and Content Note
• Summary of Binder Contents
• Contents List

Source

Purchase. Roger Wood. Received: 1966-1967.

Access

The collection is open to research.

Restrictions on Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Library for the Performing Arts.

Preferred Citation

Photographic prints of dancers and dance companies 1944-1961, *MGZEB 95-5482, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Roger Wood, a British photographer, was born in Madras, India, 1920. Starting to photograph ballet in 1944, he soon became one of the best know dance photographers in Great Britain. He has published several books of dance photographs, including Katherine Dunham, her Dancers, Singers, Musicians (Richard Buckle, editor, 1949), The Sadler's Wells Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1951), and The Theatre Ballet of Sadler's Wells in photographs (1952). His interest later turned to archeology and photography and has published works on Egypt, Saudi Arabian antiquities, and Persia.

Collection includes studio, action, travel, informal and portrait prints of dancers, dance companies, theatrical productions, motion pictures, and ballet special events. Arranged in albums alphabetically, by dancer's surname or by dance company name. Each dance company's prints are further arranged alphabetically by dance title or dancer's name. The prints for each title are arranged as they appeared on the film roll, and may have been taken during more than one performance; therefore, does not necessarily reflect the choreographic sequence. Many of the prints are contact sheets and other proofs. Numbers on verso of each print correspond to the photographic negative numbers assigned by Roger Wood; see his register of negative numbers in Photographic negatives of dancers and dance companies, *MGZEN 95-5483, box 28. Some prints have handwritten instructions on recto and/or verso for cropping, lightening, darkening, masking, etc.