Sam Adams Photograph Collection

Collection

Identifier: PAAC-0108

Scope and Contents

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This collection contains the photographs of Sam Adams, a Santa Fe-based amateur photographer who produced art photographs of a variety of subjects, primarily between 1990 and 2012; a small set of material (photographs taken by Adams as a young man in Italy in 1957) lies outside this date range. The collection consists primarily of 35mm black-and-white negatives, contact sheets, and 11 x 14-inch selenium-toned gelatin silver prints, as well as a smaller number of 8 x 10-inch and 6 x 9-inch prints.

A significant portion of the photographs in this collection depict life in New Mexico and include images taken in Santa Fe; Albuquerque; and small towns, villages, and Native American reservations (including Roswell, Springer, Wagon Mound, Doña Ana, Chimayo, Española, Ruidoso Downs, and the Navajo Nation, among others). Many of these photographs depict local and regional events and activities, including a matanza; church dedication ceremonies; Memorial Day celebrations; a pilgrimage to Santuario de Chimayo; Bean Day; the New Mexico State Fair; rodeos; and numerous restoration projects of historic churches and buildings in small communities and Native American pueblos. A substantial number of photographs in this collection document the lives and activities of marginalized people throughout the state, including senior citizens, people with physical and intellectual disabilities, and incarcerated individuals.

The collection also contains photographs taken in other areas of the United States (including Colorado; Las Vegas, Nevada; California; New York City; Washington, D.C.; Miami, Florida; and the American South) as well as Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Adams’ work includes numerous city and street scenes, as well as images of truck stops, airports, hospitals, and surgical procedures; Adams was also particularly interested in musical and theatrical artists and performances, most notably Pro Musica concerts in Santa Fe, community theaters, dance companies, and street theater. This collection also contains portrait photographs of identified and unidentified individuals, mostly New Mexico locals and friends of Adams and his wife Kathleen McIntosh; a small quantity of images of rural scenes, landscapes, and plants; and a significant number of miscellaneous and unidentified photographs.

Dates

Creation: 1957-2012
Creation: Majority of material found within circa 1990-2012

Creator

Adams, Sam, 1927-2022 (Person)

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to researchers on an appointment basis. Contact the Photo Archivist to request to view original material.

Copy Restrictions

User responsible for all copyright compliance. Permission to publish must be obtained from Photo Archives. Form to request permission available at: https://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/collections/photo-archives/order-photos

Biographical Information

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Sam Adams was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1927. After living in various cities throughout the United States, Adams’ family settled in Los Angeles, California when he was 8 years old. After serving a brief term in the U.S. Army at the end of World War II, Adams enrolled in the Art Center School of Photography in Los Angeles but was expelled for insubordination within his first year. In the late 1940s, Adams worked odd jobs in the newspaper and radio industry, first as a copy boy in the photo department of the Los Angeles Examiner and later as an editor for news radio and a reporter for the Hollywood Reporter. In 1956, Adams began a successful career as a literary agent in the film and television industry, representing writers, directors, and producers. In 1963 he formed his own agency with Richard Ray known as Adams and Ray; this agency later merged with two other entertainment agencies to form Triad Artists. He retired from the agency business in 1989, after which he and his wife, harpsichordist Kathleen McIntosh, moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Although his interest in photography began when he was a young boy, Adams never worked as a professional photographer and only began to devote most of his time to photography after his retirement from his agency business. Although this time coincided with the rising popularity of digital photography, Adams was a proudly analog photographer; he photographed exclusively on black-and-white film and produced gelatin silver prints. In 2005, Adams won the New Mexico Council on Photography’s Eliot Porter Award. Adams’ work has been exhibited and collected by various local and regional museums, including the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe; the Chimayo History Museum; Santa Fe’s Center for Contemporary Arts; the University of New Mexico; El Museo Cultural in Santa Fe; and the University of Oklahoma. Adams died in Santa Fe in 2022.