Ray Jerome Baker

Ray Jerome Baker (December 1, 1880 – October, 1972) was an American photographer, film maker and lecturer. His photographs are among some of the earliest professional works in Humboldt County, California, United States, and later in Hawaii where his work focused on the people of that state.

Biography Baker was born near Rockford, Illinois, in 1880. From 1898 until 1903, he lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he studied at Mechanic Arts High School and took his first photographs before attending the University of Minnesota for one semester. Baker regularly toured southern Humboldt County on a motorcycle in the early 20th century. His studio and darkroom was located at 911 Kalakaua Avenue from 1915 until he retired in 1960. Baker used hand-painted lantern slides to dramatize his presentations; he made larger hand-colored glass plates backlit with daylight when exhibited. The glass plate lantern slides and many of the photographs taken by Baker were hand-colored by his wife Edith. Baker wrote a memoir in 1964, titled Odyssey of a Cameraman.

Ray Jerome Baker died in Honolulu on Friday, October 27, 1972, and a funeral was held over his ashes.

Collections and archives Bishop Museum, Honolulu. A large collection of original prints, negatives, glass plate lantern slides, and ephemera. Kaua'i Historical Society. A small photo album containing 187 original photographs taken by well-known Hawaii photographer, Ray Jerome Baker. Baker gave the album the title, "Kauai Over the Years - Scenes Mostly Old, Some New." The black and white images were taken by Baker on visits to Kauai between 1908 and 1961.

Selected works

Studio publications 1912–1935: Alohaland 1912–1935: Hawaii 1912–1935: Hawaii-Nei 1914: Hawaiian Types printed booklet 1914: Palms and other Flora of the Hawaiian Islands printed booklet 1914: Hawaiian Island Views printed booklet 1914: Homes, Historical Buildings and Places of Interest in the Hawaiian Islands printed booklet 1936: The Romance of Raw Sugar 1938: Familiar Hawaiian Plants 1938: Camera Studies in Portraiture 1938: Hawaii the Isle of a Thousand Wonders 1938: Alohaland 1939: Hawaiian Yesterdays 1941: Hawaii Then and Now 1943: Scenic Hawaii 1945: Men of our Armed Forces 1945: Art Forms in Plant Structures 1964: Odyssey of a Cameraman, a memoir