Editors’ Note: This feature appears as it was published in the edition of UT Dallas Magazine. Titles or faculty members listed may have changed since that time.
Marilyn and Jerry Comer MS’77Jerry Comer MS’77 donated a series of 302 aviation-themed photographs by renowned photographer Bob Seidemann to the Eugene McDermott Library’s special collections department.
The “Airplane as Art” series has been described as one of the most ambitious photography portfolio projects of the 20th century. It contains portraits of pilots, aerobatic teams, astronauts, cosmonauts and others.
“Many of the photos in the collection are of aircraft or parts of aircraft that are abstract and beautifully shot or framed really artistically,” said Thomas Allen PhD’09, University archivist. “They’re all black and white, so there’s a lot of shadow and detail.”
Although it was Seidemann’s lifelong passion that inspired his aviation project, he earned a reputation as one of the most respected rock ’n’ roll photographers of his generation. He photographed Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead.
Comer received the Green and Orange Award for Alumni Service at the 2018 Awards Gala. His previous gifts to the University include more than 350 photographs that capture scenes of American life from the mid-to-late 20th century, as well as more than 300 books and periodicals relating to modern and contemporary art and photography.
Gen. James Doolittle
