Burk Uzzle Photograph Collection, 1930s-2010s

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Summary

Creator:
Uzzle, Burk.
Abstract:

Contains a portion of the photographic archive of white photojournalist Burk Uzzle. Contents include, but are not limited to: Uzzle's Life magazine work from 1962 to 1968; Dunn, N.C., in 1962, with an emphasis on Uzzle's father, who was the city's manager at that time; Uzzle's hitchhiking trip across the United States in 1964; the period immediately after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, including King's funeral; the Woodstock music festival, 1969; refugee camps in Thailand and Cambodia, 1979 and 1980; Liverpool, 1967; Haiti, 1975; Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Fla., during the 1980s; Appalachia and the South, beginning in 2006 and including the African American community in Eastern United States in 2010s. Formats include negatives, 35mm slides, photographic prints, and contact sheets.

Extent:
100,000 items (40 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

North Carolina native Burk Uzzle (b. 1938) is a white photojournalist and professional photographer. His career began in North Carolina and expanded nationally and internationally. He was the youngest photographer hired by Life magazine. He was a member of the photography agency Magnum Photos from 1967 to 1983, and served as its president in 1979 and 1980. Late in his career he returned to North Carolina and continued his work as a photographer, both in his studio in Wilson, N.C., and on road trips. Uzzle has photographed subject matter relevant to North Carolina and the South, including Black residents living near his studio.

For more detailed biographical information on Burk Uzzle and to learn more about his career, see Burk Uzzle Website: Through Photography My Heart Sings What I Feel: About Burk Uzzle." WHAT I FEEL.

Scope and content:

Contains a portion of the photographic archive of white photojournalist Burk Uzzle. Contents include, but are not limited to: Uzzle's Life magazine work from 1962 to 1968; Dunn, N.C., in 1962, with an emphasis on Uzzle's father, who was the city's manager at that time; Uzzle's hitchhiking trip across the United States in 1964; the period immediately after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, including King's funeral; the Woodstock music festival, 1969; refugee camps in Thailand and Cambodia, 1979 and 1980; Liverpool, 1967; Haiti, 1975; Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Fla., during the 1980s; Appalachia and the South, beginning in 2006 and including the African American community in Eastern United States in 2010s. Additional materials are held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Formats include negatives, 35mm slides, photographic prints, and contact sheets.

Due to Burk Uzzle's contract work covering war zones and scenes of unrest, there are graphic images in this collection depicting war-zones, injuries, recovery progress, and nudity. Some images in this collection may depict scenes taken at funeral services for family, friends, and public figures including civil rights leader Martin Luther King and U.S. politician Robert F. Kennedy.

Acquisition information:

Received as a gift from the Kohler Foundation, Inc., in December 2021 (Acc. 20211207.6).

Processing information:

In 2017, we began using "white" as an ethnic and racial identity for individual and families, in addition to "Black," "African American," "Jewish," and other familiar identity terms that we have used for decades in collection descriptions. We use this identity term so that whiteness is no longer the presumed default of the people represented in our collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

Portions of this collection may not be available for immediate or same day access.

Photographic negatives and slides in this collection are not available for same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu. to discuss options for consulting this collection.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the University Libraries, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Burk Uzzle Photograph Collection #70116, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu