About 30,000 photographic negatives, prints, and slides taken by local photographer Joe Sarcone were donated to the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System in 2013. Now, the library archive is working to process the collection to preserve his work and open it to the public.

The images, dating roughly from the 1950s to the 1990s, cover a wide variety of subjects including weddings, schools, family portraits, events, businesses, people, homes, landscapes, flora, and fauna. They also represent a mix of film formats such as 35mm slides, 120 roll film, 4×5 and 8×10 negatives and prints, and more. Due to the large size of the collection, the library is seeking monetary donations to go toward its preservation.

“The library archive recently completed the processing of the collection of another local photographer Carl Brown in 2023,” Archivist Mona Vance-Ali said. “That collection took six years to complete and cost over $12,000 in archival supplies to complete. We could not have done it without the help of the local community.”

Checks should be made to the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System. Joseph “Joe” James Sarcone was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1919. He was a veteran of World War II having served in the United States Army. He owned and operated a photography studio named Sarcone Photographic Art. He also taught photography classes at Mississippi University for Women and worked for the Commercial Dispatch newspaper. He passed away in 1998.

For more information contact Mona Vance-Ali at (662) 329-5304 or at [email protected].