Photograph File of Close Up Magazine

This collection consists chiefly of promotional photographs and film stills created by motion picture studios for their films and actors, which the editors of Close Up used to illustrate the magazine. The photographs document both popular and avant-garde cinema, as well as the transition period from silent films to films with sound. The Universum Film AG motion picture studio in Germany distributed most of the photographs in the collection, while other photographs came from companies in the Soviet Union, United States, Great Britain, France, and Japan. Many of the photographs have layout notes on their versos by the editors related to their publication in Close Up. Ink stamps or affixed labels on the versos of many of the photographs identify the films and actors. Several photographs have autographs, most notably an inscription by Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) to Macpherson. A significant group of photographs documents Borderline (1930), an experimental silent film by Kenneth MacPherson and the POOL Group, which starred Paul Robeson (1898-1976) and explored intersections of racial values. Other large groups of photographs also document Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney (1927), directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1885-1967), and ¡Qué viva México!, directed by Eisenstein. A group of photographs unrelated to Close Up magazine documents the film, Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947), co-produced by Macpherson with its director, Hans Richter (1888-1976).

Each folder in the collection contains a single photographic print, except where two or more photographic prints are noted.