Posterity depends upon individuals who recognize the value of something before everyone else does. Even literate people sometimes don’t realize that many libraries, for example, are founded on collections originally put together by individuals - people who were driven by a passion for a certain subject at a time when the rest of the world might have had little interest. In photography we have plenty of examples of great work saved from oblivion in the nick of time. The most famous, perhaps, is the work of the great Frenchman, Atget, literally saved from the trash-heap by the efforts of Berenice Abbot. How much more has disappeared?

The problem is that much of what posterity might value is opaque to us. We never quite know what will speak for us, what will define our lives and our culture to our children’s children. The things we cherish might be of no interest to them; the things we think useless and castaway might do nothing but gain interest as time passes. We never quite know. The only thing we can say for certain is that it’s impossible to reassess the significance of anything that no longer exists to be reassessed.

It is what Sid has done in the years since his "retirement" that really speaks for itself. He’s been working tirelessly to save from history’s dustbin the work of numerous Hollywood photographers whose work was being forgotten. All types of photographs- glamour portraits, unit stills, picture and fan magazine essays, fashion and advertising- were being lost to negligence or indifference. Distressed by the lack of preservation of notable photographers’ negatives and prints, Sid founded HPA, the Hollywood Photographer’s Archive. The non-profit organization became a magnet for the archives and estates of his fellow photographers, as Sid, with his son Ron (also a professional photographer), sought to preserve, document, and exhibit an incredible wealth of still photographs that up until that time had largely been ignored, unidentified, or used without attribution. In addition, Sid and Diana Avery have donated over $8 million worth of historical material to art museums, universities, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so that scholars can have proper access to it.

The Archive was such a success that living photographers, anxious to have their work appreciated and preserved, looked to the agency to acquire their files. The Archive grew so rapidly-and expenses mounted so fast- that Sid and Ron, acting more or less in self-defense, decided to turn it into a for-profit stock house. The Motion Picture and Television Photo Archive, or MPTV, was born.

No less dedicated to the cause research, cataloguing, and preservation, MPTV is now one of the leading stock agencies of its type. It represents the work of nearly 50 photographers and has more than a million historical Hollywood images on file, many of which are unique and unavailable elsewhere. Besides a brisk business in stock sales, MPTV has discovered recently that fine-art galleries have shown a strong interest in selling original prints and modern prints from original negatives. Avery is as concerned as ever about assuring proper recognition to photographers; all funds generated by MPTV are shared with the photographers or their estates. On his way to founding MPTV, Sid Avery has created for himself a third successful career. It is estimated that Sid took over 350,000 photographs during his first career as a working professional photographer from 1937 to the ‘60s. The fact that only about a tenth of Sid’s own work now survives is part of what motivates his concern for the work of others. There is no question that Sid Avery’s efforts have helped to save a great deal of work that might otherwise have been scattered to the winds.

Posterity will be grateful.

Reprinted from PHOTO TECHNIQUES, July/August 1996. Text by Michael Johnston.