George Ballis Social Change Collection
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of George Ballis’s photographic materials of migrant workers, their living conditions, and farm labor activism in the Central Valley. George Ballis started his career as a journalist photographer, who focused on photographing migrant workers, their labor, and their living conditions. George Ballis moved to Fresno in 1953 to become the editor of Valley Labor Citizen. While Ballis was doing work for Valley Labor Citizen, Ballis took a series of photographs on the dignity of labor. He started taking pictures of migrant workers, their labor, and their living conditions. Ballis while shooting photographs of labor in Central Valley, he was able to document the nascent union for field workers set up by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO), which later would be known as The Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). During this period, Ballis captured over 30,000 still images covering Agricultural Labor Unions, farming conditions, and Chicano experiences. The bulk of this collection consists of photographs. Starting in 1969, George Ballis started recording videos and producing films. This collection includes raw film recordings created by Ballis’ larger film projects such as “The Dispossessed”, “The Oakland Five”; “Toughest Game in Town”, and “The Richest Land”.
Dates
- Creation: 1953 - 2010
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research. Access to the digital materials are restricted until processed.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by Maia Ballis. The owner has granted the University of California permission to transmit the works under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC 4.0) license. Transmission or reproduction of any materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Biographical / Historical
George “Elfie” Ballis (1925-2010) moved to Fresno in 1953 to become the editor of the weekly AFL-CIO newspaper, Valley Labor Citizen, and worked part-time as a farm labor organizer and photographer. Mentored by UC Berkeley professor Paul Taylor and by photographer Dorothea Lange, Ballis began taking photographs of migrant workers’ housing and working conditions and chronicled the ins and outs of the farmworker movement. His photographs document the beginning of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) chartered by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO); the strikes, boycotts, and other actions led by the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC); and the cultural activism of El Teatro Campesino.
In 1969, Ballis moved into filmmaking with the production of I am Joaquin, a dramatization of the poem by Rodolfo Gonzales, directed and narrated by Luis Valdez with music performed by El Teatro Campesino. He continued producing films in the 1970s with projects such as The Dispossessed; The Oakland Five; Toughest Game in Town; and The Richest Land. He recorded film and videography of local events, community organizations, and environmental and social activism into the early 2000s. Ballis died September 24, 2010.
Extent
15.92 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Series I-Contact Sheet Series II-Print Series III-Negatives Series IV-Slides Series V-Videocassettes Series VI-Oversized Ephemera Series VII- George Ballis Hard drive
- Title
- George Ballis Social Change Collection, 1953-2010
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- University of California, Merced Library 5200 N. Lake Road Merced, CA 9534
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Phoenician
Repository Details
Part of the University of California, Merced Library Repository
5200 North Lake Road
Merced 95343 U.S.A. US
(209) 228-4444
(209) 228-4271 (Fax)
library@ucmerced.edu