Ron Church Photographs, circa 1957-1972 (SMC 93)

OFF-SITE STORAGE: COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW TWO TO THREE (2-3) WEEKS FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.

Extent: 3 Linear feet (1 archives box and 3 flat boxes)

A small sampling of prints by the photographer Ron Church, including images of marine life, marine plants, divers with cameras, submersibles, sea birds, airplanes, and sportsmen like spear fishermen and surfers. The prints had been on long-term display in an exhibit at the Scripps Aquarium in the 1970s before acquisition by the library, and are in poor to fair condition.

Ron Church (1934-1973) was born in Denver, moved to Los Angeles with his family at age 11, and briefly studied photography at the Art Center School of Design in Pasadena after high school. He became a pioneering surf and diving photographer based in San Diego, California, best known for his black and white shots of Southern California and Hawaiian surf scenes in the early 1960s. Church was an award winning underwater photographer, free diver, spear fisherman, surfer, surf photojournalist, jet photographer, and the first American on the Jacque Cousteau team as a photographer. (This first paragraph of biographical summary was adapted and abridged from the webpage of the Galerie Catherine & André Hug.)

Ron Church did some underwater photography and diving with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, including operations at Wake Island, Canton Island and Johnston Island with James Ronald Stewart, the SIO diving officer, in the 1960s. Church was in the water with Stewart on March 8, 1961 off Wake Island when a six-foot gray reef shark attacked Stewart, biting him twice in the arm at the elbow. Church protected Stewart from the shark and pulled him out of the water.

Prints in this collection are not representative of Church's popular and collectable images of surf culture and Southern Californians. These images had been on display at the SIO Aquarium Museum in the 1970s, pre-dating establishment of the SIO Archives. They cover a range of topics, but mostly document sea life and diving. Many of the images are faded or glued to poor-quality mat board.

This small collection of photographic prints by Ron Church includes images of marine life, marine plants, divers with cameras, submersibles, sea birds, airplanes, and sportsmen like spear fishermen and surfers. The prints had been on long-term display in an exhibit at the Scripps Aquarium in the 1970s before acquisition by the Library, and are in poor to fair condition, many glued to mat board or mounted on foam board. Most of the prints are oversize, with the exception of some material in box 4.

Prints in this collection are not representative of Church's popular and collectable images of Southern Californian and Hawaiian surf culture.

Arranged in three series: 1) SUBJECTS, 2) PEOPLE, and 3) MARINE LIFE.

Container List

SUBJECTS

Box 1 Folder 1
Westinghouse Deepstar 4000 (Minisub lifted from sea by crane onto Search Tide platform), 1965-1973
Box 1 Folder 2
Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Calypso crew - Diving saucers, submersibles, ca. 1965
Box 1 Folder 3
Rescue helicopter, ca. 1965
Box 1 Folder 4
Sailboat at sunset, ca. 1965
Box 1 Folder 5
US Air Force jets, ca. 1965
Box 1 Folder 6
US Air Force photographer in high-altitude gear and equipment, ca. 1965

PEOPLE

Box 4 Folder 1
Ron Church portrait
Box 2 Folder 1
Joyce Church - Diving
Box 2 Folder 2
Joyce Church - Diving with otter, turtle
Box 2 Folder 3
Surfers, ca. 1965

Includes high-contrast image of surfer Ricky Grigg.

Box 2 Folder 4
Divers with black coral
Box 2 Folder 5
Diver portraits - Underwater miscellaneous
Box 2 Folder 6
Diver portraits - Underwater with cameras
Box 2 Folder 7
Spear fishermen, with catch

MARINE LIFE

Box 3 Folder 1
Gulls and sandpipers

Includes high contrast images.

Box 3 Folder 2
Whales and dolphins

Baby gray whale in a tank at Sea World; orca being fed fish by hand; dolphins.

Box 3 Folder 3
Sharks
Box 3 Folder 4
Seals

Harbor seal "The Diver's Pal", Coronado Islands, Mexico; seal off of Argentina, nipping fin.

Box 3 Folder 5
Elephant seal
Box 3 Folder 6
Moray eel
Box 3 Folder 7
Jellyfish; schools of fish; shrimp
Box 3 Folder 8
"Hungry Polyps" coral, 1968
Box 3 Folder 9
Barracuda school, Cabo San Lucas, 1970
Box 4 Folder 2-9
Fish and flora

Unidentified fish, pork fish, sheepshead, angel fish, squiri fish, hammerhead shark ("Gulp"), black tip shark, coral reefs, shells on shore.

Box 4 Folder 10
Sea lions, Isla Encantada, 1957