exhibition at the National Gallery.

But gallery director Laura Gorham says that sponsors for a show of photographs by Richard Saunders are vital if the planned exhibition is to go ahead.

"It is time that Bermuda pays tribute to its own great photographer and we are hoping that individuals as well as corporate Bermuda will help make this exhibition possible. Not just to mount an exhibition, but to mount an exhibition that will reach the high standard that Saunders set for himself during his life,'' says Mrs. Gorham.

It is planned that around 30 of his black and white photographs will be featured in the exhibition. A retrospective of his work was held at the Arts Centre at Dockyard in 1988.

Photographer Graeme Outerbridge, who has been invited to curate the National Gallery exhibition, feels the project will be a challenge -- "to extract the diamonds from a lifetime of work''.

Mr. Outerbridge says that, in his view, Richard Saunders was Bermuda's most successful photographer of the century.

"It was my uncle, Flip Schulke, one of the leading civil rights photographers in the US, who first made me aware of the great talent of Richard Saunders.

They met and became friends through their work with Martin Luther King and the whole civil rights movement,'' he says.

Mr. Outerbridge, who acknowledges that he learned a great deal about the art of photography by seeking Mr. Saunders out when he returned here on holidays, says, "He was an extremely sensitive man who had a great love and understanding of people. And like many big people, he was very gentle and I believe this was reflected in his work.'' Richard Clive Saunders began his distinguished career as a schoolboy, when he followed a local photographer around the streets of Hamilton. He gradually established a reputation here for his portraits, but feeling that there was no scope for a black photographer in the Bermuda of 1947, he left for the US.

Mr. Outerbridge feels that, in this sense, he became a fine role model for others. "He didn't take a negative attitude towards that sort of rejection.

He chose to do something positive -- and through his success helped to change attitudes.'' Mr. Saunders' talent was quickly recognised, with his work soon appearing on the covers of such publications as Life, Look, Fortune, Ebony, The New York Times, Playboy, Ladies' Home Journal, Holiday and Paris Match.

In 1967, he joined the United States Information Agency (USIA) as international editor of TOPIC, a quarterly magazine published in English and French for sub-Saharan Africa.

During his more than 50 journeys to Africa, he visited The Gambia, where he photographed, among others, descendants of Kunte Kinte, the central character in Alex Haley's best-seller, Roots.

Although he visited more than 30 countries, it is probably true to say that the renowned photographer left his heart in Africa, where he not only recorded the history and the geography of the land but captured the spirit of a continent.

Last year, the thousands of photographs taken by Richard Saunders were the subject of a unique piece of legislation passed in Washington. Through an act of Congress, the USIA was able to pass over the entire collection to the Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture in New York.

Mr. Saunders, who became an American citizen, was the recipient of many honours, including USIA's Superior Honour Award, the International Black Photographers Award and a USIA exhibit of his work was circulated throughout Africa for two years. He was also the recipient of the Bermuda Arts Council's first annual lifetime achievement award.

His widow, Mrs. Emily Saunders, who lives in Bermuda, is ensuring that all her personal knowledge of her late husband's work will be tapped for this major show. She says the latest copy of TOPIC makes reference to the fact that her late husband's collection has finally been sent to the Schomburg Centre.

The article contained the following quote by him about his work for the USIA: "It has been a way of life for me that I wouldn't trade for anything. I never felt strange in Africa. It was always like going home.'' Mrs. Saunders says that staff at the Centre are still sorting through photographs, negatives and slides: "They mentioned a figure of 100,000 and said they had only got as far as 1983!'' It is hoped the show will be mounted in the Ondaatje Wing from March 12 to June 1.

" We have already received a grant of $500 from the Arts Council. Now we are hoping that individuals and firms will come forward and support this tribute to Dick Saunders,'' she says, and invites anyone who feels they can help, to call her at the National Gallery at 295-9428.