Research Catalog

Title

Arnold Eagle dance photograph collection.

Author

Eagle, Arnold

Publication

1934-1965.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

• approximately 8,000 photographs in 24 boxes : prints and negatives, some color; 40 x 50 cm or smaller.
• approximately 3,000 contact prints in 3 scrapbooks : black and white
• 17.55 linear feet

Summary

The Arnold Eagle dance photograph collection consists of photographic prints, black and white negatives, color transparencies, and contact sheets documenting national and international dance companies from 1934 through 1965. The prints series consists of black and white prints of varying sizes, ranging from 8" x 10" to 16" x 20". The prints include New York City Ballet rehearsals, portraits and studio shots of the José Limón Dance company, and performances by the Dudley-Maslow-Bales Trio. Among the dozen companies represented, there is an emphasis on the Joffrey Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and the Royal Danish Ballet. The negatives and transparencies series include a variety of both black and white and color film including 120mm, 4" x 5" transparencies, large format 8" x 10" negatives, and 35mm. Three contact print scrapbooks included feature a selection of negatives printed from the Royal Danish Ballet. Many of these contact prints served as a pool from which Eagle selected to enlarge and were subsequently exhibited in New York City.

Subjects

• Maslow, Sophie, > depicted
• Teʼaṭron "ʻInbal" Photographs
• Kongelige Danske ballet Photographs
• Joffrey Ballet Photographs
• Ballet > Photographs
• Negatives (photographs)
• Merce Cunningham Dance Company Photographs
• Gray, Harriette Ann, > depicted
• Photographic prints
• Performing arts > Photographs
• New York City Ballet Photographs
• Transparencies
• José Limón Dance Company Photographs
• Photographers
• Modern dance > New York (State) > New York
• Bruhn, Erik, 1928-1986, > depicted
• Martha Graham Dance Company Photographs

Genre/Form

• Negatives (photographs).
• Transparencies.
• Photographic prints.

Source (note)

• Arnold Eagle;

Call Number

*MGZEB 18-2791

OCLC

1052124018

Author

Eagle, Arnold, photographer.

Title

Arnold Eagle dance photograph collection.

Production

1934-1965.

Type of Content

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

sheet

Biography

Arnold Eagle was a Hungarian born-American photographer and cinematographer. Born in Budapest in 1909, at age 20 he immigrated to the United States with his parents. While living in Brooklyn in the early 1930s, he learned photography, became a photo retoucher, and eventually acquired his own camera equipment in 1932. That same year he joined the Film and Photo League to promote radical social change. It was this critical membership that led to him becoming best known for his socially concerned documentary photographs of the 1930s and 1940s. Some of his most well-known social documentary photographs depict the Jewish community of the Lower East Side in New York City, the slum conditions of tenement buildings, and the elevated subway trains of the MTA. His documentaries on the rebuilding of cities, Pittsburgh, among them, are also among his most famous. Eagle's photography has been featured in magazines such as Life and Fortune. In addition to his documentary photography, he also had a long career photographing various dance companies both nationally and internationally. For over 30 years, he documented companies such as the Joffrey Ballet, the Sophie Maslow Dance Company, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Among his best-known bodies of dance photography are his photographs for the Martha Graham Dance Company, a decade long endeavor begun in 1944. However, his most notable body of dance work is the documentation of the Royal Danish Ballet. He was commissioned by the Danish government and Columbia Artists Management to photograph the contemporary activities of the Company. Eagle flew to Copenhagen with seven cameras, dozens of lenses, and hundreds of rolls of film to immerse himself in the life of the dancers. He photographed everything from the janitors of the Royal Theatre to the departure of the last dancer during rehearsal. In addition to his professional photography career, Eagle was a professor of photography at the New School of Social Research from 1955 until shortly before his death in 1992. He also at various times gave courses at New York University to which many of his colleagues came for advanced study.

Source

Gift; Arnold Eagle; 1988-1990.

Connect to:

Finding aid

Occupation

Photographers.

Research Call Number

*MGZEB 18-2791