Focus Gallery records
name: label: Creator
content: Focus Gallery
label: Names
content: George Eastman House
label: Names
content: Torren Gallery
label: Names
content: Abbott, Berenice, 1898-1991
label: Names
content: Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984
label: Names
content: Brandt, Bill
label: Names
content: Bullock, Wynn
label: Names
content: Caponigro, Paul, 1932-
label: Names
content: Cunningham, Imogen, 1883-1976
label: Names
content: Dater, Judy
label: Names
content: Heinecken, Robert, 1931-
label: Names
content: Hosoe, Eikō, 1933
label: Names
content: Johnston, Helen, 1916-1989
label: Names
content: Leibovitz, Annie, 1949-
label: Names
content: Porter, Eliot, 1901-
label: Names
content: Siskind, Aaron
label: Names
content: Uelsmann, Jerry, 1934-
label: Names
content: Weston, Brett
topic: label: Topic
content: Visitors' books
label: Topic
content: Women photographers
label: Topic
content: Photography -- Exhibitions
label: Topic
content: Photography, Artistic
label: Topic
content: Photographers -- United States
label: Topic
content: Women art dealers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Focus Gallery records were donated by the estate of owner Helen Johnston, care of Gerald O'Conner, executor.
creator: label: Creator
content: Focus Gallery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Focus Gallery records
abstract: label: Summary
content: The records of San Francisco Focus Gallery measure 11.8 linear feet and date from 1963-1987.  The bulk of the collection consists of exhibition files.  There are also artists files, sales information, correspondence, and scattered records of the gallery's companion bookshop.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Focus Gallery (est. 1966, closed 1985) was a commercial photography gallery founded by Helen Head Johnson on Union Street in San Francisco. While retaining an emphasis on Bay Area photographers, the gallery's exhibitions became international in scope, featuring both obscure and well-established photographers in solo and group exhibitions. With few exceptions, the gallery's policy was to feature an artist only once. Some of the most influential photographers of the 1960s and 1970s were exhibitors at the Focus Gallery, including Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Ruth Bernhard, Lee Friedlander, Eliot Porter, Garry Winogrand, and Minor White, among many others. To support the gallery in its early days, Johnston started a mail-order business selling photography books. At the time of its closing, Focus was the longest continuously operating photography gallery in the country. The book business continued in another location for an additional two years.

Helen Head Johnston (1916-1989) was born in Georgia. Her pursuit of a journalism career brought her first to New York City and then to Seward, Alaska, where the dramatic scenery inspired her interest in photography. Johnston moved to the Bay Area in 1950, where she was active in the Berkeley Camera Club and began to view photography as an art form. At the time, however, the lack of commercial galleries in the area meant very few local photographers were able to profit off their work. While employed as director of public relations at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Johnston noticed photography exhibitions were extremely popular with visitors. Johnston left the de Young in the mid-1960s and founded the Focus Gallery as a space for photographers to exhibit and sell their work. Johnston retired when she believed the Focus Gallery had served its purpose promoting photography as an art medium. 

The collection is arranged as 8 series

Series 1: Administrative records, 1963-1985, (Box 1 8 folders)

Series 2:  Correspondence, 1966-1987, undated (Box 1-2 1 linear foot)

Series 3:  Exhibition files, 1966-1985 (Box 2-10 8.5 linear feet)

Series 4:  Artists files, 1966-1978, undated  (Box 10-11, 9 folders)

Series 5:  Financial and Legal files, 1966-1987 (Box 11 6 folders)

Series 6:  Sales and Inventories, 1966-1987, undated  (Box 11 11 folders)

Series 7:  Printed Materials, 1966-1987, undated  (Box 11 and Hol 12 7 folders)

Series 8:  Guest Books, 1966-1985 (Hol 12-13 6 folders)
function: label: Function
content: Art galleries, Commercial -- California
label: Function
content: Photographic art galleries -- California
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 11.8 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1963-1987
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.focugall
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 8 series.

Series 1: Administrative Records, 1963-1985 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1966-1987 (Boxes 1-2; 1 linear foot)

Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1966-1985 (Boxes 2-10; 8.5 linear feet)

Series 4: Artists Files, 1966-1978 (Boxes 10-11; 0 .5 linear feet)

Series 5: Financial and Legal Files, 1966-1987 (Box 11; 0 .2 linear feet)

Series 6: Sales and Inventories, 1966-1987 (Box 11;  0.4 linear feet)

Series 7: Printed Materials, 1966-1987 (Boxes 11-12;  0.3 linear feet)

Series 8: Guest Books, 1966-1970, 1978-1985 (Boxes 12-13; 0.6 linear feet)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed and a finding aid created by Valerie Vanden Bossche in 2013 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.

The Archives of American Art has implemented minimal processing tactics when possible in order to increase information about and access to more of our  collections. Minimal processing included arrangement to the series and folder levels. Generally items within folders were simply verified with folder titles, but not arranged further.  Folders within boxes may not be numbered. The collection was rehoused in archival containers and folders, but not all staples and clips were removed.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The records of San Francisco's Focus Gallery measure 11.8 linear feet and date from 1963-1987.  The bulk of the collection consists of exhibition files.  There are also artists files, sales information, correspondence, and scattered records of the gallery's companion bookshop.  

Exhibition files comprise the bulk of the collection and generally contain a wide range of materials including correspondence, short biographies, forms requesting artists' background information, flyers, booklets, brochures, checklists, loan agreements, sales records, news releases, and photographs and negatives. Among the many photographers exhibited were Ansel Adams, Berenice Abbott, Bill Brandt, Wynn Bullock, Paul Caponigro, Imogen Cunningham, Judy Dater, Robert Heinecken, Eikoh Hosoe, Annie Leibovitz, Eliot Porter, Aaron Siskind, Jerry Uelsmann, and Brett Weston.

A relatively small amount of general business correspondence includes orders and payments for photographic prints, books, and magazine subscriptions, some personal notes, and requests for information about how to submit for exhibitions and for exhibition schedules. Correspondents include customers, photographers, publishers, law firms, museum, and colleges and universities.  Correspondence from the founding year contains Johnston's letters to various venues prominent in art photography, such as George Eastman House.  There is also a letter to Ansel Adams requesting prints to sell or for a small opening exhibit.

Additional records include artists' files; sales and inventory records containing print and bookshop inventories, general pricing information and receipts for photographs; and printed materials including flyers and brochures, bookshop catalogs and news releases.  There are also scattered administrative records, including gallery history, a file on the Toren Gallery and five owner's notebooks, as well as The Imogen Cunningham Trust files documenting Focus Gallery's interactions with the trust before and after Cunningham's death regarding photographs printed and signed by her; financial and legal files; and guest books.  

Documents in the collection that pre-date the founding of the gallery are found in the Toren Gallery file and a few of the exhibition files.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Among the holding of the Archives of American Art is an untranscribed interview of Helen Johnston  by Louise Katzman or Irene Borger in the collection Interviews of California Photographers 1981 Jun.-Nov.20.  

Helen Johnston left her private photography collection to the de Saisset Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.