Donna Pollach photographs, 1970-2005

The bulk of this collection represents the work of Donna Pollach, a photographer in Portland, Oregon, over 32 years, from 1970 to 2002, and consists of approximately 1,450 prints, 1,941 negatives, 349 contact sheets, and 243 slides, as well as a small number of audio and video recordings. The photographs reflect the breadth of Pollach's work, including portraiture and artistic photography; documentary photography; promotional photographs; and some travel and landscape photography. Major topics represented in her body of work include lesbian feminism, families, her community, political and social activism, and the arts, particularly performing arts. The contents of the collection also show that Pollach reused images for multiple projects; as a result, many photographs are found in more than one location in the collection. Some photographs in the collection were taken by Barbara Gundle, Nina Sabaroff, Carol Newhouse, and other photographers. These photographers are identified on prints and contact sheets where known.

A significant portion of Pollach's artistic work (Subseries 1.2) consists of images of lesbian families, created over three decades, which depict emerging and developing concepts of lesbian families and include partners, lovers, children, siblings, and solo portraits. In addition to these photographs, Pollach recorded a small amount of audio and video of friends and family members discussing family, children, community, Oregon's 1992 Ballot Measure 9, and the effects of political movements on their lives. Families, including Pollach's own family, are also frequently depicted in her studio portrait work (Subseries 1.1). Pollach's documentary photographs focus on political, cultural, and social movements and events, as well as her neighborhood and community. These images include photographs she took of medical clinic festivals, Indian Occupations, women's rights and gay pride marches, worker rights protests, anti-war and anti-nuclear protests, and human rights rallies. Also of note among her documentary work are images relating to the lesbian feminism movement; these include scenes of small-scale communal living at a house on Alder Street in Portland, Oregon (Subseries 1.4) and large-scale communal living projects such as the Oregon Women's Land Trust in Southern Oregon (Subseries 1.3), as well as prominent activists such as Ruth Mountaingrove, Jean Mountaingrove, Hawk Madrone, and Bethroot Gwynn. Promotional work (Subseries 1.5) that Pollach did for artists, musicians, and performers in Portland includes dancers José Brown and Nomi Azulay, and musicians Naomi Littlebear Morena, Kristan Aspen Knapp, and Mary Wings. A small portion of Pollach's photographs depict travel and landscape scenes, and images from her time as a photographer at the Washington Park Zoo (now named the Oregon Zoo).

The remainder of the materials in this collection consist of papers, ephemera, and some video. Most of these were collected by Pollach and her partner, Sue St. Michael, and relate to Pollach's career and to the gay rights activism with which she and St. Michael were involved. Among these materials are posters and publications that featured Pollach's photography and a speech by Sue St. Michael for the 2005 Portland Women's Studies Spring Celebration, which featured an exhibit of Pollach's work. Materials relating to activism by Pollach and St. Michael include a resolution from the Portland Association of Teachers on protections for "sexual orientation" in Portland's public schools (1992), political flyers concerning Ballot Measure 9, and a 1993 initiative petition from the No Special Rights Committee. Also included is an essay written by St. Michael which reflects on her struggles to retain legal custody of her son and the challenges of lesbian motherhood.