Chick Strand UCLA 1969 Portrait Neal White Signed Vintage Gelatin Silver Photo For Sale

Chick Strand at UCLA, 1969 — Original Photograph by Neal White (1947–2024)

An intimate and expressive vintage black-and-white gelatin silver photograph of pioneering American experimental filmmaker Chick Strand (1931–2009), photographed by Neal White at UCLA in 1969.

Reclining informally, Strand looks directly toward the camera while playfully holding a lock of her long hair between her fingers. The portrait has a wonderfully spontaneous quality, capturing the filmmaker in a relaxed, unguarded moment.

Strand was a significant figure in the development of American avant-garde and experimental cinema. A co-founder of Canyon Cinema with Bruce Baillie in 1961, she helped establish an important community for independent filmmakers in Northern California before moving to Los Angeles to study ethnographic filmmaking at UCLA.

This photograph dates from that formative UCLA period, offering a particularly appealing historical connection to the West Coast experimental film movement of the 1960s.

The photograph is by Neal White (1947–2024), an accomplished photographer and longtime professor of photography at San Francisco State University.

White signed and dated the photograph in ink at the lower right mat, "N White 1969." The reverse of the mat bears his handwritten identification:

"Chick Strand at UCLA by Neal White Neal White (1947–2024)

Condition: The photographic image presents well, with good tonal detail. The original white mat exhibits visible handling marks, light soiling, and age-related discoloration, including fingerprint-like marks. These are particularly apparent on the white mat and are shown in the photographs. The work has been stored in an archival protective sleeve. Please examine all photographs for condition.

A distinctive original portrait of an influential woman filmmaker, photographed during her UCLA years by a fellow California photographer. Of particular interest to collectors of experimental cinema, feminist film history, Canyon Cinema, UCLA film history, and vintage American photography.