Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -

Sale 2697 - Lot 323

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Collection of work by Black Chicago photographer Dion Stams. 80 photographs, most approximately 8 x 10 inches and 4 of them in smaller formats; most with the photographer's inked stamps on verso, a few with inked catalog or date stamps, caption labels or manuscript captions; condition generally strong. 2 have been professionally matted; one has been retouched and mounted on board. Chicago and elsewhere, 1949-1952 and undated
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Additional Details

Dion Alton Stams (1908-1998) spent his early years in Memphis, came to Chicago in the late 1930s, was active as a professional photographer from at least 1948 onward, and moved to Westdale, NY in the 1970s. He was also a collector, gathering what he dubbed the International Black Heritage Collection.

The work shown here includes artfully staged glamour portraits (one naming Ollye Marr Coffin of Chicago as the sitter) and women's groups; a vocal and piano recital; a young mother lying in state at a funeral; a young couple receiving presents at their 5th anniversary party; a man carving a swan from a block of ice; and other similar scenes. A few shots are commercial real estate photography, apparently documenting inspections; one caption from 1952 notes a missing guard rail. Two show soldiers admiring a display on Chicago Defender publisher Robert S. Abbott. While we suppose that the great majority of these photographs depict the Chicago area, one shows a Mrs. Hannah Coker of Freetown, Sierra Leone; and another is a view of Niagara Falls.

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