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Collection

Balthazar Korab photograph collection, circa 1950-1997

1 linear foot

Architectural photographer based in Troy, Mich. Photoprints and copy negatives, chiefly a portfolio entitled "Man's Presence," a study of Michigan's manmade environment.

Representing but a tiny fraction of Korab's oeuvre, the collection held at the Bentley Library will nevertheless appeal to a broad range of researchers. Especially in a collective sense, Korab photographs are not only about architecture and architectural photography, but also about art, technology, modernism, photography's history, the environment, urbanism, ruralism, and the creative process itself. They also document one individual's spirited commitment to a life's work -- work expressed both analytically and emotionally.

The essence of the collection is a Korab portfolio entitled Man's Presence, a study of Michigan's man-made environment that drew him to dozens of towns, cities and rural areas in the upper and lower peninsulas. Photographs capture the quiet magnificence of silos and barns, the elegance of 19th century mansions, the utilitarian architecture of iron foundries and grain elevators. There are also pictures depicting ways man has wasted resources (an abandoned lumber mill, a barren tract of bulldozed land. A superb example of Korab's lifelong fascination with vernacular architecture, Man's Presence is a deliberate effort to capture on film Michigan worlds that otherwise might go unnoticed or become lost to future generations.

The collection is comprised of three series: Biographical Materials; Man's Presence Contact Sheets; and Man's Presence Copy Prints and Copy Negatives.

Folder

Man's Presence Contact Sheets

Man's Presence Contact Sheets (black and white prints of 4 x 5, 2 1/4 x 2 1/4, and 35 mm. negatives) include nineteen folios (ca. 800 contact sheets), some titled by city or area, such as Kalamazoo and Upper Peninsula, and others topically titled, such as Barns and Painted Barns. Researchers should note that Korab continues to hold the original negatives from which his studio printed the contact sheets, and his studio should be contacted regarding duplication. Accompanying Folio 4 is a copy of Legacy of the River Raisin: The historic buildings of Monroe County, Michigan and accompanying Folio 5 is Kalamazoo: Nineteenth-century Homes in a Midwestern Village. Many of the images in each folio appear in these publications.