The Steve Banks photographs span the years 1977-1999 and encompass 4.3 linear feet. The collection consists of more than 1,000 items, including black-and-white prints and color and black-and-white slides. The material is comprised of biography portraits of motion picture artists, technicians, and craftspeople, arranged alphabetically by name. Persons depicted include Robert Altman, George Cukor, Edith Head, Alfred Hitchcock, Hal Roach, George Sidney, Steven Spielberg, King Vidor, Billy Wilder, and Fred Zinnemann. There is no material in the collection related to Banks’ work as a unit photographer.

Steve Banks (1938-) was born in Washington, D.C. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He got his start working with the Leo Burnett advertising agency in the early 1960s and worked as a commercial producer for approximately 15 years. In the 1960s Banks also began working as a freelance commercial photographer in his spare time, photographing musicians for album covers, concerts and special projects. In the 1970s, Banks left the advertising business to work as a unit photographer for television and feature films. His feature film credits include THE ROSE (1979), STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (1979), and VAN NUYS BLVD. (1979). He has since amassed a large body of work that includes photo essays, portraits, and fine art photography.