Finding Joel Pahl Dardis

Category: B&W Negatives

  • Sammy Davis Jr., Box 100, Sep 1958

    Sammy Davis Jr., Box 100, Sep 1958

    Hard to believe we looked through some 100 press format negative boxes since we started this journey in March 2022. Not to count the many Kodachromes and other format negatives Joel photographed between 1938 and now. So far, I’ve scanned 2700+ negatives and shown 2650+ of them. September 27, 1958 is what Joel wrote on…

  • Construction, Box 99, July 1957

    Construction, Box 99, July 1957

    There were few more negatives left to check in box 99. The date for those is Friday, July 19, 1957. All of them are related to construction of what appears to be a commercial structure, possibly with a residential or office add-on within the same lot. There are no further references on the box, so…

  • Salley, Box 99, July 1957

    Salley, Box 99, July 1957

    The date associated with the Salley (sic) images is Sunday, July 14, 1957. There’s a construction subject also with a second date of July 19, 1957. Salley and her mother must have been family friends or close neighbors. Joel would photograph Salley later in life also on other occasions. These photographs were most likely taken…

  • Colorado & Cincinnati, Box 98, Fall 1956

    Colorado & Cincinnati, Box 98, Fall 1956

    There are two locations with dates on this box. Colorado, Sept 22, 1956 and Cincinnati Oct 6, 1956. I found a work pass for Joel under the lid. So he’s photographing on location for COP. Not sure what Joel’s official capacity was, but in light of the work pass, I assume he was invited for…

  • Football, Box 96-97, ca 1955-56

    Football, Box 96-97, ca 1955-56

    Both box 96 and 97 had a few negative frames of COP football embedded. Neither one of the boxes had any reference to a game, but few of the sleeves from the Jessica Fong collection had various notes about football games, without any football game content. In short, I’m not sure which game this is…

  • St-Mary’s School, Box 97, 1956

    St-Mary’s School, Box 97, 1956

    After our brief 1957 excursion in 4×5 negatives, we’re back in 1956, so we’ll be looking at press format sized negatives again. These images all relate to the ground breaking for the new St-Mary’s school in May (?) 1956. I believe Joel followed up with some construction-in-progress images also later that year. The school is…

  • Carson Mansion, JFC, circa 1957

    Carson Mansion, JFC, circa 1957

    The second sleeve out of Jessica Fong’s Collection of Dardis photography contains 4×5 B&W negatives. Thats a major departure from Joel’s use of press sized negatives (4.25″ x 3.25″, or 3×4 in short) This implies that Joel bought himself a new camera to work with. Although upgrading from 3×4 to 4×5 doesn’t seem much, it’s…

  • Clyde Beatty Clowns, JFC, May 1949

    Clyde Beatty Clowns, JFC, May 1949

    Jessica Fong gracefully lent me her collection of Joel Dardis negatives acquired at the estate sales for scanning and archiving. These all came in envelope sleeves, a storage method Joel switched to, sometime getting back to photography in the mid 50’s. He still used boxes, but both Jessica and I have multiple envelopes full of…

  • Linden, Box 96, 1955

    Linden, Box 96, 1955

    Box 96 has two more descriptions written on the side. “Linden Play, March 21, 1955” and “Linden Graduation, June 12, 1955”. Since there are three dates on the box, with only 22 negatives in total, it appears to me that Joel is only photographing sporadic events. That’s quite a few images for the play. For…

  • Christmas, Box 96, Dec 1954

    Christmas, Box 96, Dec 1954

    This box is equally in the familiar Kodak yellow instead of the old brown cardboard boxes. Actually, the side reads ” Xmas 3 sons + Uncle Bud Dec 24 1954″. Quite frankly, the “uncle Bud” threw me for a loop for a few seconds, wondering which yet unknown family member would pop up. Luckily, I…