When I worked at 20th Century Fox as Director of the Photo Archive, I came to be passionate about one particular project. I wanted to do a photo book that would show off the company's photographic assets (after all, they could make money off of them in a variety of ways ) -- a book that would feature some of the most surprising and satisfying documentary photographs still hidden inside one of America's favorite factories.

The book idea finally did materialize, but not until after I left 20th Century Fox. As for me, my whole existence came into conflict when I left -- and the catalyst in the drama was doing the book. Or as it came to pass, NOT doing the book.

THE LOVE STORY

Being the curator of a collection is a great thing. It is a rare privilege to get to know a great collection -- in this case probably 10 million photographs -- and to be in charge of caring for them, discovering visual treasures, and thinking analytically about the historical and cultural value of the collection.

Being an archivist is a pleasing labor, too. There is the organizing, the processing, and making finding aids to bring focus and access to the photographs. There are preservation issues to identify, and solutions to work out. It is more exacting work, perhaps, but also critically important, and joyfully rewarding.

I was curator, archivist and more. I loved my job, and felt that it was a well-earned lucky break for me. In many ways, my long career seemed to lead directly to the job at Fox. I had discovered the right "place" professionally.... The book project would be every curator's dream; in my case, it was going to be a love affair.

THE BOOK OBJECT

I talked about the book with Virginia King, an executive in the publishing division as well as a great brainstormer and positive, vital person. Very few people at Fox, other than my staff, had an active interest in doing a book. And it was hard to make time for it in my own schedule, too.

Still, Rob, Miles, Kathryn and I started pulling images for a pitch book -- something I'd be able to use while meeting with publishers and book people. That project in itself was a very slow, and continuous, editorial adventure. It had been going on in some form since the first weeks of my tenure at Fox.

In the winter and spring Virginia set up meetings, and I attended the ABA convention in Los Angeles, proposal in tow. There, I pitched the book to Perseus Books, to Taschen, and to Umbra Editions. Virginia had also approached her people at Abrams Books, and after our first meeting, it seemed that we would be most likely and sympathetic partners. We had hosted Abrams at our meeting table in the Photo Archive, and it was great fun as well as constructive.

Later I talked again to Eric Himmel, executive editor at Abrams, about the possibility of writing the introductory essay, and began to make notes and preliminary concepts for that pleasant task. At that point, we begain referring to the book by a working title: Fox in Black&White and Color. We talked a little bit about layout and a little bit about whether there would be much caption text. We also talked about the overall informing idea for photo selection.