Thomas Bouchard photographs and papers

Thomas Bouchard (1895-1984) was a photographer and filmmaker. Born in Jerusalem (Palestine), he became an American citizen in 1942. Bouchard made studies of dancers and artists including Marcel Duchamp, Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Doris Humphrey, Chaim Soutine, Edgard Varèse, and Charles Weidman. His film work, largely documentary, included producing and/or directing The Underground Printer (1934), The Shakers (1938), The Golden Fleece (1941), Fernand Léger in America (1942), Jean Hélion (1946), Joan Miró Makes a Color Print (1948), The Birth of Painting (1950), Around and About Joan Miró (1955), and Queen of the Gypsy Dancers (about Carmen Amaya).

Diane Bouchard (1923-2013) was born in California; she graduated from New York University in 1944 as an English major and Shakespeare enthusiast, having written her "book" (thesis) on King Lear. After the death of her mother, she lived with and assisted her father, photographer Thomas Bouchard, first at his studio on 40th Street in New York City and later at the Chelsea Hotel. She was involved with his photo shoots and the making of his movies but also enjoyed friendship and correspondence with the many notable artists and scholars with whom they worked. In 1974, she and her father moved permanently to Brewster (Mass.) on Cape Cod. After her father's death in 1984, she worked to organize and preserve his large body of work.