Aipad 2017

The archive is pleased to be showing a collection of 144 unique vintage contact prints with The Photographers’ Gallery at this year’s AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) photography fair in New York.

The Archive holds a number of these miniature prints from the 1960s – small photographs made by laying the negative directly onto the surface of the light sensitive paper. Photographers often printed contact sheets in haste as they were only ever intended as a quick form of reference. Donovan was relatively unusual in that he took great care printing his contact sheets, ensuring they were correctly exposed and thoroughly processed. These small, original contact prints of single frames were kept with his negatives and remained in the archive.

Donovan meticulously reviewed his contact sheets, indicating his selected frames by piercing them with a pen or marking them with a chinagraph pencil. He discarded the contact prints of the frames he didn’t want used, keeping only those that he felt good enough to print or publish. Some frames bear crop marks, print instructions or layout directions.

The frame was compiled for ‘Terence Donovan: Speed of Light’, our retrospective exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery in 2016. Amongst the 144 prints are portraits of Norman Parkinson, Grace Coddington, Jean Shrimpton, Peter Sellers, David Bailey and Vidal Sassoon. The frame can be seen on The Photographers’ Gallery stand (booth 801).

Further information about The Photographers’ Gallery can be found here.

Read more about the fair here.