In 1974, then-University of Arizona President John Schaefer and renowned photographer Ansel Adams struck up a conversation while walking to an exhibit of Adams' work at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. The talk ultimately led to the creation of a venue housing one of the world's leading collections of photographs and photographer archives – the Center for Creative Photography – which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month.

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"Walking to the opening, I asked Ansel if he would consider having his archives contributed to the University of Arizona," Schaefer, now president emeritus, said. "He seemed surprised, but said he didn't want his archives getting buried in a basement somewhere. He said he wanted to talk about doing something more ambitious."

The two spent several days at Adams' home in California talking about a venue that could house archives, teaching programs, seminars and exhibitions for students, scholars and the community. The result was the Center for Creative Photography, which was founded on May 15, 1975, with founding archive collections from Adams, Harry Callahan, Wynn Bullock, Frederick Sommer and Aaron Siskind. Within a year, Schaefer said, the center became an "international presence in the field of photography" – a presence that has grown over the years.

"Whenever I travel in the world of visual art or photography, people talk about CCP," said Andy Schulz, vice president for the arts and dean of the College of Fine Arts. "People have some sort of connection. They've done research here or they've heard about our exhibitions."

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The CCP's inaugural exhibition was held at the museum in 1975. Later that year, the center moved to a building on North Park Avenue before relocating to a larger space on East University Boulevard in 1977. The center's current location on North Olive Road opened in 1989. It's now home to more than 300 archives containing millions of objects – including negatives, prints, letters and other materials – complemented by a collection of 120,000 photographs. One of its most significant acquisitions came in 2019, when the center acquired the archive of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly, which features nearly 1 million images, prints, objects and documents spanning 50 years of history.

"The center's significance is that we collect not just photographs, but archival materials connected to photographers," said Todd J. Tubutis, director of the Center for Creative Photography. "We collect everything that is part of a photographer's life and career. You can come here and really investigate every part of being an artist."

A focus on the future

Later this year, the center will complete construction of a new cold storage facility on the third floor of its Olive Road building, marking the first expansion of dedicated collection storage space since the location opened. Tubutis said the 4,500-square-foot facility, which will help increase the longevity of delicate photographs and negatives, is designed to accommodate the next 20 years of collection growth.

"I hope we continue to collect in a way that respects the spirit of our founding," Tubutis said. "Photography never sits still. It's always evolving and we're here to reflect that evolution."

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Tubutis said the center will also maintain its focus on student engagement through class visits, extracurricular programs and faculty-led collaborations, while continuing to support less visible efforts such as its fellowship program for interdisciplinary academic, artistic and public interest projects, and its service to scholars accessing items for research.

"There's really nothing like the CCP," Schulz said. "It's an institution with incredible public programming, but it's also a place where scholars from around the world come to examine our collections for their work in a wide range of fields."

Picture Party

The center is celebrating its 50th anniversary with "Picture Party: Celebrating the Collection at 50." The exhibition, displayed in the center's Alice Chaiten Baker Interdisciplinary Gallery, includes photographs by several renowned artists, including Adams, Susan Meiselas and Graciela Iturbide. It also features archival objects, such as a helmet worn by Kennerly during his coverage of the Vietnam War. "Picture Party" runs until Dec. 20.