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About The Collection
Assembled over a period of eighty years at the Black Star photo agency in New York City, the photographs in the Black Star Collection describe the personalities, events and conflicts of the twentieth century.

In 2005, the historical Black Star Collection was gifted to Ryerson University by an anonymous donor. In receiving this gift, the university has been entrusted with preserving these photographs and making them accessible to the public through exhibition and publication.

The Black Star Collection at Ryerson University includes more than a quarter of a million photographs created by more than 6,000 different image-makers, many of them acknowledged as individuals who helped define picture journalism as it evolved throughout the twentieth century. Working collaboratively in New York City with the founders and editors of weekly magazines, including Life, Look and the Saturday Evening Post, these photographers established the norms of the published photo-essay.

When picture magazines decreased in number, and as clients shifted first to colour and then to digital imagery, the black and white component of the agency’s operations found itself in less commercial demand. At the same time, however, it was assuming increasing importance as a historical archive and visual record, and as a collection of unanticipated artistic significance.

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Images of History: The Black Star Agency
Based in New York City, the Black Star Agency is a photographic service with a remarkable place in history. Its photographers have played a major role in capturing the images that help define the 20th century. Its legacy of almost 300,000 black and white prints form the Black Star Collection at Ryerson University.

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