David Bieber is a man of many obsessions. One of those is definitely and undeniably photography and photographers.

 

Aside from acquiring original prints from a range of artists, art galleries, flea markets and auctions for the past four or five decades, perhaps his most important photo-related endeavor has been saving incredible photographic images from the dumpster.

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Since the 1970s, David -- through his affiliations and associations in the publishing world -- made it known over time to publications like the Boston Phoenix and Real Paper that they should NEVER throw out their photos. As newspaper and magazine staffers know, in the pre-digital age, there was only so much physical storage space at an establishment; as more photos came in, older ones would need to go somewhere. Thankfully, David was happy to back his car up to the loading dock at a moment's notice to take them and keep them safe.

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Over time, David's collection of salvaged staff photos from shutterbugs including Michael Dobo, Lois Greenfield, Peters Simon & Southwick, Flint Born and dozens more grew to the thousands. At this point it is probably tens of thousands.

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These photos are housed at the amazing David Bieber Archives in Norwood, MA. As the years went on, there were a select few of these pieces that David kept closer to his heart, so that they would not be lost in the ocean of other items at the million-plus Archives.

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I have been very fortunate that David has shared some of these images with me over the years, and in 2018 I scanned over 100 of them, for posterity. They feature an amazing range of subjects, styles and approaches. And they are all stunning.

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Below is a small selection of David's favorites, for your certain enjoyment. We will add more slideshows in the future.

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[ NOTE: David does not own the rights to any images displayed here, nor does Mass Cult 617. If any photographer featured on this page does *not* wish to have their work on this page, please let us know and we will take your images down immediately. We would never want to step on anyone's intellectual property rights, this page is intended as a tribute to some of Boston's most amazing, and in some cases, overlooked photographers. ]

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