25 years, 133 cultural icons: A private portrait series makes its public debut

In a time when influencers abound and unabashed self-promotion feels almost de rigueur, late photographer Nancy Lee Katz stands out for having done just the opposite. 

Born into a Jewish family in Los Angeles in 1947, Katz spent the first half of her adult life traveling the world and working as an assistant film editor and still photographer. For the next 25 years, she pursued an ambitious private project: photographing American cultural figures whose work she admired. Reaching out by letter or email, she secured portraits of subjects ranging from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to architect Maya Lin, pop artist Roy Lichtenstein and pianist André Watts.

Few ever knew these portraits existed. That’s because Katz never exhibited, sold or published any of the photos — or even showed them to anyone. But now, for the first time, the complete collection will be on display at UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.

Opening Sept. 2, Nancy Lee Katz: A Private Pantheon is a two-part exhibition that consists of 133 black-and-white portraits of prominent artists, musicians, writers and thinkers. It was donated to the Magnes in 2024 by Katz’s life partner, Michael S. Sachs, after Katz’s death at age 70. The photos included in Pantheon were chosen by Sachs and Katz’s sister from a selection of Katz’s favorites. 

Hannah Weisman, executive director of the Magnes — the nation’s only Jewish museum affiliated with a public university — says it’s a privilege to be the first museum to present the full work.

“They are, in some ways, very intimate portraits,” said Weisman. “I hope visitors can spend time with Katz’s photographs, and that they provoke reflection on the ways people leverage their talents to contribute to society.” 

Guest-curated by Lauren Graves, Pantheon includes a photograph of the French American sculptor Louise Bourgeois standing behind vertical steel bars beside the legs of a suspended mannequin. Her expression is knowing, almost sly. Another shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg atop a modest step stool, reading a book from the massive wall of shelves behind her. And in a third, the Russian-born American painter Raphael Soyer is surrounded by easels, looking completely at home with a quiet, steady gaze.

“Looking at the photographs, she seemed to be able to really put people at ease,” said Graves. “There’s rarely any kind of stiffness. It’s like the sitters are presenting themselves to her, but it feels like their most raw presentation. There’s a certain familiarity in the portraits.”

In many of the photographs, Katz frames her subjects playfully: an architect peering through the geometric grid of a model, or an artist nearly obscured by the works crowding their studio.

“She was able to capture the person behind her lens as well as in their space,” Graves said, “which I think, when you’re an artist, is an extension of yourself as a maker.”

Because Katz’s work was effectively unknown until after her death, Graves, who studied 19th and 20th century photography as a Ph.D. student at Boston University, faced an interesting challenge. While she normally would have drawn from archival research to learn as much as she could about an artist, this exhibition didn’t present that option. Instead, she relied on conversations with Sachs and on the images themselves to give context for visitors.

In talking with Sachs, Graves learned about the artist — including why she might have chosen to not publicize her work.   

“In her work, there were three elements,” Sachs wrote for the exhibit. “The subject, the photographic image and the photographer. No one else was permitted to participate; the closest I got was the garage at the Supreme Court.” She wanted to focus on her work, he wrote, rather than being “consumed by chit-chat about the cultural icons she documented.” 

The Katz portfolio joins the Magnes’ robust collection of roughly 60,000 objects documenting Jewish life across the global diaspora, from India, Algeria and Turkey to Europe and North America. A collection of photos by renowned documentary photographer Roman Vishniac accounts for half of those items, while the other 30,000 range from what is often considered fine art, like handmade silver ritual objects, to everyday items, like a can from 1912 Germany used to store kosher bullion cubes. 

Weisman says the Katz Pantheon portfolio, like many collections at the Magnes, opens up universal questions about community and artistry and belonging — questions that are relevant across disciplines and cultural identity groups.

“I get the strong sense that Katz wanted to build this for herself and not take advantage of people or relationships,” said Weisman. “There is this constant pressure, not just in the creative industries, to make something commercially viable. But for her to say, ‘Nope, this is about the work itself,’ is a nice reminder that creative practice has value whether you’re putting it online or in galleries or not.”

The exhibition also invites audiences to connect more deeply with the portraits featured in the show by listening to archival speeches and musical recordings, and by exploring books by and about them. 

Sachs and Graves will be joined by master printer Brian Young and Katz’s sister Virginia in a roundtable discussion about Katz’s photography on Sept. 2 at the museum. The event is free and open to the public. 

Part one of the exhibition, which includes half of the images from Nancy Lee Katz: A Private Pantheon, will be on view until Dec. 17, 2026. Part two will feature the remaining images, and will run from Jan. 19, 2027, through May 13, 2027. The museum will host gallery tours and public programs throughout the academic year in conjunction with the exhibition.

Learn more about Nancy Lee Katz: A Private Pantheon and the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.