Yma-Sumac.com is run by the Official Archives of Yma Sumac created in mid-2004 with the active participation of Yma Sumac herself and expressly authorized by her. It is the official website of the Diva and all its contents are strictly copyrighted. There is no other such website or archive authorized by Sumac.
Miss Sumac’s Official Archives consist of thousands of vintage original photos (original negatives and color transparencies included), both personal and professional, as well as vintage documents, personal memorabilia, letters (both personal and professional), previously unpublished music and a great deal of her professional wardrobe and jewels (some of which were on display in a London fashion museum in the summer of 2018). Virtually all of the contents of the Archive consists of unique property previously owned by the Diva herself, amassed over her long life and a career that persisted for many decades. Such property was provided to the Archives either by her during her lifetime or by the personal collection of this site's webmasters, and from the estates of fans who have passed on and willed their collections to the archive.
Owner and webmaster of this website is Damon Devine, who was Yma Sumac’s representative, personal assistant, makeup artist, and eventual caregiver for the last 11 years of her life. Because of these roles in her life he has been able to grant interviews to numerous publications including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, numerous magazines, podcasts, TV, and radio shows all over the world.
In addition to being a homage to the great Diva, this site is the definitive source of factual information about her. As we know, there is much mystery surrounding Yma Sumac and her origins, marriage, career and personal life. The factual information contained in this website is taken directly from original official documents and letters covering the period 1941 to 2008.
Despite serious efforts, Wikipedia has unfortunately refused to accept use of this documentation, and therefore Wiki should not be taken seriously when reporting or seeking information about
Yma Sumac. Her Wiki entry has in fact been corrupted by quite a lot of undocumented and unreliable misinformation.
Damon Devine and Yma Sumac working on the website, Nov. 2004.
COPYRIGHT/OWNERSHIP
Most images of Yma Sumac seen online are copyrighted by the Official Archives of Yma Sumac with the exception of those licensed by known photo licensing agencies (e.g.,Getty, Alamy or Zumapress, etc.) and Public Domain publicity shots.
Any content watermarked:
©Damon Devine
www.yma-sumac.com
@officialymasumac or
Official Archives of Yma Sumac
is not authorized for use outside of the web pages run by Damon Devine. All rights were granted to Mr. Devine by Yma Sumac herself in 2005. All content you see here and on her other official accounts (Instagram, Facebook and YouTube) consists of property from the Official Archives of Yma Sumac and derives from her original negatives, color transparencies, film, audio tapes, etc. Images and music can be licensed to media outlets (newspapers, magazines, websites, TV, documentaries, advertisements, etc) and there is a SHOP page for personal use only. While the Archives own and have copyright to all music on this website, Capitol Records and its successors own copyright to all of Sumac’s in-studio 1950’s commercially released recordings, to the extent those recordings enjoy continuing copyright protection under U.S. law. Our licensing is completely separate from that of Capitol Records and its successors and is not related.
No content herein, be it music, video, text or images can be used for any social media under any circumstances without prior written permission. This prohibition includes but is not limited to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter.
We will gladly provide samples of Public Domain images upon request (contact us here). Interviews with Mr. Devine, who is co-webmaster of this website and is the former personal assistant, makeup artist, friend and eventual caregiver to Miss Sumac, are also generally granted upon request.